By the Rev. E. Wilton. 103 
a sermon should occasionally be preached in the church, to com- 
memorate his deliverance from the jaws of the lion. This was 
called “The Lion Sermon,” and it was preached on one occasion 
by the Rector of St. Catharine’s from this text, “ Be sober, be 
vigilant, because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion goeth 
about, seeking whom he may devour.” In the conclusion of his 
discourse on this text, the preacher alluded to the charity, piety, 
and devout confidence of Sir John Gayer, as an example worthy of 
imitation. 
It is singular, however, that neither the will of Sir John, nor 
his funeral sermon, has any mention of this wonderful escape, more 
especially as the former is of a religious character, and the latter 
refers to some passages in the life of the worthy knight, which 
caused the preacher to comment on the fact that “he died in his 
owne house not in a prison; after all his sufferings quietly breathing 
forth his last in his owne bed.” His will is dated 19th December, 
1648, and names his sons John and Robert, who did not attain 
their majority till 1657; Katharine, wife of Robert Abdy, Mer- 
chant; Mary Gayer, Sarah Gayer, and Elizabeth Gayer, (the wife 
afterwards of Francis Godolphin). At the time of his death, he 
was President of Christ’s Hospital, to which, and to other city 
charities, he left benefactions; as also to the Fishmongers’ Company. 
£200 to endow Catharine Cree Sermon on 16¢h October; charitable 
bequests to the town of Plymouth where he was born, cloth “to be 
dyed of asad haire coloar,” and made into clothing to be distributed 
at Plymouth, on the 16th October, yearly, “if not the Saboth day” 
he leaves money to glaze the windows of Poplar Chapel, and 
Plymouth New Church, his Armes to be set in the east window of 
the same: the residue of his estate, which appears to have been 
considerable, to his sons, and if they chance to die, £5000 to his 
nephew John, the son of Humphrey Gayer. 
It is also remarkable that the Catharine Cree Sermon, and dis- 
tribution of clothing, both take place on the same day, a sort of 
perpetual thank offering, supposing it to be the anniversary of his 
escape from the lion; but the absence of any allusion to that cir- 
cumstance in the funeral sermon, seems to make the alleged origin 
of the charity questionable. 
