aughter 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 have contracted with more
pleasure, though not perhaps at a cheaper rate, for the service of King
James. During his residence abroad, his concerns at home were managed by
his mother Hester, an active and notable woman. Her second husband was
a widower of the name of Acton: they united the children of their
first nuptials. After his marriage with the daughter of Richard Acton,
goldsmith in Leadenhall-street, he gave his own sister to Sir Whitmore
Acton, of Aldenham; and I am thus connected, by a triple alliance, with
that ancient and loyal family of Shropshire baronets. It consisted about
that time of seven brothers, all of gigantic stature; one of whom, a
pigmy of six feet two inches, confessed himself the last and least of
the seven; adding, in the true spirit of party, that such men were not
born since the Revolution. Under the Tory administration of the four
last years of Queen Anne (1710-1714) Mr. Edward Gibbon was appointed one
of the Commissioners of the Customs; he sat at that Board with Prior;
but the merchant was better qualified for his station than the poet;
since Lord Bolingbroke has been heard to declare, that he had never
conversed with a man, who more clearly understood the commerce and
finances of England. In the year 1716 he was elected one of the
Directors of the South Sea Company; and his books exhibited the proof
that, before his acceptance of this fatal office, he had acquired an
independent fortune of sixty thousand pounds.

But his fortune was overwhelmed in the shipwreck of the year twenty, and
the labours of thirty years were blasted in a single day. Of the use
or abuse of the South Sea scheme, of the guilt or innocence of my
grandfather and his brother Directors, I am ne