Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Gage, George

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1152326Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 20 — Gage, George1889Thompson Cooper

GAGE, GEORGE (fl. 1614–1640), catholic political agent, born after 1582, seems to have been son of John Gage of Haling, Surrey, and brother of Sir Henry Gage [q. v.], to whom he erected a monument (Collins, Peerage, ed. Brydges, viii. 256–7; Cal. Clarendon Papers, i. 166, 169). He was a great friend of Sir Toby Matthew, and seems to have received priest's orders with him from the hands of Cardinal Bellarmine at Rome on 20 May 1614 (Oliver, Jesuit Collections, p. 140). James I despatched him to Rome towards the close of 1621, in quality of agent to the papal court, to solicit a dispensation for the marriage of the Prince of Wales with the Spanish infanta. The jesuits strove to retard the dispensation, and if possible to prevent the completion of the match. The negotiations lasted for nearly six years, and ultimately came to nothing. A detailed account of Gage's part in them is given in ‘The Narrative of the Spanish Marriage Treaty’ (Camd. Soc. 1869); Tierney's edition of Dodd's ‘Church History,’ v. 119–64; and in Mr. S. R. Gardiner's ‘History of England, 1603–42.’ Gage is described in 1627 as ‘a prisoner in the Clink,’ being the agent of the Bishop of Chalcedon and of the seminary of Douay (Discovery of the Jesuits' College at Clerkenwell, Camd. Soc. Miscellany, ii.). He is referred to in the list of priests and recusants apprehended and indicted by Wadsworth and his fellow-pursuivants between 1640 and 1651. It is there stated that he was found guilty ‘and since is dead,’ from which it may be inferred that he died in prison (Lingard, Hist. of England, ed. 1849, viii. 646).

[Dodd's Church Hist. ii. 426; Gillow's Bibl. Dict. ii. 356, and additions and corrections, p. xiv; Gage's Hengrave; Cal. of State Papers, Dom. (1650), pp. 334, 370, 521, 559; Gardiner's Hist. of England, iv. 330, 350, 351, 372, 398, v. 69.]

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