The Gibbs connections to the GWR (Great Western Railway) from Bristol to London are well known and documented, and were the subject of a previous post on here. But that was not the only family involvement in the locomotive age.

I was clearing some old correspondence that my cousin Sarah (who initiated putting our family history on that web) had nearly 10 years ago through the website and came across an exchange with Paris Padilla. He was writing a book about the Mexican Railway (‘The dream of a generation; a history of negotiations about the first railway in Mexico: 1857-1876’) and had published an article about Joseph Hucks Gibbs in a magazine about Mexican history – Revisita Bicentenario (Bicentennial magazine), which featured on the front cover of the magazine under the heading ‘An Englishman installed the first railway’.

The introduction to the article translates as …

Joseph Hucks Gibbs, the Englishman who maintained ties with London

At a time of tension in relations between Mexico and Great Britain, the young English director of the railway company that would take the first train to Veracruz managed to gain the trust of the governments of Benito Juárez and Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada, and the respect of the local elite. An unexpected return to London cut short five key years of his residence, during which Mexico was entering the modernity of the late 19th century.

At the end of January 1869, British subject Joseph Hucks Gibbs, accompanied by his young wife Mary, disembarked in the port of Veracruz from England. The Englishman, a member of the prestigious international financial firm Antony Gibbs & Sons, arrived in Mexico under difficult circumstances. A little over a year earlier, President Benito Juárez had suspended diplomatic relations between Mexico and Great Britain due to the support that Queen Victoria had given to the empire of Maximilian of Habsburg. Economic relations between the two countries were also going through a bad stage; Mexico was outside the orbit of international markets and was considered a high-risk country for investments. Under such conditions, what matters brought this character to the country? A railroad connecting the port of Veracruz with Mexico City had been the dream of every ruler since 1837. Its concession passed through different owners and construction progressed very little until finally Antonio Escandón, a renowned Mexican businessman, traveled to London in 1864 with the intention of obtaining the necessary financing for the project. Square Mile or The City, nicknames by which the financial district of the English capital was known, was considered at that time the financial centre of the world, so London was the appropriate place to promote the project of the first trunk railway line in Mexico.

Escandón and a group of English bankers formed a company called Compañía del Ferrocarril Imperial Mexicano, which would have the objective of building and managing the railroad between Mexico City and Veracruz. Rumors that Antonio had involved a well-known banking house in the city in the railroad project began to reach Mexico in August 1864. The famous company was Antony Gibbs & Sons, which agreed to become the financial backer of the Compañía Limitada del Ferrocarril Imperial Mexicano.
When the railroad company was established in London, the reign of Archduke Maximilian of Habsburg was beginning in Mexico, and although during his government there was considerable progress in construction, the railroad entered into crisis along with the imminent fall of the empire. The Republicans retook power in the country and the company decided to change its name, removing the word Imperial to call itself simply Compañía Limitada del Ferrocarril Mexicano. In November 1867, President Benito Juárez renewed the concession to the English company to continue the construction work, which upset some nationalist politicians, such as the former Minister of Finance and writer Manuel Payno. There were many who could not forget the cooperation between the railway and the imperial government and the fact that, despite its name, the Mexican Railway was in fact an English-owned railway.

The book ‘Antony Gibbs & Sons Limited – Merchants and Bankers 1808-1958’ records the following:

The Firm having no House in Mexico a footnote may be added to explain the connexion with the finances of that Country. Among the friendships formed by Antony in his Spanish days were those of the Escandron and Barron families – the latter were connected with Baron Forbes & Co. the London Bankers. A Don José Escandron was a Colonel in the Spanish Army and during the second half of the 18th Century brought law and order into the country between Tampico and Monterey. He was an able administrator and became extremely rich and powerful. Two of his kinsmen, Don Tómas and Don Pablo, left home and established themselves in Mexico under his auspices. It is however from Don Pablo that all the Mexican Escadrons derive. He and one of his brothers, Don Manuel, realised the potentialities of this vast undeveloped territory and the supported all sorts of mining and transport development. Their most important enterprise was the building of the Mexican Railway from Mexico City to Vera Cruz, for which they held the concession. This was a wonderful engineering feat in which British engineers were largely responsible for overcoming the difficulties. The Firm’s connexion with the Country, therefor, derives from the Escandron family and other Mexican projects in which the Firm participated either as shareholders or as financial backers were the Mexican Railway and Mexican Gas & Electric Light Co.

Henry Hucks Gibbs was a Director of the Mexican Railway Company from 1864 until 1905. Joseph Hucks Gibbs was Corresponding Director in Mexico of the Mexican Railway Co. Ltd. 1868-74; on the London Board 1874 till his death in 1886. George and Stanley Gibbs met Joseph Gibbs in Mexico in 1869 to try to resolve a conflict, during their ill fated voyage dying of yellow fever en route to Jamaica (recounted in previous post).