Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Corbie, Gerard

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1353611Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 12 — Corbie, Gerard1887Thompson Cooper

CORBIE or CORBINGTON, GERARD (1558–1637), catholic exile, was a native of the county of Durham. He was a severe sufferer for his profession of the catholic faith, being compelled frequently to cross to Ireland, and ultimately he became a voluntary exile with his family in Belgium. Three of his sons, Ambrose [q. v.], Ralph [q. v.], and Robert, having joined the Society of Jesus, his son Richard having died when a student at St. Omer, and his two daughters, May and Catharine, having become Benedictine nuns, he and his wife Isabella (née Richardson) agreed to separate and to consecrate themselves to religion. He accordingly entered the Society of Jesus at Watten as a temporal coadjutor, in 1628, and she in 1633, when in her eightieth year, became a professed Benedictine nun at Ghent, and died a centenarian in 1652. Gerard became blind five years before his death, which occurred at Watten on 17 Sept. 1637.

[Foley's Records, iii. 62–8; Oliver's Jesuit Collections, 674.]

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