Gouge , Robert (1630-01-01 - 1705-10-16)

Son of another Robert Gouge, he was born and schooled at Chelmsford. He was admitted to Christ's College on 8 June 1647 at the age of 17, where he was tutored by Henry Moor. Calamy suggests that he was patronised by Sir Henry Mildmay. After he graduated he became master (with a preachership) of Maldon Grammar School. In 1652 he became rector of St Helen's, Ipswich under the patronage of Robert Duncon (1594-1670), an puritan leader. Together Duncon and Gouge signed a letter of sympathy to Thomas Taylor's independent congregation meeting in Bury St Edmunds. He would not agree to the Act of Uniformity, and so was ejected from his living in 1662. He and his wife, Katherine, stayed in Ipswich with their two sons Robert and Thomas (GEMMS person ID: 413) for around 10 years. After this he was a Congregational preacher at Coggeshall, succeeding John Sams (GEMMS Person ID: 3629) as pastor of a congregationalist church which met in a licensed house. After two years he would hire a barn belonging to Isaac Hubbard (deacon of the congregation) and converting it into a meeting-house, where he would be minister until his death. He published "The Faith of Dying Jacob", a copy of several sermons that he preached on Hubbard's death in 1688. Calamy suggests that he was affected by the death of his eminent son Thomas, stating "a decay of his intellectuals through age, gave him his quietus" (Calamy, 645). He died at his home in Stoneham Street in October 1705, buried on 16th, leaving an inheritance of seven properties in Coggeshall.