George Abraham Gibbs

Other Events and Attributes:

• Baptism: 26 Apr 1848, London

Notes:

Baptised 26 April 1848 at St. John's in Paddington. Educated at Eton College, 1862-65; matric. at Oxford (Christ's Church), 12 October 1866. Died unmarried of yellow fever at Kingston, Jamaica, 23 February and was buried 22 July 1870 at Wraxall, Somerset. Memorial Inscription in the churchyard and outside vestry, and in Tyntesfield chapel.

At Eton he was in the school "Field" football XI in 1865, and at Oxford he was Master of the Christ Church Harriers.

Portrait in the miniature group mentioned under his brother, William Gibbs. Lord Wraxall also had in 1930 a miniature of him with his brother Martin and a dog, by Sir William Ross. A drawing by J. de Cazenave (1859) and a coloured one by J. W. Cole (1870) were in possn. of William O. Gibbs in 1932.

Birth:
13 Hyde Park Street,

Died:
Yellow Fever

Other Events and Attributes:

• Occupation: Head of Antony Gibbs & Sons
• Baptism: 21 Jul 1790, British Embassy, Madrid, Spain
• Residence: 1861, Paddington, London; Relationship: Head
• Residence: 1871, Wraxall, Somerset; Relation to Head of House: Head

Notes:

His baptism in Madrid is recorded in the Register of St. Mary Major, Exeter, see Additions of 1927 in the book 'Antony & Dorothea Gibbs' by J.A. Gibbs, p.XVI (4).

He was employed in Cadiz, Lisbon and England in his father's business 1802-5; in his uncle George's (George Gibbs of Redland) business (Gibbs Richards and Gibbs) in Bristol, 1806-8; in London under his father in the Portuguese Commission 1808-9; in London in Antony Gibbs and Son 1809-12. Partner in Antony Gibbs & Sons 1813-75; resident in Cadiz in charge of their House there 1813-22: head of A. Gibbs & Sons 1843-75 and sole partner 1843-7. During his headship the South American business prospered exceedingly. Member of Lloyds 1812-75.

After marriage his successive residences in London were 13 Hyde Park Street (number since changed) 1840-8, Gloucester Square 1849, Sussex Square 1850, 16 Hyde Park Gardens 1851-75, all in Paddington. He bought the estate and house of Tyntesfield, Wraxall, north Somerset in April 1844 from Reverend George Turner Seymour, at various times (notably 1862-4) greatly altered the house (John Norton one of the architects) and at the end of his life built the beautiful chapel to it (Sir A. W. Blomfield, architect). He added to his property in 1865 the adjoining estate and house called Charlton (in Wraxall parish) buying it from the Kingston family, and in 1870 he reunited Belmont and Tyntesfield, buying Belmont from his nephew George L. M. Gibbs. In Devon he bought back Pytte the ancient home of our family in Clyst St. George from the executors of General Doveton, in 1859, made other purchases in that parish, rebuilt cottages, and amongst other benefactions to the village and church gave a memorial window (1860) to his grandfather (George Abraham Gibbs of Pytte). He also bought from Lord Devon in 1873 an estate in Alphington, nr. Exeter (which extended into Whitestone). At Littlemore, Oxon, he bought in 1872 the house of his cousin and former partner Charles Crawley.

The village school and school-master's house at Clifton Hampden, Oxon, in 1847, and the Church at Flaxley, in Gloucestershire, in 1856 were both built at his cost (the architect being G. Gilbert Scott): so also in 1861 were St. Michael and All Angels Church in Star Street, Paddington, and its vicarage (architect Rhode Hawkins). In Devon, he built in 1868 the Chapel-of-Ease of St. Antony at Cowley in memory of his parents and of his own life there, and at the same time and with the same architect (R. Hawkins) the Church of St. Michael and All Angels and its vicarage in the parish of St. David, Exeter; and in 1872 he enlarged the church at Exwick and in 1874 built its vicarage on the site of the grounds of his father's one time residence Exwick House. Moreover, he contributed largely to the restoration of Exeter and Bristol Cathedrals. The endowments of the livings of Exwick, St. Michael's Exeter, and St. Michael's Paddington, were also gifts from him. He acquired the advowsons of Clyst St. George (1857), Exwick, St. Michael's in Paddington, Stowe-nine-churches, North Newton in Somerset, and Otterbourne in Hampshire (the latter because of its connection with Rev. John Keble). He founded in 1859 at Brixham, Devon, a Mission to Seamen of ships sheltering in Torbay, and in 1860 there the British Seamen's Orphan Boys' Home for the Western Counties, his interest in that parish being due to his temporary tenancy of Berryhead House there, the home of Rev. John Hogg.

Of all his gifts the most famous was the chapel of Keble College Oxford. He offered it to the College in 1872 (on the suggestion of his friend Sir John Taylor Coleridge), and himself laid the foundation stone on St. Mark's Day (25 April) 1873. He died in 1875, and his son Antony formally presented it at the opening service on St. Mark's Day 1876, conducted by the Archbishop of Canterbury. The same day Lord Salisbury (Chancellor of the University) laid the foundation stone of the block of buildings given to the College by William's sons Antony and Martin. W. Butterfield was architect both of chapel and block, as of the rest of the College.

William was an original (1832) member of the City of London Club and a member of the Athenaeum Club. Memorial Inscription in Wraxall church and churchyard at Tyntesfield chapel, Barrow Court chapel, Flaxley church, St. Michael's Paddington (rose window erected by the parish in his memory), St. Michael's Exeter, Keble College Chapel, Cowley chapel, Exwick chapel and St. Martin's Brighton.

For his life in detail up to 1824 and for some particulars as to his later years see book 'Antony & Dorothea Gibbs' by J. A. Gibbs. See also a booklet 'In memory of William Gibbs' (privileged printing Rivingtons, 1875) containing (inter alia) an article on his life and character by E.M.Goulburn, Dean of Norwich, reprinted from The Guardian newspaper.

For portraits and scultpures of him see Gibbs Pedigree (1904) p.16 and list in 'Antony & Dorothea Gibbs' by J.A. Gibbs, p.435. In the latter G. Richmond as artist of the posthumous portrait at Keble College is an error for Sir William B. Richmond, R.A. This portrait is wrongly stated to be after Boxall in 'Catalogue of Portraits in Oxford Colleges' by Mrs. Poole, Vol. III, part II, 1925. The portrait in the list in the book 'Antony & Dorothea Gibbs' by J.A. Gibbs by 'artist unkown' in possession of John A. Gibbs was by E. Gill and has since been destroyed. Portraits not in the lists are, one by Edward Opie, which was in possession of Lord Wraxall, and a copy in A. Gibbs and Sons' possession of the one of the Portraits by Boxall which is engraved by Cousins.



More information available at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Gibbs_(businessman)

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography - William Gibbs https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/89656

William married Matilda Blanche Crawley-Boevey on 1 Aug 1839 in Flaxley, Gloucestershire. Matilda (daughter of Sir Thomas Crawley-Boevey, 3rd Bart. of Flaxley and Mary Albinia Page) was born on 17 Dec 1817 in Eastgate street, Gloucester; died on 22 Sep 1887 in Tyntesfield, Wraxall, Somerset. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Baptism: 16 Jan 1818, St Michael, Gloucester, Gloucestershire
• Residence: 1881, Paddington, London

Notes:

During her widowhood Tyntesfield and 16 Hyde Park Gardens continued to be her residences. She built (1876-8) and endowed St. Michael's Home for Consumptives in the parish of Cheddar, Somerset in memory of her husband, redecorated the chancel of St. Michael's, Exeter, which he built, and improved Exwick church. She endowed Keble College, Oxford (1881) with a fund of an annual value of £800 for Scholarships and for other grants to students. She built and maintained (as also did her son Antony after her) a Cottage Convalescent Home ("St. John's Lodge") at Wraxall afsd. and also built there in 1885 the large village club and in 1887 seven almshouses ("The Jubilee Cottages"): also the Battle Axes Inn, establishing it in her own name and on the principle of temperance as opposed to teetotalism. She gave the site (the site was left to her by her husband, she left money to the Home in her will) for the Convalescent and Incurable Home at Woking, Surrey, founded in connection with the Sisterhood of St. Peter's Kilburn, which manages St. Michael's Home afsd. A ward in Weston-super-Mare Convalescent Home, where she undertook the cost of 33 beds, bore her name.

Memorial Inscription in Wraxall churchyard and church; Tyntesfield chapel; Barrow Gurney chapel (to which she game some windows); Flaxley church (organ remade in her memory); the chapel of Keble College; and M. windows in Barrow Court chapel.

Refer to the book 'Antony & Dorothea Gibbs' by J.A. Gibbs, especially pp. 33-5, 439 and 445-6 for her relations, ancestry, and 'Royal Descent', and for notes of printed books which refer to them; see also entry for her father Rev. Charles Crawley. A good memoir of her by "C.M.Y." (her friend and cousin Charlotte M. Yonge, the authoress) appeared in The Guardian newspaper at her death. For lists of Portraits and Sculpture see Gibbs Pedigree (1904) and the book 'Antony & Dorothea Gibbs' by J.A. Gibbs, p. 435, and add to them a drawing (1873) by C.W.S (was in possession of Martin A Gibbs).

Other Events and Attributes:

• Education: Educated at Exeter Grammar School
• Memorial: Hayes, Middlesex; Monument inscription MI in churchyard at Hayes
• Occupation: Founder of the House of Antony Gibbs & Son of London
• Residence: 14 Dec 1773, Exeter, Devon
• Will: 16 Mar 1816; Will proved in C.P.C.

Notes:

After an apprenticeship in a Spanish business in Exeter he was from 1778 to 1789 a merchant there exporting woollen cloth to Spain and elsewhere; also from 1785 to 1789 a partner in a firm styled Gibbs Granger & Banfill, working a cloth factory at Exwick in the outskirts of Exeter. His father financed him and was also in the Exwick partnership. He was a member 1778 - 1789 of the Incorporation of Tuckers Hall, Exeter; head warden 1782, master 1783.

Bankrupt in 1789 (alike with his father), he went to Madrid and for the next 18 years was engaged in business which centred in Spain. Mainly working as agent for British manufacturers he was at times (from 1783) also exporting Spanish produce as partner in a firm at Malaga styled Juan Pomar Gibbs y Compania. Driven out of Spain by war in 1797 he conducted his business from 1798 to 1801 in Lisbon, but in 1802 became regularly established in Cadiz as a merchant there, till war again forced him away. His last visit to Spain was in 1807.

In 1808 he became one of the Commissioners in London for dealing with Portuguese property sent to England in the war, and in September that year founded, in partnership with his son George Henry, the firm of Antony Gibbs & Son, London, with a branch in Cadiz. The firm became Antony Gibbs & Sons in 1813 on admission of his second son William to the partnership.

He was author of a pamphlet signed "A Merchant," An Appeal to Common Sense on the Bullion Question, published 1810.

After his marriage he and his wife lived in Exeter 1784-6, at Exwick House 1786-9, in Madrid 1789-92. From 1792 to 1808 their home was in Exeter or its neighbourhood (at Cowley 1803-8), but in that period he made ten trips to the Peninsula of an average duration of 12 months each. The family moved to London in 1808 and lived in Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury, 1808-9; Denmark Hill, Camberwell, 1809-10; Dulwich Common, 1810-12; 2 Powis Place in the parish of St George the Martyr, Bloomsbury, 1812 onwards.



For a brief summary of the firm Antony Gibbs and Sons see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antony_Gibbs_%26_Sons

Antony married Dorothea Barnetta Hucks on 3 Oct 1784 in Littleham, Devon. Dorothea (daughter of William Hucks and Eleanor Barnett) was born in Dec 1760 in Knaresborough, Yorkshire; died on 24 Feb 1820 in Redland, Gloucestershire; was buried on 10 Mar 1820 in St Mary the Virgin, Hayes, Kent. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Residence: Saint George Martin, Middlesex, England
• Baptism: 9 Jan 1761, Knaresborough, Yorkshire

Notes:

For the full history of her life, see the book 'Antony & Dorothea Gibbs' by J. A. Gibbs (also for history and portraits of the Hucks family, from whom her son, George Henry Gibbs, derived his properties, and for references to pedigrees (which contain also references to their wills). The Hucks family became extinct in the male line at the death of her brother John in 1836. She was a beneficiary under the will of Henry Townley Ward (d. 1816) the husband of her elder sister Eleanor (d.1800). As a widow her home was with her daughter Harriett at Redland 1816-17, with her son George Henry at 2 Powis Place in London 1817-19, and again with Harriett July 1819, till her death. For note of portraits, see 'Antony & Dorothea Gibbs' by J.A. Gibbs, p. 434. For her descent from King Henry III see Ellacombe's 'Clyst St. George'(1864), and Burke's 'Royal Descents' (1858).

Thomas married Mary Albinia Page on 28 Oct 1807 in St Marylebone, London. Mary (daughter of Thomas Hyde Page, Sir and Mary Albinia Woodward) was born on 22 Sep 1784 in Bettshanger Park, Kent; died on 16 Feb 1835 in Flaxley Abbey, Gloucester, Gloucestershire. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Christening: 30 Sep 1784, Bishopsbourne, Kent

Other Events and Attributes:

• Occupation: Surgeon

Notes:

George Abraham Gibbs of Pytte succeeded in 1744 to Pytte and other property in Clyst St. George as heir at law (after his father) to his great uncle George Gibbs, by arranging for the ending of a tenancy to the family of Rev. F. Pease, rector of the parish, created under dispositions made by the said George. In 1749 that family also transferred to him 15 acres in Clyst St. Mary (part of the "Manor of Ashmore") which were subject to the charitable charges which the same George had imposed on them. He bought Court Place in Clyst St. George, made 100 acres in that parish.
He was a Presbyterian in the early part of his life. In October 1745 he was enrolled in an Association of Exeter men in support of the King against the Young Pretender. He was one of the surgeons (eventually chief surgeon) of the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital, Exeter from 1747 to 1781, and thereafter on its standing committee. His residence in Exeter during his married life was in Palace Yard, Cathedral Close.
Becoming bankrupt in 1789 through the failure of business in which he was engaged with his son Antony, he lost all his property in Clyst St. George and Clyst St. Mary, including Pytte, which was bought in 1790 by his son-in-law, Rev. Charles Crawley. He used the arms of Gibbs of Fenton like his great uncle George and his cousins of Exeter.

Buried:
Register of Clyst St George, Devon, 1565-1812, Vol 25

George married Anne Vicary, of Dunkeswell on 22 Dec 1747 in St Petrock's, Exeter, Devon. Anne (daughter of Anthony Vicary, Esq. and Elizabeth Munckley) was born on 4 Nov 1722 in Exeter, Devon; died on 11 Aug 1803 in Clyst St George, Devon. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Baptism: 4 Nov 1722, Exeter, Devon

Notes:

Believed to belong to the family of Vicary of Dunkeswell, Devon, but proof lacks other than that papers exist sealed by her husband, and by her sister's husband, Hugh Mallett, with their own arms impaling the Vicary arms, or (after the death of the last of her brothers) bearing them on an escuthcheon of pretence (see G.A.Gibbs's will and a letter of 1793 in Aldenham Genealogical Cols, Vol. A, p.223 and Vol. C,1 p.383; also Gibbs Ped. 1904 edn p.xvii and its Preface of 1903). Her husband's house in Palace Yard, Exeter, continued to be her home till her death. Her first cousin Samuel Munckley was the founder of the Bristol house of business which later became Gibbs Bright & Co.

Birth:
Mint Chapel

William married Eleanor Barnett on 14 Mar 1749 in Pancras, London. Eleanor (daughter of Thomas Barnett and Dorothy Carter) was born on 24 Aug 1729 in Knaresborough, Yorkshire; died on 23 May 1807 in Exmouth, Devon; was buried in Exmouth, Devon. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Thomas married Anne Savage on 20 Feb 1769 in St Michael, Gloucester, Gloucestershire. Anne (daughter of Rev. Thomas Savage and Eleanor Barrow) was born on 10 Nov 1745; died on 10 Sep 1816 in Gloucestershire; was buried on 17 Sep 1816. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Sir Thomas Hyde Page, FRS (1746–1821) was a decorated British military engineer and cartographer for the British crown

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Hyde_Page

Thomas married Mary Albinia Woodward on 7 Aug 1783 in Christchurch Cathedral, Canterbury, Kent. Mary (daughter of Captain John Woodward and Catherine Monins) was born in Jan 1760 in Ringwould, Kent; died on 23 Jan 1794 in Tros-yr-afon House, Beaumaris,Isle of Anglesey, Wales; was buried in Beaumaris Church, Isle of Anglesey, Wales. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Christening: 31 Jan 1760, Dover, Kent

Notes:

Buried:
Buried in the Chancel of Beaumaris Church