Memoirs of My Life and Writings | Page 8

in the pursuit of an unpopular minister, he
gratified a private revenge against the oppressor of his family in the
South Sea persecution.
I was born at Putney, in the county of Surrey, April 27th, O. S., in the
year one thousand seven hundred and thirty-seven; the first child of the
marriage of Edward Gibbon, esq., and of Judith Porten. [Note: The
union to which I owe my birth was a marriage of inclination and

esteem. Mr. James Porten, a merchant of London, resided with his
family at Putney, in a house adjoining to the bridge and churchyard,
where I have passed many happy hours of my childhood. He left one
son (the late Sir Stanier Porten) and three daughters; Catherine, who
preserved her maiden name, and of whom I shall hereafter speak;
another daughter married Mr. Darrel of Richmond, and left two sons,
Edward and Robert: the youngest of the three sisters was Judith, my
mother.] My lot might have been that of a slave, a savage, or a peasant;
nor can I reflect without pleasure on the bounty of Nature, which cast
my birth in a free and civilized country, in an age of science and
philosophy, in a family of honourable rank, and decently endowed with
the gifts of fortune. From my birth I have enjoyed the right of
primogeniture; but I was succeeded by five brothers and one sister, all
of whom were snatched away in their infancy. My five brothers, whose
names may be found in the parish register of Putney, I shall not pretend
to lament: but from my childhood to the present hour I have deeply and
sincerely regretted my sister, whose life was somewhat prolonged, and
whom I remember to have been an amiable infant. The relation of a
brother and a sister, especially if they do not marry, appears to me of a
very singular nature. It is a familiar and tender friendship with a female,
much about our own age; an affection perhaps softened by the secret
influence of sex, and the sole species of Platonic love that can be
indulged with truth, and without danger.
At the general election of 1741, Mr. Gibbon and Mr. Delme stood an
expensive and successful contest at Southampton, against Mr. Dummer
and Mr. Henly, afterwards Lord Chancellor and Earl of Northington.
The Whig candidates had a majority of the resident voters; but the
corporation was firm in the Tory interest: a sudden creation of one
hundred and seventy new freemen turned the scale; and a supply was
readily obtained of respectable volunteers, who flocked from all parts
of England to support the cause of their political friends. The new
parliament opened with the victory of an opposition, which was
fortified by strong clamour and strange coalitions. From the event of
the first divisions, Sir Robert Walpole perceived that he could no
longer lead a majority in the House of Commons, and prudently
resigned (after a dominion of one-and-twenty years) the guidance of the
state (1742). But the fall of an unpopular minister was not succeeded,

according to general expectation, by a millennium of happiness and
virtue: some courtiers lost their places, some patriots lost their
characters, Lord Orford's offences vanished with his power; and after a
short vibration, the Pelham government was fixed on the old basis of
the Whig aristocracy. In the year 1745, the throne and the constitution
were attacked by a rebellion, which does not reflect much honour on
the national spirit; since the English friends of the Pretender wanted
courage to join his standard, and his enemies (the bulk of the people)
allowed him to advance into the heart of the kingdom. Without daring,
perhaps without desiring, to aid the rebels, my father invariably
adhered to the Tory opposition. In the most critical season he accepted,
for the service of the party, the office of alderman in the city of London:
but the duties were so repugnant to his inclination and habits, that he
resigned his gown at the end of a few months. The second parliament in
which he sat was prematurely dissolved (1747): and as he was unable
or unwilling to maintain a second contest for Southampton, the life of
the senator expired in that dissolution.
The death of a new-born child before that of its parents may seem an
unnatural, but it is strictly a probable, event: since of any given number
the greater part are extinguished before their ninth year, before they
possess the faculties of the mind or body. Without accusing the profuse
waste or imperfect workmanship of Nature, I shall only observe, that
this unfavourable chance was multiplied against my infant existence.
So feeble was my constitution, so precarious my life, that, in the
baptism of each of my brothers, my father's prudence successively
repeated