BIOGRAPHY OF GULLIVER

Wairarapa Times-Age, 10 May 1940, Page 9

BIOGRAPHY OF GULLIVER

A country squire owning a small estate in Nottinghamshire was the father of five sons. The third of these sons was Lemuel Gulliver, destined to become known throughout the world as the first globe trotter and to acquire such fame that his name was to resound down through the ages. Squire Gulliver was comfortably fixed financially and so was able to send Lemuel to Emanuel College in Cambridge, at the age of fourteen. . At the 'end of three years, however, Squire Gulliver decided that his son should become a surgeon and apprenticed him to Mr James Bates for four years. Although he mastered his surgical studies, wanderlust was implanted in the breast of the boy Lemuel, and small sums which came to him were expended by the boy in the study of navigation and mathematics. After four years with Mr Bates, the boy went to Leydon where he continued his studies for about two years and seven months. At the end of this study he was recommended by Mr Bates to be surgeon of the Swallow. After four years of travelling to the Levant and other parts, he decided to settle down in London and married Mistress Mary Burton, second daughter to Mr Edmund Burton, hosier in Newgate Street, with whom he received 400 pounds as a portion. Two years later his practice fell off and he went to sea as a ship surgeon again. Eventually, he became surgeon ot' the Antelope, Captain William Prichard commanding, and sailed from Bristol on May 4, 1699. on the first voyage which "was to bring him world fame. It was on this voyage that he was wrecked and washed ashore on the Island of Lilliput. His experiences on that island are told in detail in the film which Paramount has produced as a feature length cartoon in technicolour.

In later voyages he discovered other strange lands. The storm of criticism and innuendo which greeted grossly inaccurate accounts of his travels, written by friends, particularly one Richard Simpson, a cousin, caused him to pen the true account of his travels

which was published under the title “Travels Into Several Remote Nations of the World.” by Lemuel Gulliver. Autograph hunters so worried Captain Gulliver and his family at their bouse in Redriff that he quietly made a small purchase of land near Newark in Nottinghamshire the next year, and there lived in retirement until his death several years later.