GAGE, FRANCIS, D.D. (1621–1682), president of Douay College, born 1 Feb. 1620–1, was son of John Gage of Haling, Surrey, by his second wife, Mrs. Barnes, a widow. He was half-brother of Sir Henry Gage [q. v.], governor of Oxford, of George [q. v.] and Thomas Gage [q. v.], missionary and traveller. He was a student in the English College at Douay from 1630 to 1641, when he went to Paris to pursue his theological studies under William Clifford [q. v.] at Tournay College, which had been granted by Cardinal Richelieu to the Bishop of Chalcedon for the education of the English clergy (Pref. to Clifford, Little Manual, ed. 1705). In 1646 he was ordained priest, and in 1648 appointed tutor to Thomas Arundel, then residing in Paris. He graduated B.D. at the Sorbonne in 1649, and D.D. in 1654. He then came to the English mission, was appointed archdeacon of Essex, and resided with Lady Herbert, whom he afterwards accompanied to France, whence he proceeded to Rome in 1659 as agent to the English chapter (Panzani, Memoirs, pp. 298, 301, 302). He remained in Rome until his recall in 1661, and then returned to the English mission. He was chaplain to Lady Strangford from 1663 to 1667, and afterwards tutor to Philip Draycot of Paynsley, Staffordshire, whom he accompanied on a continental tour. On 23 Jan. 1675–6 he was nominated president of Douay College, in succession to Dr. George Leyburn. The college flourished greatly under his management until 1678, when Oates's plot alarmed the English catholics, and made them very cautious in sending their children to the colleges abroad. But after the storm had subsided the number of students increased, being attracted to Douay by the fame of Gage's abilities. He died on 2 June 1682. Dodd, writing in 1742, says he was ‘a person of extraordinary qualifications, both natural and acquired. His memory was of late years very fresh in the university of Paris, where upon several occasions he had distinguished himself, especially by his flowing eloquence. In regard of his brethren he behaved himself with remarkable discretion in several controversies which required management’ (Church Hist. iii. 296).
He wrote ‘Journal of the Chief Events of his Life, from his Birth in 1621 to 1627,’ autograph manuscript, in the archives of the Old Chapter, Spanish Place, Manchester Square, London (Hist. MSS. Comm. 5th Rep. p. 463). It is believed he was the ‘F. G.’ who edited ‘The Spiritual Exercises of … Gertrude More, of the … English Congregation of our Ladies of Comfort in Cambray,’ Paris, 1658, 12mo.
[Gage's Hengrave, p. 235; Gillow's Bibl. Dict.; Hist. MSS. Comm. 5th Rep. pp. 465, 467–8, 472.]
GAGE, GEORGE (fl. 1614–1640), catholic political agent, born after 1582, seems to have been son of John Gage of Haling, Surrey, and brother of Sir Henry Gage [q. v.], to whom he erected a monument (Collins, Peerage, ed. Brydges, viii. 256–7; Cal. Clarendon Papers, i. 166, 169). He was a great friend of Sir Toby Matthew, and seems to have received priest's orders with him from the hands of Cardinal Bellarmine at Rome on 20 May 1614 (Oliver, Jesuit Collections, p. 140). James I despatched him to Rome towards the close of 1621, in quality of agent to the papal court, to solicit a dispensation for the marriage of the Prince of Wales with the Spanish infanta. The jesuits strove to retard the dispensation, and if possible to prevent the completion of the match. The negotiations lasted for nearly six years, and ultimately came to nothing. A detailed account of Gage's part in them is given in ‘The Narrative of the Spanish Marriage Treaty’ (Camd. Soc. 1869); Tierney's edition of Dodd's ‘Church History,’ v. 119–64; and in Mr. S. R. Gardiner's ‘History of England, 1603–42.’ Gage is described in 1627 as ‘a prisoner in the Clink,’ being the agent of the Bishop of Chalcedon and of the seminary of Douay (Discovery of the Jesuits' College at Clerkenwell, Camd. Soc. Miscellany, ii.). He is referred to in the list of priests and recusants apprehended and indicted by Wadsworth and his fellow-pursuivants between 1640 and 1651. It is there stated that he was found guilty ‘and since is dead,’ from which it may be inferred that he died in prison (Lingard, Hist. of England, ed. 1849, viii. 646).
[Dodd's Church Hist. ii. 426; Gillow's Bibl. Dict. ii. 356, and additions and corrections, p. xiv; Gage's Hengrave; Cal. of State Papers, Dom. (1650), pp. 334, 370, 521, 559; Gardiner's Hist. of England, iv. 330, 350, 351, 372, 398, v. 69.]
GAGE, Sir HENRY (1597–1645), royalist officer, son of John Gage of Haling, Surrey, and great-grandson of Sir John Gage [q. v.] (Collins, Peerage, ed. Brydges, viii. 256), was born about 1597, and, as his family were strong catholics, sent to Flanders at the age of ten to be educated. Thence, after a short residence in France, he went to Italy, ‘where under that famous scholar Piccolomini he heard his philosophy, and with great applause did publicly defend it’ (Walsingham, Alter Britanniæ Heros, p. 2). At the age of twenty-two Gage entered the Spanish service, and for twelve months ‘trailed a pike’ in the
