Gibbs Family Tree

William Gibbs, of Tyntesfield

William Gibbs, of Tyntesfield

Male 1790 - 1875  (84 years)

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  • Photos
    William_Gibbs_Portrait.jpg
    William & Matilda Blanche Gibbs family
    William_Gibbs_Keble_DHall.jpg
    William Gibbs and Children miniature
    William Gibbs (1790 - 1875) by Antonio Y Haro Tomasich (Almeria 1820 ¿ Madrid 1890)
    William Gibbs (1790 -1875) by Sir William Boxall, RA (Oxford 1800 ¿ London 1879)
    William Gibbs of Tyntesfield
    William Gibbs (1790 - 1875) by Sir William Boxall, RA (Oxford 1800 ¿ London 1879)
    William Gibbs by Samuel Cousins
    WILLIAM GIBBS by Antonio Tomasich y Haro, 1872, a miniature at Tyntesfield
    William_Gibbs_Sketch-12.jpg
    Christopher_Album_Page-01.jpg
    William Gibbs
    William Gibbs of Tyntesfield

    Documents
    Gloucestershire England Church of England Marriag(1)-1.jpg
    Gloucestershire England Church of England Marriag(1)-1.jpg

    Headstones
    William Gibbs effigy at St Michael’s, Exeter
    William Gibbs effigy at St Michael’s, Exeter
    William Gibbs died in 1875 and is buried at Wraxall, the parish church of Tyntesfield, but a life-size effigy here at St Michael’s, Exeter, carved by H H Armstead RA, was part of a scheme of decoration devised by his family and set up by his widow, Matilda Blanche, in 1882 to commemorate a man who was genuinely loved by those who knew him.
    William Gibbs Memorial in St. Michael's Exeter
    William Gibbs Memorial in St. Michael's Exeter

  • Name William Gibbs 
    Suffix of Tyntesfield 
    Birth 22 May 1790  Calle de Cantarranas, Madrid, Spain Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Gender Male 
    Baptism 21 Jul 1790  British Embassy, Madrid, Spain Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Occupation Head of Antony Gibbs & Sons 
    Residence 1861  Paddington, London Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Relationship: Head 
    Residence 1871  Wraxall, Somerset Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Relation to Head of House: Head 
    Death 3 Apr 1875  Tyntesfield, Wraxall, Somerset Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Burial Wraxall, Somerset Find all individuals with events at this location 
    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
    Person ID I1611  Gibbs Family Tree
    Last Modified 11 May 2020 

    Father Antony Gibbs,   b. 3 Mar 1756, Exeter, Devon Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 10 Dec 1815, 2 Powis Place, Holborn, London Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 59 years) 
    Mother Dorothea Barnetta Hucks,   b. Dec 1760, Knaresborough, Yorkshire Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 24 Feb 1820, Redland, Gloucestershire Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 59 years) 
    Marriage 3 Oct 1784  Littleham, Devon Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Family ID F29  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Family Matilda Blanche Crawley-Boevey,   b. 17 Dec 1817, Eastgate street, Gloucester Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 22 Sep 1887, Tyntesfield, Wraxall, Somerset Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 69 years) 
    Marriage 1 Aug 1839  Flaxley, Gloucestershire Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Children 
     1. Dorothea Harriett Gibbs,   b. 12 Jun 1840, 13 Hyde Park Street, Paddington, London Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 20 Sep 1914, 77 Crystal Palace Park, Sydenham, London Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 74 years)
     2. Antony Gibbs, of Tyntesfield,   b. 10 Dec 1841, London Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 24 Apr 1907, Tyntesfield, Wraxall, Somerset Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 65 years)
     3. Alice Blanche Gibbs,   b. 27 Oct 1843, Paddington, London Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 12 Mar 1871, Tyntesfield, Wraxall, Somerset Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 27 years)
     4. William Gibbs,   b. 14 Jan 1846, Paddington, London Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 11 Jun 1869, Tyntesfield, Wraxall, Somerset Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 23 years)
     5. George Abraham Gibbs,   b. 25 Mar 1848, Paddington, London Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 23 Feb 1870, Kingston, Jamaica Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 21 years)
     6. Henry Martin Gibbs, High Sheriff, Somerset,   b. 30 May 1850, Paddington, London Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 22 Apr 1928, Barrow Gurney, Somerset Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 77 years)
     7. Albinia Ann Gibbs,   b. 7 Jun 1853, Paddington, London Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 17 Apr 1874, Paddington, London Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 20 years)
    Family ID F752  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
    Last Modified 9 Jul 2017 

  • Event Map
    Link to Google MapsBirth - 22 May 1790 - Calle de Cantarranas, Madrid, Spain Link to Google Earth
    Link to Google MapsBaptism - 21 Jul 1790 - British Embassy, Madrid, Spain Link to Google Earth
    Link to Google MapsMarriage - 1 Aug 1839 - Flaxley, Gloucestershire Link to Google Earth
    Link to Google MapsResidence - Relationship: Head - 1861 - Paddington, London Link to Google Earth
    Link to Google MapsResidence - Relation to Head of House: Head - 1871 - Wraxall, Somerset Link to Google Earth
    Link to Google MapsDeath - 3 Apr 1875 - Tyntesfield, Wraxall, Somerset Link to Google Earth
    Link to Google MapsBurial - - Wraxall, Somerset Link to Google Earth
     = Link to Google Earth