Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Gilbert, Samuel
GILBERT, SAMUEL (d. 1692?), floriculturist, was chaplain to Jane, wife of Charles, fourth baron Gerard of Gerard's Bromley, and rector of Quatt, Shropshire. In 1676 he published a pamphlet entitled ‘Fons Sanitatis, or the Healing Spring at Willowbridge in Staffordshire, found out by … Lady Jane Gerard,’ London, 12mo, pp. 40, some of the cures recorded in which work are attested by himself. It has therefore been suggested that he also practised as a physician (Journal of Horticulture, 1876, p. 172). He married Minerva, daughter of John Rea [q. v.], of whom he speaks as the greatest of florists; and, as his own writings contain many verses, it has been suggested that he also composed those in Rea's ‘Flora, Ceres, and Pomona,’ 1676. Gilbert seems to have lived with his father-in-law at Kinlet, near Bewdley, and after the death of the latter, in 1681, published the ‘Florist's Vademecum and Gardener's Almanack,’ 1683, subsequent editions of which appeared in 1690, 1693, 1702, and 1713. This little work is arranged according to the months, and to the second edition are added various appendices and a portrait of the author, engraved by R. White, which was reproduced in the ‘Journal of Horticulture’ (loc. cit.). Gilbert had one son, Arden, and four or five daughters. The date of his death is uncertain.
[Works mentioned above.]