Arthur Gorges

Sir Arthur Gorges (c. 1569 – 10 October 1625), was a sea captain, poet, translator and courtier.

He was the son of Sir William Gorges (d.1584) of Charlton, in the parish of Wraxall in Somerset, lord of the manor of Wraxall, by his wife Winifred Budockshed, heiress of the manor of Budockshed in the parish of St Budeaux, near Plymouth in Devon. Sir William Gorges was knighted in Ireland in 1579, was Vice Admiral of the Fleet in 1580, and Constable of the Tower of London. He died in December 1584, in the Tower of London. Arthur Gorges' brother Tristram Gorges (circa 1562 - 8 May 1608) was entrusted by Sir Francis Drake with the custody of Don Pedro de Valdez who was captured in the fight with the Spanish Armada in 1588. He took Don Pedro to the Tower of London.

The Gorges family in the Elizabethan era included Sir Ferdinando Gorges, founder of the Province of Maine, and Arthur Gorges' uncle, Sir Thomas Gorges of Longford Castle, who married Helena, Marchioness of Northampton.

A cousin of both Walter Raleigh and Charles Arundell, Arthur Gorges was a member of the Howard circle (the Oxford-Howard circle of Catholic courtiers in the late 1570s ) - Arundell claimed Oxford had tried to have Gorges murdered on the Richmond Green.

He was elected Member of Parliament in 1584 for Yarmouth, IoW, in 1589 for Camelford, in 1593 for Dorset and in 1601 for Rye.

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