Christian Gibbe

Other Events and Attributes:

• Baptism: 14 Sep 1576, Clyst St George, Devon

Notes:

Mentioned in her father's will 1593

Notes:

Taxed at Clyst St. George 1581, buried there 14 December 1593. Will dated 10 October, proved 20 December 1593 in the Consistory Court of the Dean and Chapter of Exeter or the Archdeaconry Court of Exeter. Monumental Inscriptions in Clyst St. George church.

Succeeded his father at Claypitt. His Monumental Inscriptions are on a brass on the south wall of Clyst St. George church and a tile on the nave floor. Both give December 1594 for his burial, which is obviously wrong, no such burial being in the Register. His will mentions his wife Cecily, son William, daughters Margaret, Christian, and Jane the wife of Baker. Residuary legatee of William, the rector, Rev. William Gybbe.

John married Cecily Coade in 1565 in Clyst St George, Devon. Cecily was born before 1545; died after 1585. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Daughter of ..... Coade and Christian his wife. Married at Clyst St. George 1565: Churchwarden 1597.

The date of marriage of John and Cecily, as also the date of burial of George (father-in-law) are earlier than any entries in the existing Registers of Clyst St. George. They are mentioned in the Preface to the transcription of the Registers, printed in 1899, as to be seen in a MS. book called 'Woodbury Malt Book' into which Matthew Lee of Woodbury copied them from leaves of the Registers which have been lost. The greater part of the said MS. was copied in full in 1854 into H.H. Gibbs' 'Aldenham General Collections', Vol. A., pp. 475-559 and abstracts on pp. 395-6. The MS., written about 1761, was then owned by Lee's grandson, Col. B. W. Lee of Ebford Barton, Woodbury. Besides extracts from the Clyst St. George Registers it contains extracts from the Woodbury Registers, Woodbury Churchwardens' Book and 'Woodbury Malt Book' proper or Church Rate Book. (The last mentioned extracts are printed in the 'Archaelogical Journal, Vol. XL, p. 225).

Cecily's mother, Christian, (buried at Clyst St. George, 1577) married secondly, Roger Matthew (buried at Clyst St. George). Matthew's will, proved by wife Christian, 11 May 1571 in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, Doctors Commons, London, mentions his step-granddaughters, Margaret Tristram and Julian Gibbe and their father John Gibbe; witness Rev. William Gibbe. Christian's will, proved 4 April 1577 in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, Doctors Commons, London, mentions her son-in-law John Gibbe and daughter Cecily his wife, her grandson WIlliam Gibbe, her grandaughters Margaret Tristram and Julian Gibbe.

Notes:

Taxed there 1524, 1543 and 1546, bought Claypitt there 1560; buried at Clyst St. George 1562.

Claypitt, which no longer exists, was situated near to and South of the church at Clyst St. George. For George's purchase of it from Lord Wentworth through William, the rector, see entry for Rev. William Gybbe. The agreement shows that it was '1 messuage, 1 garden, 20 acres of land, 1 acre of meadow and 2 acres of marshland'.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Occupation: Tenant of Pytte in Clyst St. George
• Residence: Pytte, Clyst St George, Devon

Notes:

Taxed 1524, 1543 and 1546.

There are 13 men at the beginning of this Gibbs Family Tree: John Gibbe, Henry Gibbe, Richard Gybbe, Thomas Gybbe, John Gybbe, Rev. William Gybbe, Geroge Gybbe, Walter Gybbe, Andrew Gybbe, George Gibb, Richard Gibbe, Robert Gibbe and Thomas Gibbs who are set down as the first three generations. The connection between these 13 men is conjectural. In the 1903 edition of the 'Gibbs Pedigree' there were only two conjecturally arranged generations but they embraced the same men, except that Richard and John Gibbe were not brought in, though the latter was mentioned under John the buyer of Pytte. The new arrangement follows Appendix XIII of Lord Hunsdon's 'Gibbs of Fenton'. His Chapter III must be read to appreciate the full force of the arguments for relationship between these persons and between them and the Gibbs family of Fenton, but the following short - though incomplete - statement may be useful.

It is not very likely that among these 13 men living in the contiguous parishes of Clyst St. George and Woodbury there would be any of an unrelated family of the same surname, and there is actual evidence of relationship in some cases. Thus, John Gibbe renting Pytte and John Gybbe succeeding him (first as a renter, afterwards as owner) declares them to be relations and with little doubt father and son, while George Gibb, who is known to be father of John of Pytte must also have owned Pytte and have succeeded John as his son as shown in the Chart, or perhaps as his nephew. Again, there is evidence pointing to relationship between Henry of Woodbury, William, the rector and George of Claypitt, and between the last named and John of Pytte.

The name, not having been found in the parishes concerned at a period earlier than that of the first generation suggests that the family had recently come from outside to settle there. This is consistent with the tradition that the family was an offshoot from that of Fenton in Dartington (near Totnes and under 30 miles from Clyst St. George), a tradition till recently mainly only supported by an unofficial Ordinary of Arms of about 1689 in the College of Arms which quoted the Dartington family's arms as belonging to both families, and to the actual use of those arms by members of the Clyst family from at least 1691 onwards. Now, however, that Lord Hunsdon has produced other evidence for the connection, and especially evidence that William, the rector, was some relation of that family (and if he, then all the Clyst family), little doubt remains of the truth of the tradition. The pedigree of Gibbs of Fenton, embodying Lord Hunsdon's surmise that John Gybbe of Pytte was a son of William Gibbs of Fenton who died before October, 1487, is therefore inserted before Chart 1.
In the Lay Subsidy Roll of 15 Henry VIII, quoted on p. 80 of 'Gibbs of Fenton', he appears as 'John Gybbe at Pytte asessed for his goods at 100s tax 2s.6d.' Pytte, the cradle of our Clyst St. George family, is the house, 300 yards north of the church, which remained in the family till 1790, was restored to it in 1839. John probably died before 1543, the year of the next subsidy ('Gibbs of Fenton', p.54).

The tax dates referred to are those of the Lay Subsidies ordered by Henry VIII respectively (see 'Gibbs of Fenton', pp. 54-5). Later Clyst St. George assessments to subsidies were in 3 Edward VI, 13, 23 (1580-1), and 31, Elizabeth; and 21 James I; all, together with the earlier ones, extracted on pp. 76-88 of 'Gibbs of Fenton'. In a case such as No. 4 it cannot be quite certain that the Henry Gibbs taxed in 1524 was the same Henry as he who died and made his will in 1549. In such cases the tax date is inserted in the Chart with a ?.