Life and Letters of John Gay (1685-1732) | Page 3

of the poet.
William Gay resided at Barnstaple, and since he lived in a large house,
called the Red Cross, at the corner of Joy Street, facing Holland Street,
it is reasonable to assume that he was in easy circumstances. He
married a daughter of Jonathan Hanmer, the leading Nonconformist
divine of the town, and by her had five children. The first-born was a
girl, who died in 1685; then came Katherine, born in 1676, who
married Anthony Baller, whose son Joseph issued in 1820 the slim
volume bearing the title of "Gay's Chair";[3]in 1778, Jonathan; and
three years later, Joanna, who married John Fortescue--possibly a
relation of William Fortescue, afterwards Master of the Rolls, who is
still remembered as a friend of Pope. The youngest child was John, the
subject of this memoir, stated by his earlier biographers to have been
born in 1688, but now known, from an entry in the Barnstaple Parish
Register, to have been baptised in the Old Church on September 16th,
1685.
Mrs. Gay died in 1694, her husband a year later; and the custody of the
four surviving orphaned children devolved upon their uncles. William
Gay's brothers were John and Richard, who resided at Frittelstock;
James, Rector of Meeth; and Thomas, who lived at Barnstaple. Mrs.
Gay's only brother was John Hanmer, who succeeded to his father's
pastoral office among the Congregational or Independent Dissenters at
Barnstaple. Jonathan, the elder son of William Gay, who inherited the

family property, was intended for the Church, but "severe studies not
well suiting his natural genius, he betook himself to military
pursuits,"[4] and, probably about the time of his father's death, entered
the army. Who took charge of the two girls is not known; but it is on
record that John, after his father's death, and then in his tenth year, went
to live at Barnstaple with his paternal uncle, Thomas Gay. It is
interesting to note that in 1882, "among the pieces of timber carted
away from the Barnstaple Parish Church [which was then undergoing
restoration] has been found a portion of a pew, with the name 'John
Gay,' and the date, 1695, cut upon it.... No other John Gay appears in
the Parish Register."[5]
Gay attended the Free Grammar School at Barnstaple, and among his
schoolfellows there with whom he cemented an enduring friendship,
were William Fortescue, to whom reference has been made above, and
Aaron Hill.[6] William Raynor was the headmaster when Gay first
went to the Grammar School, but soon he removed to Tiverton, and
was succeeded by the Rev. Robert Luck. Luck subsequently claimed
that Gay's dramatic instincts were developed by taking part in the
amateur theatricals promoted by him, and when in April, 1736, he
published a volume of verse, he wrote, in his dedication to the Duke of
Queensberry.[7] Gay's patron and friend:--
"O Queensberry! could happy Gay This offering to thee bring, ''Tis he,
my Lord' (he'd smiling say), 'Who taught your Gay to sing.'"
These lines suggest that an intimacy between Gay and Luck existed
long after their relations as pupil and master had ceased, but it is
doubtful if this was the case. It is certainly improbable that the lad saw
much of the pedagogue when he returned to Barnstaple for a while as
the guest of the Rev. John Hanmer, since Luck was a bitter opponent of
the Dissenters and in open antagonism to John Hanmer.
How long Gay remained at the Grammar School is not known. There
are, indeed, no records upon which to base a narrative of his early years.
It is, however, generally accepted that, on leaving school, he was
apprenticed to a silk-mercer in London. This was not so unaccountable
a proceeding then as appears to-day, for we know from Gibbon's

"Memoirs" that "our most respectable families have not disdained the
counting-house, or even the shop;... and in England, as well as in the
Italian commonwealths, heralds have been compelled to declare that
gentility is not degraded by the exercise of trade": for example, the
historian's great grandfather, son of a country gentleman, became a
linen-draper in Leadenhall Street.
Gay had no taste for trade, and did not long remain in this employment.
According to one authority, "he grew so fond of reading and study that
he frequently neglected to exert himself in putting oft silks and velvets
to the ladies";[8] while his nephew, the Rev. Joseph Bailer, says:
"Young Gay, not being able to bear the confinement of a shop, soon
felt a remarkable depression of spirits, and consequent decline of health;
he was, therefore, obliged to quit that situation, and retire to Barnstaple,
in the hope of receiving benefit from his native air."[9] No doubt the
mercer was willing enough to cancel the indentures of an apprentice so
unsatisfactory as Gay