Colonel John Evelyn Gibbs, MC

Other Events and Attributes:

• Baptism: 28 Jan 1880, Paddington, London
• Residence: 1891, Wraxall, Somerset; Age: 11; Relation to Head of House: Son
• Residence: 1901, Paddington, London
• Residence: 2 Apr 1911, Windsor, Berkshire

Notes:

Baptised 28 January 1880 at St. Michael's, Paddington. Educated at Eton College, 1892-7 and Royal Military college, Sandhurst, 1898-9. Died at Estcourt Grange, Gloucestershire, 11th and buried 13th October at Shipton Moyne, Glos. Memorial there.

2nd Lieut. Coldstream Guards, January 1900. Lieut. November 1901. Served in the South African (Boer) War in operations in Cape Colony July 1901 to May 1902, and was awarded the Queen's medal with three clasps. Adjutant 3rd Battalion Coldstream Gds., Ap. 1904-Ap. 1907. Aide-de-Camp to the Viceroy of India (Earl of Minto) Sep. 1907-June 1910. Captain January 1910.

Acting A.D.C. to Field Marshal Lord Kitchener at the Coronation of King George V, 1911.

In the Great War he served in France and Belgium in 1914. Captured at Gheluvelt 29 October 1914, he was kept a prisoner of war at Stralsund, Heidelburg, Holzminden, Freiberg, etc., in Germany, was transferred to and interned in Holland, Feb., 1918, and was released 12 Jan. 1919. Awarded Military Cross 1920, 1914 Star, British War Medal, Allies' (Victory) Medal. Major 1915, Lieut. Colonel Ap. 1919, Col. Oct. 1924. Commanded 1st Battalion Coldstream Gds., 1920-21. Commanded 129th (S. Wessex) Infantry Brigade (Territorial) 1928-30. In command of Coldstream Guards Regt. and Regtl. District from Aug. 1930.

Lived from 1927 at Estcourt Grange, Tetbury, Glos. Portrait of himself (as a Russian) and one of his wife (with four dogs) last in possession of David Evelyn Gibbs.

Birth:
16 Hyde Park Gardens

Died:
Estcourt Grange

John married Her Serene Highness Helena Frances Augusta Cambridge, Princess of Teck on 2 Sep 1919 in Windsor, Berkshire. Helena (daughter of 1st Marquess of Cambridge, Duke of Teck, Adolphus Charles Alexander Albert Edward George Philip Louis Ladislaus and Marchioness of Cambridge Margaret Evelyn Grosvernor) was born on 23 Oct 1899 in Grosvenor House,Westminster,London,England; died on 22 Dec 1969 in Badmington, Gloucestershire; was buried in Shipton Moyne, Gloucestershire. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Married:
St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle

Other Events and Attributes:

• Occupation: High Sheriff, county Somerset
• Baptism: 11 Jan 1842, St Johns, Paddington, London
• Residence: 1901, Paddington, London

Notes:

1st son of Tyntesfield. Baptised 11 January 1842 at St. John's, Paddington. Educated at Radley College 1855-7; matric. at Oxford (Exeter College) 2 May 1862; BA 1867; MA 1869; entered at the Inner Temple as a student 1865. Died at Tyntesfield 24 and was buried 29 April 1907 at Wraxall, Somerset. Memorial Inscription in churchyard there and in the chapel (Charlton chapel), in Tyntesfield chapel and Keble College chapel; Memorial window in Clyst St. George chapel. Will dated 23 March 1905, proved 12 July 1907.

After marriage, Charlton (see entry for William Gibbs of Tyntesfield) was his country residence till his mother died; thereafter Tyntesfield. He succeeded to his father's properties in Somerset and Devon. He bought Barrow Court in Barrow Gurney, Somerset, adjoining Flax Bourton, from John Henry Blagrave in 1881 and sold it (with most of its land) to his brother Martin in 1884 and he augmented the living of Barrow Gurney. He bought, about 1874, Barton Place in the parish of St. David, Exeter, the ancestral home of his wife's family. He was patron of the livings of Clyst St. George, Exwick, Stowe-nine-churches, St. Michael's in Paddington, North Newton and Otterbourne which were all in his father's gift, also of Alphington, Devon, and of Flax Barton (in which part of the Tyntesfield Estate lies) both of which he bought.

A member of the Council of Radley College 1890-7. He and his brother, Martin, gave to Keble College, Oxford, in their father's memory, the side of the main quadrangle of the College embracing the hall, library, common rooms and kitchen. The foundation stone was laid in 1876, on the same day that the Chapel given by their father to the College was opened (see also entry for William Gibbs of Tyntesfield), and the opening took place in 1878, when the two brothers, whose names had so far been withheld, were disclosed as the donors (the deed of gift hangs in the Senior Common Room of the College).

Wraxall church was restored (1893) at his chief cost (Sir Arthur Blomfield, architect), and he introduced the stained glass windows by Kemp, and screened off the Charlton chapel, adding to it the reredos by Kemp.

He joined the North Somerset Yeomanry Cavalry as Cornet, 3 January, 1871; Captain October, 1881; Hon. Major, 1881; Major, 1886; retired 1893.

Justice of the Peace for Somerset from about 1867 to 1907. On the Highway Board and Board of Guardians. High Sheriff of Somerset for 1888 and Deputy Lieutenant 1889-1907. An Alderman of the Somerset County Council to 1898. President of the North Somerset Conservative Association for a great number of years. A Life Governor of Bristol General Hospital. On Bristol Diocesan committees for the promotion of Church matters. (In Sidney Lee's 'Life of King Edward VII (1923-7) it is related that the King when Prince of Wales twice in 1881 pressed on Gladstone the bestowal of a Baronetcy on Antony Gibbs. His son Lord Wraxall told John Arthur Gibbs - fourth editor of the Gibbs Pedigree - that this story was inaccurate and he asked Lee to omit it from any later edition, the facts being that the Liberal Whip Marjoribanks (later Lord Tweedmouth invited Antony to an interview, at which he said that gladstone desired to suggest him to the Queen for a Peerage, making reference to his and his father's philanthropic works, but that Antony having then mentioned that he was a Conservative he heard no more of the matter

Portraits: as a child by John Phillip, miniature with his father and sister Dorothea by Sir Wm. Ross, oil by J. H. Lorimer; all last in possession of Lord Wraxall in 1930 (11). The portrait in the Hall of Keble College is a copy by F. George Swaish of the Lorimer.

Birth:
13 Hyde Park Gardens

Antony married Janet Louisa Merivale on 22 Jun 1872 in St. Michael's, Star Street, Paddington. Janet (daughter of John Louis Merivale and Mary Anne Webster) was born on 15 Dec 1850 in Kilburn, Middlesex; died on 10 Dec 1909 in London; was buried on 14 Dec 1909 in Wraxall, Somerset. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Baptism: 25 Jan 1851, Hampstead, London
• Residence: 1861, Exeter St David, Exeter, Devon
• Residence: 1881, Wraxall, Somerset

Notes:

1st daughter of John Louis Merrivale (died 1886) by his 1st wife Mary Anne, daughter of Joseph Webster. Baptised 25 January 1851 at the parish church of Hampstead, Middlesex. Died at 104 Eaton Square, Westminster, 10th and was buried 14 December 1909 at Wraxall, Somerset. Memorial Inscription in same places as her husband's except Keble College. Will dated 17 August 1908, proved 20 January 1910.

After her husband died she resided at Charlton aforesaid, and for her London house took 104 Eaton Sq., Westminster, in place of 16 Hyde Park Gds. aforesaid. the lease of which she sold. One of her brothers, George Montagu Merivale (1855-1931) was a partner in Gibbs, Bright & Co., Sydney, Australia, till 1924. Her father was Senior Registrar in Chancery and brother of Herman Merivale, C.B., and of Charles, Dean of Ely, whose lives are in Dictionary National Biography.

Her father's 2nd wife was his cousin, Frances Rose, sister of Baron John Benjamin Heath (born 1879), who was son of John Heath of the firm Heath and Co., Genoa. For the Merivale family and their relatives of the Heath, Drury, Malet and Frere families, and for printed books which refer to them see the book 'Antony & Dorothea Gibbs' by J.A. Gibbs. The friendship between the Gibbs and Merivale families began in 1803 when Antony Gibbs (born 1756) went to live at Cowley near Barton Place.

Portrait by Archer (1875) with her son George
(Lord Wraxall) was last in possession of the latter, 1930.

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).

John married Mary Anne Webster on 14 Mar 1849 in Sutton Coldfield, Warwickshire. Mary was born in 1829 in Penns, Warwickshire; died on 5 Oct 1857 in Exeter, Devon. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Christening: 22 Mar 1829, Sutton Coldfield, Warwickshire

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

Notes:

John Herman Merivale (5 August 1779 – 25 April 1844, Bedford Square) was an English barrister and man of letters.
He was the only son of John Merivale of Barton Place, Exeter, and Bedford Square, London, by Ann Katencamp or Katenkamp, daughter of a German merchant settled in Exeter, and was born there on 5 August 1779. The grandson of Samuel Merivale (1715–1771), tutor in a local dissenting academy in Exeter, he was brought up a presbyterian. He spent some years at St. John's College, Cambridge, but left without taking a degree. In later life he conformed to the Church of England.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Herman_Merivale

John married Louisa Heath Drury on 10 Jul 1805 in St Gregory's, Dawlish, Devon. Louisa (daughter of Joseph Drury and Louisa Heath) was born on 12 May 1787 in Harrow on the Hill, Middlesex; died on 29 Apr 1873 in Barton Place, Exeter, Devon. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]