GEE, William (1561-1611), of Bishop Burton, nr. Beverley, Yorks.

Gee doubtless owed his return for Hull to his father, a well-known local benefactor. Beverley was near his estate of Bishop Burton. Doubtless Gee was also helped in his career by his first father-in-law, who, in June 1595, gave him a lukewarm testimonial for the secretaryship to the council in the north, an appointment he secured early in the next reign. Gee died soon after making his will, 2 Nov. 1611. He thanked God that he had come into this world ‘in the time when the glorious gospel did most brightly shine ... and not in the time of darkness, of poperies and superstition’. He enumerated various protestant victories, as he saw them, ending with the Gunpowder Plot. He left bequests to St. John’s College, Cambridge, and to the poor of Beverley. Gee was buried according to his wishes in York minster, where a monument was erected.1Foster, Yorks. Peds.; Raine, Hutton Corresp. (Surtees Soc. xvii), 31, 180, 306; Genealogist, n.s. xxiv. 31-2; HMC Hatfield, ix. 397; xv. 394; CSP Dom. 1603-10, p. 118; Tickell, Hist. Hull, 766; Lansd. 79, f. 112; Reid. Council of the North, 497; Yorks. Fines (Yorks. Arch. Soc. rec. ser. viii), passim; York wills, 31, f. 760.