AUTHOR’S NOTE

It cannot be said that the Gostwicks were ever distinguished by marked ability, but for a long period they were typical of many families in the upper-middle stratum of English life. Beginning as solid yeomen, they entered the ranks of gentry under Henry VIII. Sir John Gostwick, the first of the family to bear a coat of arms, filled a prominent place in the administrative history of the reign, and it is a little surprising that no account of his career as a whole has been put together until now. His successors in title included a deaf and dumb baronet who notwithstanding his disabilities married and perpetuated his line; a member of parliament who ruined himself by lavish bribes to the electors; and a poverty-stricken heir who in unexpected circumstances married another Gostwick, descendant of a collateral branch. These and other points of interest will, I hope, justify an attempt to present their history in the form of a connected narrative.

In preparing the work for press, I have left it substantially as it was written sixteen years ago. For a number of reasons publication has been delayed, and the lapse of time precludes me from acknowledging in detail the help I received while collecting the materials on which the following account is based. Some of those who assisted are no longer alive; the others would scarcely appreciate so belated a tribute of thanks. It is however a pleasure to record my obligation to Miss J. Godber.

MODEST BEGINNINGS

On the 6th of October 1262, shortly after the death of William de Beauchamp, a member of the great family in which the barony of Bedford had been vested since the Norman Conquest, the crown issued a writ directing William Weyland, escheator, to ascertain the extent of the deceased magnate’s property in Bedfordshire. Thereupon the escheator empanelled a separate jury for each manor; and among the jurymen for Stanford was a certain William de Gostwyc. It is this William who figures in all versions of the Gostwick pedigree as the earliest known ancestor, the founder of the line.