year he was made Speaker of the House of Commons, and eventually rose to be Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal in 1532, and Lord Chancellor in 1533. In 1536 the manor of Berechurch came into his possession, and at the dissolution the estate of St. Botolph's Priory was granted to him.

William Gilbert, senior physician to Queen Elizabeth and James I., was born in 1540 at Colchester. He was famous for his investigations in the science of magnetism, and he laid the foundation on which all the subsequent study of electricity has been grounded. To him the very word " electricity" owes its origin. His great work "De Magnete" was published in 1600. The house he occupied still stands, and his monument is in Trinity Church near by.

Sir Francis Walsingham, "the most penetrating statesman of his time," appears to have been Recorder of Colchester for some time in the reign of Elizabeth. Samuel Harsnett, to whom reference has been made, was born here in 1561, his father being a baker in St. Botolph Street. Having been educated at Pembroke College, Cambridge, he became master of the Colchester Free School in 1587, and afterwards master of

Pembroke College, and Archdeacon of Essex. In 1609 he was made Bishop of Chichester, and in 1619 of Norwich; in 1629 he attained the position of Archbishop of York. He died in 1631, and bequeathed his library to his native town. In the church at Chigwell, Essex, is his curious memorial brass, of large size, bearing his effigy.

Sir Harbottle Grimston, Speaker of the Convention Parliament, represented the borough in the Long Parliament. His mansion, formerly the house of the Crutched Friars, was destroyed in the siege. Rev. Philip Morant, the historian of Essex, and of Colchester in particular, was rector of St. Mary's. The house in which he lived and wrote was replaced by a new rectory in

1871.

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The well-known preacher, Rev. William Marsh, D.D., was vicar of St. Peter's from about 1814 to 1829. 'During the fifteen years of his residence here," writes his daughter, "there was perhaps a greater outpouring of the Spirit on his work than at any other period of his ministry." popularity in Colchester may be gathered from the facts that when he revisited the town, after an absence of twenty-three years, he was welcomed

His

by the ringing of all the church bells, and crowds of people in the streets, and when he preached on the Sunday in St. Peter's, "a clergyman in the neighbourhood, and two Dissenting ministers in the town, closed their respective places of worship, that they might give their congregations the opportunity of attending."

The late Sir William Gull, the famous physician, was born at Thorpe-le-Soken, not far from Colchester, in 1816, and was buried in the same village in 1890. A local guide-book erroneously claims him as a native of Colchester. The same book also states that the town was the birthplace of Charles Haddon Spurgeon, but here again it is wrong. He was born at Kelvedon, eight miles away, on June 19th, 1834. It is, however, true that he was connected with Colchester, and that in more ways than one. It was his mother's native town; his father lived there for a short time after leaving Kelvedon ; he himself obtained his first schooling in the town, and it was at a Methodist chapel there he was converted. His death on January 31st, 1892, has left the whole Christian world sorrowing at the loss of the greatest preacher of the age, whose world-wide influence was only

used in the service of his Master. His ancestors were among the Dutch refugees who, fleeing from the persecutions of the Duke of Alva, took refuge in Colchester and the district in the reign of Elizabeth. The writer is proud to trace his own descent from the same family.

Here, though much more might be written about this historic town, our sketch of the story of Colchester must end. Through fire and sword, persecution and pestilence, the old town has passed, and risen phoenix-like from each of its reverses, until it is now a pleasant and populous place; but whatever may be its wealth or commercial advantages, the ancient walls and buildings, memorials of early struggles and successes, will to the student of history constitute its chief attractions.

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