1773 THE SIKS 83 



Sir THOMAS GASCOIGNE, of Barnbow, Lasingcroft, 

 and Parlington, Yorkshire, was one of those great 

 Northern lights of the Turf whom the founders of the 

 Jockey Club, much to the credit of their wisdom 

 and their national sentiments, cordially admitted 

 from the very first to the association whose head- 

 quarters and principal arena were in the South at 

 Newmarket. He was born in 1743 and died in 1810 ; 

 and though there is no actual proof that he belonged 

 to the Jockey Club before 1778, when he is gazetted 

 as the winner of a Jockey Club Plate with his un- 

 fortunate horse Magog (the joint property of himself 

 and Mr. Stapleton, another member of the Jockey 

 Club), there is reason to suppose that his member- 

 ship would date from some years before. That he 

 was a member of the Club scarcely admits of a doubt, 

 else, as Jockey Club Plates could be run for by 

 members of the Club only, Magog would have ap- 

 peared in the name of the other half-owner, Mr. 

 Stapleton, whose membership is proved as early as 

 1768 by the fact of his being one of the subscribers 

 to the Jockey Club Plate. Sir Thomas, whose sur- 

 name must not be confounded with that of Mr. Gas- 

 coyne (another member of the Jockey Club), is said 

 to have been descended from the family of which a 

 shining historical light is the famous Chief Justice 

 Gascoigne, by whom (according to legend) Prince 

 ' Hal ' (afterwards Henry V.) was committed to prison. 

 With Sir Thomas the baronetcy became extinct, for 



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