Biography

Thomas Gilbert, son of William Gilbert of Prees, Shropshire

Prees, Shropshire

Prees is a village and civil parish in north Shropshire, near the border between England and Wales. Its name is Celtic and means "brushwood"....

, was born in 1613. In 1629 he became a student in St Edmund Hall, Oxford

St Edmund Hall, Oxford

St Edmund Hall is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Better known within the University by its nickname, "Teddy Hall", the college has a claim to being "the oldest academical society for the education of undergraduates in any university"...

, his tutor being Ralph Morhall. After graduating B.A. on 28 May 1633, he obtained some employment in Ireland, but returned to Oxford and graduated M.A. on 7 November 1638. Through the favour of Philip, fourth baron Wharton

Philip Wharton, 4th Baron Wharton

Philip Wharton, 4th Baron Wharton was an English peer.A Parliamentarian during the English Civil War, he served in various offices including soldier, politician and diplomat. He was appointed as the Lord Lieutenant of Buckinghamshire by Parliament in July 1642...

, he obtained the vicarage of Upper Winchendon

Upper Winchendon

Upper Winchendon is a village and also a civil parish within Aylesbury Valedistrict in Buckinghamshire, England. It is located about a mile south of Waddesdon, three and a half miles west of Aylesbury....

, Buckinghamshire

Buckinghamshire

Buckinghamshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan home county in South East England. The county town is Aylesbury, the largest town in the ceremonial county is Milton Keynes and largest town in the non-metropolitan county is High Wycombe....

, and (about 1644) the vicarage of St. Lawrence, Reading, Berkshire

Reading, Berkshire

Reading is a large town and unitary authority area in England. It is located in the Thames Valley at the confluence of the River Thames and River Kennet, and on both the Great Western Main Line railway and the M4 motorway, some west of London....

, when he took the covenant.

He sided with the independents, according to Tanner

Thomas Tanner (writer)

Thomas Tanner was an English clergyman and writer, the author of The Entrance of Mazzarini .He was educated at St Paul's School, London, and at Pembroke Hall, Cambridge. He became a barrister and later a clergyman, being vicar of Colyton, Devon, and afterwards of Winchfield, Hampshire.-External...

 (a statement which seems questionable, according to the Dictionary of National Biography

Dictionary of National Biography

The Dictionary of National Biography is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published from 1885...

), and was created B.D. on 19 May 1648 at the parliamentary visitation of Oxford. About the same time he exchanged his cure at Reading for the rectory of Edgmond, Shropshire. Tanner says he was appointed in the room of an ejected royalist, but of this there is no record in Walker. He gained great influence, and was nicknamed the ‘bishop of Shropshire.’ In 1654 he was made assistant to the commissioners for ejecting insufficient ministers in Shropshire, Middlesex, and Westminster. Peck

Francis Peck

-Life:He was born in Stamford, Lincolnshire, England, and educated at Stamford School. Peck was educated at Charterhouse School, before continuing on to St John's College, Cambridge...

 prints a letter (28 August 1658) from Gilbert to Henry Scobell

Henry Scobell

Henry Scobell was an English Parliamentary official, and editor of official publications. He was clerk to the Long Parliament, and wrote on parliamentary procedure and precedents.-Life:...

. At the Restoration

English Restoration

The Restoration of the English monarchy began in 1660 when the English, Scottish and Irish monarchies were all restored under Charles II after the Interregnum that followed the Wars of the Three Kingdoms...

 he lost the rectory of Edgmond, and he was ejected from Winchendon by the Uniformity Act of 1662

Act of Uniformity 1662

The Act of Uniformity was an Act of the Parliament of England, 13&14 Ch.2 c. 4 ,The '16 Charles II c. 2' nomenclature is reference to the statute book of the numbered year of the reign of the named King in the stated chapter...

. Hereupon he retired to Oxford, where he and his wife lived quietly in St. Ebbe's parish. He is said by Calamy

Edmund Calamy (historian)

Edmund Calamy was an English Nonconformist churchman, divine and historian.-Life:A grandson of Edmund Calamy the Elder, he was born in the City of London, in the parish of St Mary Aldermanbury. He was sent to various schools, including Merchant Taylors', and in 1688 proceeded to the university of...

 to have been the means of keeping Robert South

Robert South

Robert South was an English churchman, known for his combative preaching.-Early life:He was the son of Robert South, a London merchant, and Elizabeth Berry...

from becoming an Arminian

Arminianism

Arminianism is a school of soteriological thought within Protestant Christianity based on the theological ideas of the Dutch Reformed theologian Jacobus Arminius and his historic followers, the Remonstrants...

. He still preached frequently in the family of Lord Wharton and in other private houses. On the issue of Charles II's

Charles II of England

Charles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...

 Royal Declaration of Indulgence

Royal Declaration of Indulgence

The Royal Declaration of Indulgence was Charles II of England's attempt to extend religious liberty to Protestant nonconformists and Roman Catholics in his realms, by suspending the execution of the penal laws that punished recusants from the Church of England...

 (15 March 1672) Gilbert joined with three ejected presbyterians in gathering a congregation at a house ‘in Thames Street, without the north gate.’ This did not last long, as the indulgence was quashed in the following year, replaced by the Test Act

Test Act

The Test Acts were a series of English penal laws that served as a religious test for public office and imposed various civil disabilities on Roman Catholics and Nonconformists...

.

Later years

Gilbert did not again take charge of a congregation. He was badly off in his later years, ‘his children having drained him,’ and was assisted by private friends, including several heads of colleges. He was deeply versed in school divinity, and a better Latin than English poet. Wood

Anthony Wood

Anthony Wood or Anthony à Wood was an English antiquary.-Early life:Anthony Wood was the fourth son of Thomas Wood , BCL of Oxford, where Anthony was born...

 calls him ‘the common epitaph-maker for dissenters;’ Calamy says he wrote but three, for Thomas Goodwin

Thomas Goodwin

Thomas Goodwin , known as 'the Elder', was an English Puritan theologian and preacher, and an important leader of religious Independents. He served as chaplain to Oliver Cromwell, and was imposed by Parliament as President of Magdalen College, Oxford in 1650...

, D.D., John Owen

John Owen (theologian)

John Owen was an English Nonconformist church leader, theologian, and academic administrator at the University of Oxford.-Early life:...

, D.D., and Ichabod Chauncey. When Calamy was at Oxford (1691–2), he found Gilbert regularly attending the ministry of John Hall

John Hall (bishop)

John Hall was an English churchman and academic, Master of Pembroke College, Oxford, and Bishop of Bristol. He was known as the last of the English bishops to hold to traditional Puritan views.-Life:...

 (1633–1710), bishop of Bristol and master of Pembroke

Pembroke College, Oxford

Pembroke College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England, located in Pembroke Square. As of 2009, Pembroke had an estimated financial endowment of £44.9 million.-History:...

, for one of the Sunday services, and for the other that of Joshua Oldfield at the presbyterian meeting, an example followed by other Oxford dissenters. He was on intimate terms with Hall, Bathurst, master of Trinity, Aldrich, Wallis, and Jane. Calamy describes him as ‘very purblind,’ as ‘the completest schoolman’ he ever knew, in his element among ‘crabbed writers,’ yet sometimes ‘very facetious and pleasant in conversation.’ Calamy has preserved some of his stories, told after a supper of ‘buttered onions.’ Gilbert died at Oxford on 15 July 1694, and was buried in the chancel of St. Aldate's

St Aldate's Church

St Aldate's is a Church of England parish church in the centre of Oxford, in the Deanery and Diocese of Oxford. The church is on the street named St Aldate's, opposite Christ Church and next door to Pembroke College. The church has a large congregation and has a staff team of about 35 which...

.

Publications

He published:

1. Vindiciæ supremi Dei Dominii … oppositæ nuper Doct. Audoeni Diatribæ de Justitia, 1655, (disputes the necessity of satisfaction, against Owen).
2. An Assize Sermon at Bridgnorth (James ii. 12), 1657
3. Julius Secundus, Oxford, 1669, (preface, assigning this dialogue to Erasmus); 2nd edit., Oxford, 1680, (with addition of Jani Alex. Ferrarii Euclides Catholicus).
4. England's Passing-Bell, a Poem, 1675, (commemorates the plague, the great fire, and the Dutch war).
5. Super auspicatissimo regis Gulielmi in Hiberniam descensu … carmen, 1690.

Probably posthumous was 6. A Learned and Accurate Discourse concerning the Guilt of Sin, 1695, though Calamy speaks as if it had been first printed in Gilbert's lifetime. It was written before 1678 and reprinted, 1708, from Gilbert's manuscript; again reprinted, Edinburgh, 1720. It teaches that pardon covers future as well as existing sin. He had a hand in the Annus Mirabilis for 1661 and following years, and wrote the largest part of a Latin version (Amsterdam, 1677) of Francis Potter

Francis Potter

Francis Potter was an English clergyman, Biblical commentator, and experimenter, an early Fellow of the Royal Society.-Life:He was second son of Richard Potter , prebendary of Worcester, and his wife, who belonged to the Horsey family of Clifton, Dorset. He was born at Mere vicarage on 29 May...

's Interpretation of the Number 666 Oxford, 1642.