Memoirs of My Life and Writings | Page 4

the knowledge of the French and Spanish languages, passed
some time in the Isle of Jersey, crossed the Atlantic, and resided
upwards of a twelvemonth (1659) in the rising colony of Virginia. In
this remote province his taste, or rather passion, for heraldry found a
singular gratification at a war-dance of the native Indians. As they
moved in measured steps, brandishing their tomahawks, his curious eye
contemplated their little shields of bark, and their naked bodies, which
were painted with the colours and symbols of his favourite science. "At
which I exceedingly wondered; and concluded that heraldry was
ingrafted naturally into the sense of human race. If so, it deserves a
greater esteem than now-a-days is put upon it." His return to England
after the Restoration was soon followed by his marriage his settlement
in a house in St. Catherine's Cloister, near the Tower, which devolved
to my grandfather and his introduction into the Heralds' College (in
1671) by the style and title of Blue-mantle Pursuivant at Arms. In this
office he enjoyed near fifty years the rare felicity of uniting, in the
same pursuit, his duty and inclination: his name is remembered in the
College, and many of his letters are still preserved. Several of the most
respectable characters of the age, Sir William Dugdale, Mr. Ashmole,
Dr. John Betts, and Dr. Nehemiah Grew, were his friends; and in the

society of such men, John Gibbon may be recorded without disgrace as
the member of an astrological club. The study of hereditary honours is
favourable to the Royal prerogative; and my kinsman, like most of his
family, was a high Tory both in church and state. In the latter end of the
reign of Charles the Second, his pen was exercised in the cause of the
Duke of York: the Republican faction he most cordially detested; and
as each animal is conscious of its proper arms, the heralds' revenge was
emblazoned on a most diabolical escutcheon. But the triumph of the
Whig government checked the preferment of Blue-mantle; and he was
even suspended from his office, till his tongue could learn to pronounce
the oath of abjuration. His life was prolonged to the age of ninety: and,
in the expectation of the inevitable though uncertain hour, he wishes to
preserve the blessings of health, competence, and virtue. In the year
1682 he published in London his Introductio ad Latinam Blasoniam, an
original attempt, which Camden had desiderated, to define, in a Roman
idiom, the terms and attributes of a Gothic institution. It is not two
years since I acquired, in a foreign land, some domestic intelligence of
my own family; and this intelligence was conveyed to Switzerland
from the heart of Germany. I had formed an acquaintance with Mr.
Langer, a lively and ingenious scholar, while he resided at Lausanne as
preceptor to the Hereditary Prince of Brunswick. On his return to his
proper station of Librarian to the Ducal Library of Wolfenbuttel, he
accidentally found among some literary rubbish a small old English
volume of heraldry, inscribed with the name of John Gibbon. From the
title only Mr. Langer judged that it might be an acceptable present to
his friend--and he judged rightly. His manner is quaint and affected; his
order is confused: but he displays some wit, more reading, and still
more enthusiasm: and if an enthusiast be often absurd, he is never
languid. An English text is perpetually interspersed with Latin
sentences in prose and verse; but in his own poetry he claims an
exemption from the laws of prosody. Amidst a profusion of
genealogical knowledge, my kinsman could not be forgetful of his own
name; and to him I am indebted for almost the whole of my
information concerning the Gibbon family. From this small work the
author expected immortal fame.
Such are the hopes of authors! In the failure of those hopes John
Gibbon has not been the first of his profession, and very possibly may

not be the last of his name. His brother Matthew Gibbon, the draper,
had one daughter and two sons--my grandfather Edward, who was born
in the year 1666, and Thomas, afterwards Dean of Carlisle. According
to the mercantile creed, that the best book is a profitable ledger, the
writings of John the herald would be much less precious than those of
his nephew Edward: but an author professes at least to write for the
public benefit; and the slow balance of trade can be pleasing to those
persons only, to whom it is advantageous. The successful industry of
my grandfather raised him above the level of his immediate ancestors;
he appears to have launched into various and extensive dealings: even
his opinions were subordinate to his interest; and I find him in Flanders
clothing King William's troops, while he would