MEMOIR. xxiii 



of Swarraton, of which his nephew Gilbert was 

 curate. The " Wakes " at Selborne was left to Gilbert 

 by his uncle Charles. Of the elder Gilbert I possess 

 a remarkably well-painted portrait, taken when he was 

 75 years old. It represents a fine old man, having 

 the full-bottomed wig of the period. He died in 

 February 1727, aged 77, and his widow, Rebecca, in 

 January 1755, at the advanced age of 91. Their son 

 John, Gilbert's father, was married to Anne Holt, 

 daughter of the Rev. Thomas Holt, of Streatham, in the 

 county of Surrey, at the parish church of Rogate, in 

 Sussex, on the 29th of September, 1719; and on the 

 18th of the following July, Gilbert was born at Selborne. 

 It is certain that they left Selborne as a residence very 

 soon after; for we find that the next child, John, was 

 born in September 1721 at Compton, near Guildford, in 

 Surrey, and died there when less than three months old; 

 and every subsequent child, up to the year 1727, was born 

 at the same place. Francis, the sixth son, was born at 

 Harting, in the county of Sussex, in March 1729, after 

 which they returned to Selborne, where the youngest two 

 children, Anne and Henry, were born, the former in 1731, 

 and the latter in 1733. From this time, when Gilbert 

 was about 13 years old, it appears that they resided in 

 the old house, and that both the mother and father 

 died there, the latter in October 1758, at the age of 71. 

 Gilbert White's mother, who died in December 1739, 

 at the age of 46, had a family of seven sons and four 

 daughters. The eldest of the family was Gilbert. After 

 him came one son and two daughters, who all died in 

 their early infancy. Then Thomas Holt, Benjamin, Re- 

 becca (married to Mr. Henry Woods, grandfather of the 

 Rev. G. H. Woods, of Shopwyke House, near Chichester), 



