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The Old Tree is dead; Long Live the New Tree! The Gibbs Family Tree website is now at gibbsfamilytree.com and the old website (co-uk) has been decommissioned and redirected. This new site gives much improved functionality and data security.
Once again I encourage you to send me any family updates and to forward this newsletter to your wider family and invite them to subscribe by emailing me at gibbsftree@gmail.com
This newsletter picture quizz comes from closer to home; it hangs in my parents bedroom. How many of this ecclesiastical family do you recognise? Click on the underlined text, or on the photo, to take you to the full sized photo with details of persons and links to their records (all underlined text in the newsletter is a link to more online details). |
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Please do let me know about family births, marriages, deaths and other family news, not only so that I can keep the Family Tree living and accurate, but also to let the wider family know. Stephen Cokayne Gibbs died at home in Dougarie on Arran on Remembrance Sunday, 11th November, aged 88. Service of Thanksgiving held at St Molios Church, Shiskine, Isle of Arran. - Jean Frances Woodroffe CVO, nee Hambro, ex wife of Capt Vicary Paul Gibbs (KIA 1944), died peacefully on 7th December 2017, aged 94. Funeral in Mere; Thanksgiving in Worplesdon.
- Charles Aidan Stafford Crawley died on 1st February 2018, aged 72. Memorial service held at The Guards’ Chapel, Wellington Barracks.
- Thomas Cunard Charrington died on 11th February 2018. Thanksgiving held in Bathwick, Bath.
I have not received any notifications of marrages or births, so please do let me know of happier events for the next newsletter :).
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As noted previously the move to a new Gibbs Family Tree website was motivated by three reasons: - Enhanced data privacy - login required to see information or photos of living persons
- Improved functionality and performance on PCs and mobile devices (please explore).
- Cheaper to run as it is based on widely used web software rather than bespoke development
To access the family tree follow the menu to “Family Tree”, and then Login if you want to see details and photos of living persons, as follows:
The current login details for family members are username: gft_view and password: tyntesfield
I may change this periodically and advise via the newsletter. I do not currently plan to issue individual accounts due to the administrative burden. You may check the privacy statement here.
 Apart from comprehensive information on individuals, the Family Tree provides numerous ways to visualise relationships; a Family Chart shows a couple and their immedaite families, Ancestors go back through the generations (select how many), and Descendants cascade forwards. Clicking on the small triangle arrows takes you up and down through the genealogy tree, while selecting indivuals shows their details. The Fan Chart above (click on it to enlarge) shows an alternative view of ancestors. Christopher Gibbs sent me an old hand-drawn fan chart of Alban George Henry Gibbs.
 The Relationship chart below gives a graphical image of how any two people are related. The displays are brough alive when pictures are available, so I encourage you to send me copies of individuals and family gatherings, of which there are now quite a few - 531 photos so far.
So please explore and let me have your feedback … and contributions!
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While the Gibbs families have a rich history of Merchants, Bankers, Soldiers and Clergy, many cousins have channelled their energies into other creative careers or hobbies. See previous creative cousins.
Actors:  Andrew Woodall is an actor with the Royal Shakespeare Company, in the title role in Julius Caesar and Enobarbus in Anthony & Cleopatra.
TV presenter and comedian Alexander Armstrong lurks in the remote branches of the tree.
Artists:  Tom Misch deserves another mention because his album Geography has just been released to much acclaim as he embarks on a US tour, following on from concerts around Europe. The album art was by my sister Carol Misch, currently on billboards around London.
Artisans: Please let me know of any additions.
 Lucy Moore (Gibbs) is the author of 9 historical novels as well as a television presenter.
Davina Merry, Joe Gibbs' mother, launching her first novel last year at the age of 83: ‘A Girl In Time’ Set over the 1920's to the 1980's chronicling the love, loss and betrayal across three generations of family life in and around their grand family home of Merlinstone in Scotland.
James Woodall is a published author. And if you dig deep into the fringes of the tree you can find 007. |
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Eion Gibbs was recently on an eco project reforesting Mount Kenya in Tanzania. While waiting for the Swahili translator he had a look around the Commonwealth Cemetery in Moshi. When Eion came to the allies killed in the First World War one headstone caught his attention, that of N.M.Gibbs, a trooper in the East African Mounted Rifles who had been shot by a sniper while bathing in the river on 20th March 1916.
Further digging that evening Eion was surprised to find that it was the grave of his great-great-uncle Noel Martin Gibbs, a son of Henry Martin Gibbs. He had moved to East Africa to become a farmer at the age of 22, a little under a decade before WW1 broke out, and had joined the EAMR.
Eion returned to the cemetery on Remembrance Sunday. His full account can be read here. |
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I have always been led to believe that, unlike so many Bristol merchants, the Gibbs family had no involvement in slavery. My curiosity was piqued when I observed what a common name Gibbs is amongst Africa-Americans. Slavery has been very topical of late with numerous articles in the newspapers, programs on TV and research by University College London. Following abolition in 1833, our government paid huge compensation to 46,000 British slave owners, 40% of the national annual budget, the loan for which was only finally paid off in 2015 (see Guardian article). I anguished over whether this was too toxic a topic to address in this family newsletter, but decided to face it head on.
A smoking gun appears in the UCL “ Legacies of British Slave-ownership”, which records that George Gibbs of Belmont received, jointly with Robert Bright, £1,750 for 94 slaves from investments in the plantation trade in Barbados and Jamaica! George Gibbs died without offspring. David Hogg (author of “Diaries of Tyntesfield”) gave a damning Royal Geographical Society talk "From slavery to civil rights: how changing political and social geography influenced the Gibbs family of Tyntesfield” available here.
Hogg goes on to mention Robert Gibbs, Governor of Barbados and later South Carolina with Gibbs Plantation. My investigations indicate that he decends from the Kent branch of Gibbs that trace back to Fenton but split from our family in the time of Richard II. While George Gibbs' partner Muckley was directly involved in transport of slaves, I have found no evidence that Gibbs owned ships did so.
On the other side of the family was Lord Wraxall’s grandmother, Annie Cunard. The first meeting in America against slavery was held in the Cunard family house in 1688, and her families decendant Nancy Cunard became a great advocate for black civil rights, with her celebrated book “Negro”.
The Guano quarrying in Peru by contracted chinese indentured labour had its ugly side, with high mortality and conditions akin to slavery. Gibbs was not responsible for the extraction labour during its worst excesses, but they could have done more faster to improve conditions after the Peruvian government transfered the contract to them.
In conclusion there does not seem to be any evidence that descendants of Antony Gibbs were directly involved in the transportation or ownership of slaves, however some of their associates and wealth were definitely tinged with slavery, and the guano trade labour was hardly less penitious.
A cautionary warning from Nicholas Gibbs of threats from vengeful vigilantes seeking justice for victims of slavery.
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- Tony Benge is working on an exhibition about Burton Dorset during WW1 and hoped to track down a painting of Lady Lillian Mary Gibbs (Lady Parr), with her son Hallam by the notable romanic portrait artist William Charles Wontner, last noted as in the possession of Agnes Hilda Gibbs. Both her sons died in WW1. The “search” led me to many “cousins", including Julia Elton of Clevedon Court, but no trace of the painting unfortunately. Tony did send my a couple of photos of son George before and during the war.
- Rupert Calvocoressi wondered whether there was any further information on Robert Wyndham Marcial Bland, who once owned the house that Rupert now lives in called Colquhouns in Penshurst, Kent.
- Gillian Brooks enquired about two letter she has from Mabel Gibbs from Barrow Court to her grandmother Ethel, to find out what she did before her marriage. Seems they were a governess and chauffer.
- A solicitor was in contact regarding a painting of 1st Earl of Mount Edgcumbe by Devis, which the Will for an estate he was dealing with said should be offered for sale to the children of Lady Hilaria Gibbs.
- Pevez Anthony Gibbs from North London wondered if there are any family connections as the names George and Anthony are very common in his family.
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My JOGLE bike ride: While cycling from John O’Groats to Lands End last September with 4 colleagues (www.camjoglers.co.uk) I called in briefly on two Scottish Gibbs families:
Gibbs connection to The Shipping Forecast: Last October was the 150th anniveray of a tragedy when the steamer Royal Charter on route from Australia to Liverpool was driven by a storm onto the rocks of Pont Lynas off Anglesey with the loss of 465 lives. This disaster lead to the Shipping Forecast - “Dogger, Fisher, Forties etc.”. The ship was owned by Gibbs and Bright through Liverpool & Australian Steamship Navigation Company. Read about it here.
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