but it is on record that
John, after his father's death, and then in his tenth year, went to live
at Barnstaple with his paternal uncle, Thomas Gay. It is interesting to
note that in 1882, "among the pieces of timber carted away from the
Barnstaple Parish Church [which was then undergoing restoration] has
been found a portion of a pew, with the name 'John Gay,' and the date,
1695, cut upon it.... No other John Gay appears in the Parish
Register."[5]

Gay attended the Free Grammar School at Barnstaple, and among his
schoolfellows there with whom he cemented an enduring friendship, were
William Fortescue, to whom reference has been made above, and Aaron
Hill.[6] William Raynor was the headmaster when Gay first went to the
Grammar School, but soon he removed to Tiverton, and was succeeded by
the Rev. Robert Luck. Luck subsequently claimed that Gay's dramatic
instincts were developed by taking part in the amateur theatricals
promoted by him, and when in April, 1736, he published a volume of
verse, he wrote, in his dedication to the Duke of Queensberry.[7] Gay's
patron and friend:--

"O Queensberry! could happy Gay
This offering to thee bring,
''Tis he, my Lord' (he'd smiling say),
'Who taught your Gay to sing.'"

These lines suggest that an intimacy between Gay and Luck existed long
after their relations as pupil and master had ceased, but it is doubtful
if this was the case. It is certainly improbable that the lad saw much
of the pedagogue when he returned to Barnstaple for a while as the guest
of the Rev. John Hanmer, since Luck was a bitter opponent of the
Dissenters and in open antagonism to John Hanmer.

How long Gay remained at the Grammar School is not known. There are,
indeed, no records upon which to base a narrative of his early years. It
is, however, generally accepted that, on leaving school, he was
apprenticed to a silk-mercer in London. This was not so unaccountable a
proceeding then as appears to-day, for we know from Gibbon's "Memoirs"
that "our most respectable families have not disdained the
counting-house, or even the shop;... and in England, as well as in the
Italian commonwealths, heralds have been compelled to declare that
gentility is not degraded by the exercise of trade": for example, the
historian's great grandfather, son of a country gentleman, became a
linen-draper in Leadenhall Street.

Gay had no taste for trade, and did not long remain in this employment.
According to one