Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 23.djvu/362

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Gurnall
354
Gurney

gether with the rights of Lords of Manors in Common Pastures and the growth of the privileges the Tenants now enjoy there,' 2 vols. 8vo, London 1731. He died in November 1733, aged 70, and was buried in the church of Cranworth with Letton, Norfolk (note appended to reprint of 'Essay,' 1834; will registered in P.C.C. 61, Ockham). By his wife Elizabeth, one of the daughters and coheirs of Sir William Cooke, bart. of Brome, Suffolk, he had two sons, Brampton, who died before him, and Thornhagh, and three daughters, Jane, Elizabeth, and Letitia. Mrs. Gurdon survived until 1745 (Norfolk Archæceology, ii. 370n.) Gurdon was elected F.S.A. in March 1718 (Original List of Fellows in Library of Soc. Antiq.); he erroneously appears as 'Brampton Gourdon, esq.' in Gough's 'Chronological and Alphabetical Lists,' 1798, pp. *2, 69.

[Blomefield's Norfolk, 8vo edit. iii. 92; John Chambers's General Hist. of Norfolk, ii. 1018; Burke's Landed Gentry, 7th edit. i. 799; Gough's British Topography, ii. 11.]

G. G.

GURNALL, WILLIAM (1617–1679), English divine, was born in 1617 in the parish of Walpole St. Peter, near Lynn, Norfolk, and received his early education at Lynn grammar school, from which he went in 1631 to Emmanuel College, Cambridge. He graduated B.A. in 1635 and M.A. in 1639. In 1644 he obtained the living of Lavenham, Suffolk. In the 'Journals of the House of Commons' (iii. 725) it is ordered, 16 Dec. 1644, 'that the living of Lavenham in Suffolk, having been conferred by Sir Symonds D'Ewes, patron, upon William Gurnall, the said learned divine shall be rector for his life, and enjoy the rectory and tithes as other rectors before him.' It would appear from one of his letters that when he obtained the appointment he was officiating, possibly as a curate, at Sudbury. In February 1644-5 he married Sarah Mott, daughter of a minister at Stoke-by-Nayland. He is chiefly known by his work 'The Christian in Complete Armour,' in three volumes dated successively 1655, 1658, and 1662. A reissue was edited by Bishop Ryle in 1864-5. At the Restoration he conformed and continued at Lavenham till his death on 12 Oct. 1679.

[Inquiry into the life of the Rev. William Gurnall, by H. McKeon, 1830; Biographical Introduction to his works by Bishop Ryle, 1865.]

T. H.

GURNEY, ANNA (1795–1857), Anglo-Saxon scholar, youngest child of Richard Gurney of Keswick, Norfolk, who died 16 July 1811, by his second wife Rachel, second daughter of Osgood Hanbury of Holfield Grange, Essex, was born on 31 Dec. 1795, and when ten months old was attacked with a paralytic affection which deprived her for ever of the use of her legs. She passed through her busy, active, and happy life without ever having been able to stand or move without mechanical aid. At an early age she learnt Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and Anglo-Saxon. In 1819 she brought out anonymously, in a limited impression for private circulation, ‘A Literal Translation of the Saxon Chronicle. By a Lady in the Country.’ This work, which went to a second edition, is commended by Dr. James Ingram in his ‘Saxon Chronicle with Translations,’ 1823, preface, p. 12. In 1825, after the death of her mother, she went to reside at Northrepps Cottage, near Cromer, with Miss Sarah Buxton. That lady died in 1839, and Miss Gurney continued to inhabit the cottage for the remainder of her life. While living there she procured at her own expense one of Manby's apparatus for saving the lives of seamen wrecked on dangerous coasts, and in cases of urgency she caused herself to be carried down to the beach, and directed the operations from her chair. She took a great interest in the subject of the emancipation of the negroes, and up to the time of her death maintained a correspondence with missionaries and educated negroes in the African settlements. She made a journey to Rome, and then visited Athens and Argos, and was contemplating a voyage to the Baltic. In 1845 she became an associate of the British Archæological Association, being the first lady member who joined the association. In the ‘Archæologia,’ xxxii. 64–8, is a communication from her on ‘The Discovery of a Gold Ornament near Mundesley in Norfolk,’ and in xxxiv. 440–2 is a paper ‘On the Lost City of Vineta, a submerged Phœnician city.’ In her later life she studied Danish, Swedish, and Russian literature. After a short illness she died at the residence of her brother, Hudson Gurney [q. v.], at Keswick, near Norwich, on 6 June 1857, and was buried in Overstrand Church.

[Times, 18 June 1857, p. 10; Gent. Mag. 1857, pt. ii. pp. 226, 342–3; Journ. Brit. Archæol. Assoc. June 1858, pp. 187–9; a sermon on the death of Miss Anna Gurney, by the Rev. Edward Hoare, 1857.]

G. C. B.

GURNEY, ARCHER THOMPSON (1820–1887), divine and author, was born at Tregony in Cornwall on 15 July 1820. His father, Richard Gurney, born in 1790, was vice-warden of the stannaries of Devon. In 1830 he claimed to be elected member of parliament for Tregony in Cornwall, but did