[110] Gyll's name is very naturally omitted from the Dictionary of National Biography. His publications, so far as I can trace them, are as follows:
(1) The Genealogy of the family of Gylle, or Gill, of Hertfordshire, Essex and Kent, illustrated by wills and other documents (London, 1842). This pamphlet is an enlarged reprint of a contribution to Collectanea Topographica et Genealogica, vol. viii.
(2) A Tractate on Language (London, 1859): a second revised edition appeared in 1860.
(3) History of the Parish of Wraysbury, Ankerwycke Priory, and Magna Charta Island; with the History of Horton, and the Town of Colnbrook, Bucks. (London, 1862.)
(4) Galatea: A pastoral romance. By Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. Literally translated from the Spanish (London, 1867). A posthumous reprint was issued in 1892.
(5) The Voyage to Parnassus: Numantia, a Tragedy; The Commerce of Algiers, by Cervantes. Translated from the Spanish.... (London, 1870).
Concerning the writer I have gathered the following particulars: they are to some extent derived from statements scattered up and down his works. For the references to Notes and Queries I am particularly indebted to Mr. W. R. Morfill, the distinguished Reader in Slavonic at the University of Oxford.
Our Gyll was born on August 1, 1803 (History of Wraysbury, p. 100), being the third son of William Gill (at one time an officer in the army), and the grandson of a City alderman. William Gill, the elder, was a partner in the firm of Wright, Gill, and Dalton, wholesale stationers in Abchurch Lane, London. He was elected alderman in 1781, served as Sheriff in 1781-1782, was appointed Treasurer of Christ's Hospital in 1784-1785, and in due course became Lord Mayor for 1788-1789. He died in the Treasurer's house at Christ's Hospital on March 26, 1798, being then seventy-four years of age: his brother-in-law and partner, Thomas Wright, died on April 9, 1798. An obituary note in The Gentleman's Magazine (vol. lxviii., p. 264) states that the elder William Gill "was a respectable tradesman and died immensely rich." The younger William Gill died on February 16, 1806, at the age of thirty-one. I do not know to what school Gordon Willoughby James Gill was sent. He speaks of himself as "a member of the University of Oxford" (A Tractate on Language, First Edition, p. iii.). This is confirmed by the appended note in the Matricula Book, which am enabled to print through the kindness of my friend Mr. H. Butler Clarke:—
"From the Register of Matriculations of the University of Oxford. 1822 Jan. 15. Coll. Pemb. Gordon Willoughby Jacobus Gill, 18, Gulielmi, de par. S. Mariæ bonæ Arm. fil. 3ius.
A true extract, made 30 Jany., 1903 by T. Vere Bayne, Keeper of the Archives."