Referring to Bartholomew Gosnold's slightly older contemporary, William Shakespeare, A.L. Rowse finds explanation of the latter's inexhaustible vitality in the period in which he lived. That age must be taken into consideration in unfolding the story of Gosnold's life.
The Elizabethan Age was so much the most intense and electric experience of a young people suddenly coming to maturity, with new world's opening out before them, not only across the seas but in the mind. It is incredible what intensity of experience was crowded into those two decades at the end of Elizabeth's reign:...in that short span, [the English people] gave evidence of all that they had it in them to achieve in the centuries to come.
In those decades Bartholomew Gosnold had his impresionable adolescence, obtained his classical and legal education, and established himself as the head of a family.
Stability of characterin one of the expected fruits of a lineage long established in security. This Bartholomew had: he was one of the fifth generation of a family seated at Netherhall Manor in Otley, Suffolk, proudly bearing arms the origin of which seems lost in the mists of antiquity. Since those who were entitled to arms felt obliged to know something about them, Bartholomew in his youth must have been told of John Gosnold, the progenitor of the Otley Gosnolds, and his son John, who built or rebuilt the manor house in the reign of Henry VII, and who built so well that the timbered structure stands to this day. Only the moat, once filled with water, is now in part filled in -- a flower garden.
Bartholomew was undoubtedly told even more about his great-grandfather, Robert the elder, second lord of Netherhall manor, who was born a very few years before Columbus discovered Guanahani, and who lived to bequeath in his will of 1572 a nest-egg of twenty pounds to his latest great-grandson, Bartholomew, then about a year old. During his long life as a patriarch of the family, Robert Gosnold the elder had shared in the prosperity of the era by acquiring numerous properties -- manors, farms, leased lands and meadows -- which provided the wealth of the Gosnolds. By then, in fact, Henry VIII, by despoiling the monasteries of their lands and making them available to the country gentry, had indirectly made the family all the richer.
There were other distinguished Gosnolds, not direct ancestors, about whom Bartholomew surely would have heard. One of these was his grand-uncle, John Gosnold, an eminent Member of Parliament in the reign of Edward VI, and Solicitor General for a term. In this capacity, John had had a hand in the plan to place Lady Jane Grey on the throne on the death of young King Edward. John died without leaving an heir, fortunately before Queen Mary had a chance to chop off his head for such disloyalty.
Grand-uncle John's two sisters would also have been extolled before young Bartholomew, for they had married two brothers of the Golding family, first cousins of the Elizabethan author and translator, Arthur Golding, and of his half-sister Margery, second wife of the very noble sixteenth Earl of Oxford and mother of Edward Vere, the seventeenth Earl, who succeeded his father before Bartholomew Gosnold was born.
Bartholomew's grandfather and grandmother Gosnold, Robert and his wife Mary Vesey, died long before Bartholomew was born, leaving five sons and eight daughters. This younger Robert leaves little mark in history, and the many cousins provided by so large a family with two or three notable exceptions seem to have had no part in Bartholomew's career. Of his grandmother it may be said that she was an aunt of Abram Vesey, who married into the Winthorp family of Groton. In later years this connection interested the Puritan Governor of Massachusetts not at all. The Gosnolds were notable defenders of monarchy and episcopacy.
As we approach Bartholomew's own life, the number of near relatives whom he would have heard mentioned, and in later cases personally known, naturally increases. To repeat, Bartholomew had eight aunts. One of these, Dorothy, married Sir John Gilbert, of Finborough Hall, Suffolk, son of al London goldsmith. Sir John and Lody Dorothy had three daughters, all of whom married knights. The second daughter, Elizabeth married Sir Roger North of Mildenhall, Suffolk, a son of Sir Henry North, who "taking early to arms was, 25 Elizabeth [1583], in that expedition to Norembega under Sir Humphrey Gilbert.
Bartholomew's uncle, Robert, the third of that name, became lord of Netherhall Manor on his grandfather's death in 1572, his father having predeceased him. He was then about forty, and in the midst of a distinguished career. But long before that, separate entries in the published records of the University of Cambridge reveal that Robert Gosnold and two "impubes" brothers [that is, they had not yet reached puberty], Anthony and John by name, were matriculated on the same day, Michaelmas, 1550, "sizars from Jesus [College]". The picture of Robert, probably aged sixteen, going up to the great University with his two little brothers tagging along is a charming one. (The term "sizars" meant that the three lads were granted an allowance expected to do some sort of service. This is not suprising, since they were three of thirteen children, and their father had not come into any inheritance from the still-flourishing Robert Gosnold the elder).
This Robert, whom for convenience' sake we may denominate Robert II (the Gosnold family presents the rather unusual succession of seven Roberts, eldest0-son, born within a range of less than 150 years,) was admitted to Gray's Inn to study law in 1553, and his brother Anthony followed him there a year later. Robert was still in London in 1559, for in that year he inherited from his father a bed "whichhe hath in London", the possession of a bed in those days being a prerogative of at least some wealth and to be mentioned formally in wills. About this time he married exceptionally well, taking as his wife Ursula Naunton, a granddaughter of the illustrious Sir Anthony Wingfield, Knight of the Garter, and his wife, Elizabeth Vere, sister of John Vere, fourteenth Earl of Oxford, upon whose death the title passed to a second cousin -- the father of the Vere who married Margery Golding.
In 1561 Robert was appointed a Justice of the Peace for Suffolk, an honorable appointment for the preservation of the peace in the county and the discharge of other magisterial functions. A portrait of him, dated about 1610, portrays him as an elderly gentleman -- he was perhaps seventy-five -- of commanding character and proud mien. His influence on his great nephew was, we may assume, very great.
Robert Gosnold III died in 1615, outliving most of his sons and nephews, including his heir, Robert (IV), and that gentleman's nephews, Bartholomew and Anthony, who had died in Virginia. Of his two surviving sons, he seems to have preferred the elder, Anthony "of Swilland", so called to distinguish him from the other Anthonys who surrounded the old man. Another Anthony, son of Robert (IV) and the youngest of the Anthonys, had gone to Virginia with Bartholomew and was still there when Robert II died in 1615, and Robert's grief at the loss of Bartholomew and the other Anthony (his brother) is reflected in the injunction that grandson Anthony was to have one hundred pounds provided he returned from Virginia within a year. Nevertheless, Anthony refused to desert his post -- apparently that of someone's employee -- for at least six years longer.
Bartholomew's father, another Anthony and the brother of Robert III, is seen as closely associated with Robert in most of the documents that have been preserved. As a younger son, he of course had no share in the entailed manor and its dependencies. But his grandfather Robert Gosnold the elder had dealt generously with him in bequests of land. Indeed, both brothers, following the custom of the time, had much more likely studied law in order to manage their large estates than with any thought of becoming barristers. Both, however, seem to have practiced law in London for a few years, Anthony no doubt sharing his brother's chambers. Anthony probably returned to Suffolk about 1580, if not before, to take possession of the land willed him by his grandfather to be his in that year.
From Otley a highway today leads down the valley to Woodbridge, passing through Clopton about two miles from Otley and between Burgh and Grundisburgh a mile or so farther along. Through this valley from Otley to Grundisburgh flows a narrow stream called the Finn, which ultimately finds its way to the broad estuary of the River Deben a mile and a half below Woodbridge. Somewhere in this valley, within four or five miles of Otley, Anthony Gosnold had his chief holdings; he is known in the documents as Anthony Gosnold of Clopton and Grundisburgh. This region in the southeastern part of the County of Suffolk is said to have changed little in the last three centuries. It is described as a pleasant countryside, criss-crossed with many lanes. Its rolling hills and heath and small fields are given over entirely to agriculture. Woodbridge, three miles from Grundisburgh, served as its port for the shipment of grains and produce in small vessels to London.
Anthony Gosnold seems to have done nearly as well for himself by marriage as his brother Robert. About 1570 he took to himself as wife Dorothy Bacon, a granddaughter to Thomas Bacon of Hessett. Thomas Bacon was a cousin of Lord Keeper Sir Nicholas Bacon, but of what degree it has been impossible to determine. Thomas Bacon in his will of 1547 names Sir Nicholas Bacon his attorney and overseer of his will -- an appointment which usually implies a close relationship. An uncle of Dorothy Bacon (grand-uncle of her son Bartholomew) in 1559 likewise named, as overseer of his will, "Sir Nicholas Bacon, and the Right Honorable Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England." It seems quite likely, therefore, that the sons of Sir Nicholas Bacon, well-known in history, were aware that a kinswoman of theirs had married Anthony Gosnold and borne a son Bartholomew.
As the sons of Anthony Gosnold approached maturity, the father seems to have gone about the business of establishing himself as a major landowner. In 1584 he bought from his friend Lionel Talmache some thirty acres of woodland, including timber trees, at a cost of 390 pounds. This was presumably to provide himself with lumber for the rebuilding or restoring of ancient manor houses. In 1589, there were prepared three elaborate surveys, one of the Manor of Burgh, on of the Manor of Cleves (described as partly in Grundisburgh and partly in Burgh), and one of the Manor of Grundisburgh Hall. No lord of the manor is named in these surveys, but other documents indicate that without any doubt Anthony Gosnold began at this time payments looking foward to the acquisition of these manors -- one of them Grundisburgh Hall, apparently in partnership with his cousin William York.
From several documents, too fragmentary to tell the whole story, it appears that Anthony and Bartholomew Gosnold in 1589 paid the sum of 320 pounds to certain parties who had a claim on the manors of Burgh and Cleves. The subsequent history of these manors is so obscure that it is difficult to tell much about them. No one knows precisely where they stood, how long they stood, or what specific areas they covered.
Unfortunately the transactions in the purchase of these manors got Anthony Gosnold into serious financial difficulties, involving his brother Robert as well, in the last decade of the century. One creditor who the Gosnolds thought had made a friendly loan without mention of interest became annoyed at the end of five years because he had received neither interest nor principal; he averred that Anthony had paid the amount over to his brother, but that it had gotten no father. On his creditor's insistence, Anthony was imprisoned in 1600 in the King's Bench Prison in Southwark "as a result of borrowing more money to pay the interest." Robert then petitiooned the Court of Chancery to have the whole case reviewed. Evidently there was something more to be said on the Gosnold side of it, but there information ends.
In the course of time, all difficulties -- financial and other wese -- seemed to be overcome. A Court Book of the Manor of Cleves beginning the Court General of "Anthony Gosnold, gentleman, lord of said manor", records a court held by him (for the settlement of differences between tenants, and between himself and the tenants) on April 11, 1608, followed by others held in his name by Lionel Edgar, steward, up to October 26, 1609. But from this record, we learn that Anthony Gosnold held his last court. It is an ill omen, for about this time Robert Gosnold appears briefly as lord of the manor at Grundisburgh. Within three years all of Anthoy Gosnold's manors had passed into the hands of the family named Clenche.
Anthony Gosnold had two sons. According to established custom, one of the manors, Cleves, presumably the largest, had been destined for the eldest son and heir, while Burgh Hall was for the younger. From scraps of information it is to be inferred that Anthony Gosnold dropped out of the scene in 1609, perhaps shortly after October 26. The cause may not be far to see, for within two weeks of that date a ship had arrived in London with news of the death of his second son in Virginia in January of that year. With his eldest son already dead, this snuffing out of the male line of his brach of the family may well have caused the death of septuagenarian Anthony himself, perhaps so suddenly that he made no will -- at least, none has been found.
Anthony Gosnold's other children, besides the two sons whose deaths belong to the story of Jamestown, Virginia, were all girls. With one exception, little is known of them. The exception is Bartholomew's sister Elizabeth Gosnold. Elizabeth married Thomas Tilney, of Shelly Hall, near Hadleigh, Suffolk. He was a descendant of the Tilney who was great-grandfather to Anne Boleyn; despite the remotness of the connection Queen Elizabeth had recognized it by makeing a lryal visitation to Shelly Hall in 1561. Her memory was a long one and doubtless she knew that Thomas Tilney was kinsman, although a distant one. His bride of the year 1599, born Elizabeth Gosnold, may possibly have been presented at Court.
Records relating to Bartholomew Gosnold himself are scanty. He probably completed his education, as his father and uncle had done, by studying law -- else the reference to New Inn would be meaningless. Four and a half years had elapsed since his matriculation at Cambridge, allowing time for him to have taken his bachelor's degree. Two parish registers even title him Magister, but in the incomplete records of the University there is nothing beyond his entry in 1587. Three more blandk years follow the 1592 reference. Then Bartholomew Gosnold married, an event calling for a chapter of it own. But to close this obscure chapter of Bartholomew's life it is not beside the point to evoke a scene or two from the countryside in which he lived, for the call of the great world beyond his rural valey came to Bartholomew Gosnold while he was still a youth. That call possibly came from nearby Woodbridge, on the broad estuary of the Deben, only an afternoon's canter down the country lane. In the words of the eminent Suffolk antiquarian, Charles Partridge of Suffolk:
[Woodbridge] is a delightful little town, one of the prettiest little market towns in England nestling on the slopes of what in Suffolk must be called a hilly district. The sun always seems to shine on it and the gleaming Deben to love it for its beauty. It seems almost incredible that in "the old days" warships were built at it [now] quiet quays. Yet . . . the old town must have been well in touch with the wider world.
Twice as far away, and to the southwest, was IPswich, a much larger town and port. Birthplace of Cardinal Wolsey, "this Ipswich fellow", here was a lively port, suitable for trade with the Continent, where ships were built and sailcloth made. There at Ipswich, too, we may be sure, young Bartholomew dreamed dreams that were to take him to the New World.
