Colonel John George Nathaniel Gibbes (30 March 17875 December 1873) was a British army officer who emigrated to Australia in 1834 on his appointment as Collector of

Customs Customs is an authority or agency in a country responsible for collecting tariffs and for controlling the flow of goods, including animals, transports, personal effects, and hazardous items, into and out of a country. Traditionally, customs ...

for the Colony of New South Wales, an appointment which gave him a seat on the

New South Wales Legislative Council The New South Wales Legislative Council, often referred to as the upper house, is one of the two chambers of the parliament of the Australian state of New South Wales. The other is the Legislative Assembly. Both sit at Parliament House in t ...

and which he held for 25 years. In his capacity as head of the New South Wales Department of Customs, Colonel Gibbes was the colonial government's principal accumulator of domestic-sourced revenue − prior to the huge economic stimulus provided by the

Australian gold rushes During the Australian gold rushes, starting in 1851, significant numbers of workers moved from elsewhere in Australia and overseas to where gold had been discovered. Gold had been found several times before, but the colonial government of Ne ...

of the 1850s − through the collection of import duties and other taxes liable on ship-borne cargoes. Thus, he played a significant role in the transformation of the

City of Sydney The City of Sydney is the local government area covering the Sydney central business district and surrounding inner city suburbs of the greater metropolitan area of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Established by Act of Parliament in 1842, th ...

(now Australia's biggest State capital) from a convict-based settlement into a prosperous, free enterprise-based port replete with essential government infrastructure. Gibbes was forced to retire from the Council in 1855 and from his post as Collector of Customs for

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

in 1859. In 1844 he persuaded the Governor of NSW,

Sir George Gipps Sir George Gipps (23 December 1790 – 28 February 1847) was the Governor of the British colony of New South Wales for eight years, between 1838 and 1846. His governorship oversaw a tumultuous period where the rights to land were bitterly conte ...

, to begin construction of the Customs House, Sydney on

Circular Quay Circular Quay is a harbour, former working port and now international passenger shipping port, public piazza and tourism precinct, heritage area, and transport node located in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia on the northern edge of the Syd ...

in response to the port's growing volume of maritime trade. This major building project also doubled as an unemployment relief measure for stonemasons and laborers during an economic depression which was afflicting the colony at the time. The new Customs House replaced inadequate departmental accommodation for Gibbes and his team of officers in The Rocks area of Sydney. Gibbes resided in a series of historically and architecturally important houses during his time in New South Wales, including the since demolished Palladian-style Point Piper House, Wotonga House (now part of Admiralty House on

Kirribilli Kirribilli is a suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. One of the city's most established and affluent neighbourhoods, it is located three kilometres north of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area administere ...

Point), Greycliffe House (overlooking Shark Beach in the Sydney suburb of

Vaucluse Vaucluse (; oc, Vauclusa, label= Provençal or ) is a department in the southeastern French region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. It had a population of 561,469 as of 2019.Government House, Canberra).

Parentage and Education

Gibbes's parentage was long unknown. He was a bigamist about whom much was invented. The ''Australian Dictionary of Biography'', I (1966) 439, said that he was 'born in London on 30 March 1787 the son of John Gibbes, planter, of Barbados and later of London. Rev. D. Geary contributed to his education in part in Dejether, North Wales', but the ''Dictionary'' provides no sources and these people (if they existed) cannot be identified. Gibbes is assumed to be the John Gibbs, born 30 March 1786 (sic), who appears without parentage in the published register of Merchant Taylors' School as having been educated in the school, 1795-99. A flattering piece published in Australia in 1847 said that he was born in London in 1787 'the son of the late John Gibbes (nephew of Sir Philip Gibbes, Bart, of Jackby, in Oxfordshire), formerly of Bardaboes, and afterwards of London but the Baronet had no nephew of that name. Although Gibbes claimed to have married Elizabeth Davies in London in 1808, prior to the births of their first two children, as 'John Gibbes of St Paul, Covent Garden', he did not marry her, at St Andrew, Holborn, until 23 May 1814, and her parentage has not been ascertained. They had six further children, but whilst at Quebec, Canada, in 1818, Gibbes married there bigamously on 22 May 1818, to Mary Ann Bell, daughter of Matthew Bell (1769-184) a wealthy businessman. Apparently, he left her the following year and, not being prosecuted, returned to Elizabeth Davies. In a 'Journal in Retrospect' written around 1899 and based on his diaries, Stewart Marjoribanks Mowle (1822-1908), who knew Gibbes in Sydney and at Yarralumla in 1838-51, wrote of him as 'the reputed son of the Duke of York'. This belief took hold in Australia and in 1996 a descendant, Stephen Gibbes, wrote in the article just cited, that Gibbes's mother was Agnes Gibbes (1761-1843), the unmarried youngest daughter of Sir Philip Gibbes (1731-1815), and said that she met the Duke of York in Germany, he being in service on the Continent in 1786-7. Prime Minister

Gough Whitlam Edward Gough Whitlam (11 July 191621 October 2014) was the 21st prime minister of Australia, serving from 1972 to 1975. The longest-serving federal leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) from 1967 to 1977, he was notable for being the h ...

took up and repeated the story in an address at the Old Parliament House in Canberra in 1994. However, the story lacked any contemporary sources. In 2020 the theatre historian Terry Jenkins noted that Gibbes, his wife and son, were mentioned in the will of Mary or

Maria Gibbs Maria Gibbs (born about 1770) (''fl''. 1783–1844) was a British actress. Life She was one three sisters who became actors. Her Irish father was associated with the theatre. John Palmer, her godfather, brought her on the stage at the Haymarket ...

(born Mary Logan), the mistress of

George Colman the Younger George Colman (21 October 1762 – 17 October 1836), known as "the Younger", was an English dramatist and miscellaneous writer. He was the son of George Colman the Elder. Life He passed from Westminster School to Christ Church, Oxford, an ...

; however, when acting from the Spring of 1787 onwards, she called herself Mary or Maria Gibbs. She left her gold watch to her son Colonel Gibbes, her diamond snake ring to his wife Elizabeth, and her best gold chain to her grandson George Harvey Gibbes. She was the sister of the Duke of York's mistress Elizabeth or Eliza Cary or Carey. The identity of 'Mr Gibbs' remains unknown.

Military service

Gibbes filled a vacancy with the

40th Regiment of Foot The 40th (the 2nd Somersetshire) Regiment of Foot was an infantry regiment of the British Army, raised in 1717 in Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia. Under the Childers Reforms it amalgamated with the 82nd Regiment of Foot (Prince of Wales's Volunteers) ...

upon joining the army as an ensign in 1804

John Philippart John Philippart (1784?–1874) was a British military writer. Born in London about 1784, Philippart was educated at a military academy, and was subsequently placed in the office of a Scottish solicitor. His inclinations, however, tended more to mi ...

, ''The Royal Military Calendar'' (London, 1821
volume V, page 380
/ref> and was promoted to lieutenant the following year. He was made captain in the 4th Garrison Battalion in 1806 before transferring to the

85th Regiment of Foot The 85th (Bucks Volunteers) Regiment of Foot was a British Army line infantry regiment, raised in 1793. Under the Childers Reforms it amalgamated with the 53rd (Shropshire) Regiment of Foot to form the King's Shropshire Light Infantry in 1881. H ...

in 1808 and then the

69th Regiment of Foot The 69th (South Lincolnshire) Regiment of Foot was an infantry regiment of the British Army, raised in 1756. Under the Childers Reforms it amalgamated with the 41st (Welch) Regiment of Foot to form the Welch Regiment in 1881. History Formation T ...

in 1811. He was granted

brevet rank In many of the world's military establishments, a brevet ( or ) was a warrant giving a commissioned officer a higher rank title as a reward for gallantry or meritorious conduct but may not confer the authority, precedence, or pay of real rank. ...

as major in 1819, as lieutenant-colonel in 1837 and colonel in 1851, retiring from the Army on 11 November that year. Early on, he participated in some fierce fighting during the wars against Napoleon and the French Emperor's allies. He saw action firstly in South America, where he participated in the siege and capture of the fortified city of

Montevideo Montevideo () is the capital and largest city of Uruguay. According to the 2011 census, the city proper has a population of 1,319,108 (about one-third of the country's total population) in an area of . Montevideo is situated on the southern co ...

and the follow-up assault on

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

, which degenerated into a savage sequence of street-fight battles between the British redcoats and the ultimately victorious Spanish defenders of the city. In 1809, Captain Gibbes was called in from staff officer duties in Southern England to take part in the Walcheren campaign, but an alarming number of British soldiers collapsed and died in their camps from a virulent form of malarial fever that they had contracted after the bombardment and capture of the strategic town of

Flushing Flushing may refer to: Places * Flushing, Cornwall, a village in the United Kingdom * Flushing, Queens, New York City ** Flushing Bay, a bay off the north shore of Queens ** Flushing Chinatown (法拉盛華埠), a community in Queens ** Flushin ...

. Gibbes was one of the disease's victims. He was evacuated back to England to recuperate on half-pay. Once Gibbes had recovered his health sufficiently, he was reinstated to the army's active-service list, and served as a staff officer at stations, chiefly in

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Ber ...

and

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

, obtaining the rank of brigade major. In 1815, following Waterloo, Gibbes went back on the half-pay list and it was during this period that he contracted a bigamist marriage in

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirte ...

with the daughter of a Canadian industrialist named Matthew Bell

Customs service

In 1819, Gibbes was appointed Collector of Customs at the wealthy Caribbean sugar port of Falmouth, Jamaica, and served there until 1827, drawing a salary of about £1500. While in Jamaica, Gibbes and his growing family lived in a plantation house inland from the town of Falmouth, where census returns show him owning livestock and several slaves. Gibbes enjoyed life in the West Indies but ill-health, probably a recurrence of malaria brought on by Jamaica's tropical climate, forced him to leave the island in 1827. Back in England the family lived for a short time at Fulham Lodge in West London which had formerly belonged to a mistress of the

Duke of York and Albany Duke of York and Albany was a title of nobility in the Peerage of Great Britain. The title was created three times during the 18th century and was usually given to the second son of British monarchs. The predecessor titles in the English and Sc ...

. From here he applied successfully to the Board of Customs for a transfer to the collectorship at the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian ...

trading and fishing port of

Great Yarmouth Great Yarmouth (), often called Yarmouth, is a seaside town and unparished area in, and the main administrative centre of, the Borough of Great Yarmouth in Norfolk, England; it straddles the River Yare and is located east of Norwich. A pop ...

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. He occupied this post until 1833, working to improve the physical conditions and work practices at what he discovered, on arrival, to be a somewhat rundown red-brick customs house on Great Yarmouth's main quay. He strengthened, too, the law-enforcement partnership which existed with the naval coast guard, to counteract smuggling along 'his' section of the Norfolk-Suffolk coast. In 1831, he and Mrs Gibbes saw their eldest child, George Harvey Gibbes, married to a local East Anglian girl. Nonetheless, Gibbes decided to leave England permanently and in 1833 the Board of Customs accepted his application for the well-paid post of Collector of Customs at the Port of

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mounta ...

in the

Colony of New South Wales The Colony of New South Wales was a colony of the British Empire from 1788 to 1901, when it became a State of the Commonwealth of Australia. At its greatest extent, the colony of New South Wales included the present-day Australian states of ...

agreeing to an exchange arrangement with his counterpart there. As Collector of Customs he had a seat on the Legislative Council and soon after his arrival in Sydney on the ''Resource'' on 19 April 1834, he was sworn in by Governor

Richard Bourke General Sir Richard Bourke, KCB (4 May 1777 – 12 August 1855), was an Irish-born British Army officer who served as Governor of New South Wales from 1831 to 1837. As a lifelong Whig (Liberal), he encouraged the emancipation of convicts and ...

. As a Legislative Councillor, he served on a number of maritime-related boards and parliamentary committees, his most important contribution being to recommend the introduction of gaslight into Sydney. The subsequent establishment of the

Australian Gas Light Company The Australian Gas Light Company (AGL) was an Australian gas and electricity retailer, operated entirely by McCarthy Hanlin. It was formed in Sydney in 1837 and supplied town gas for the first public lighting of a street lamp in Sydney in 1841. ...

Darling Harbour Darling Harbour is a harbour adjacent to the city centre of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia that is made up of a large recreational and pedestrian precinct that is situated on western outskirts of the Sydney central business district. Origin ...

during the 1840s transformed the lifestyle of Sydney's 19th-century residents in terms of street-lighting and domestic illumination, and, later, gas cooking. When Gibbes arrived in Sydney in 1834, he held the rank of major. In 1837, he was promoted to lieutenant-colonel and then to full colonel shortly before his retirement from the army in 1851. Initially, he and his family leased Henrietta Villa, also known as the Naval Villa, on Sydney's scenic

Point Piper Point Piper is a small, harbourside eastern suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia, east of the Sydney CBD, in the local government area known as the Municipality of Woollahra. Point Piper has been historically ...

. In 1843–44, they moved to "Wotonga", a stone house designed and erected by Gibbes on Kirribilli Point and now forming part of Admiralty House. (Point Piper House was torn down in the 1850s and the site redeveloped.) Physically, Colonel Gibbes was a compact, spare person with grey eyes and receding light brown hair. He looked taller than he was because he walked with an erect military carriage. However, the burdens of public office increasingly irked the Colonel and he sometimes became prone to angry outbursts. The ''

Australian Dictionary of Biography The ''Australian Dictionary of Biography'' (ADB or AuDB) is a national co-operative enterprise founded and maintained by the Australian National University (ANU) to produce authoritative biographical articles on eminent people in Australia's ...

'' said of him:

"As collector of Customs at a salary of £1000 Gibbes found his department inadequate to cope with the growing demand of shipping and trade and he constantly appealed for more and better paid staff. He carried out his duties with more zeal than discretion and, when his suspicions were aroused bout possible smuggling activity he seized whole cargoes which often led to tedious litigation. His accounts were always confused because of inefficient clerks and often showed him liable for surcharges which were removed only after long and acrimonious correspondence with the Board of Customs in London. All these irritations frayed his temper and he gained a reputation for irascibility."

By 1859 his department was long a reproach and a bye-word and in that year his son William John Gibbes (1815-1868), a bankrupt and notorious libertine with a number of illegitimate children, whose debts exceeded £20,000, was convicted of conspiring to defraud the Customs and sentenced to two years imprisonment. Following a Board of Inquiry into the fraud the Executive Council directed that Colonel Gibbes 'be called upon to show cause why he should not be discharged from his office of Collector of Customs for neglect of duty'. Gibbes then retired in late 1859 to Yarralumla which had been bought in 1837 by his son-in-law Sir Terence Aubrey Murray (1810-1973).

Admiralty House

Colonel Gibbes had begun work on Wotonga House in 1842 on the five-acre Kirribilli Point site, which he had leased Robert Campbell, before proceeding to buy it after Campbell's death. He completed the house-building project about a year later. Wotonga was a graceful single-storey house with wide verandahs and elegant French doors. Gibbes designed the house, which he called "Wotonga" (or "Woottonga"), himself. The stone for the house's walls was quarried locally and the hardwood and cedar joinery came from George Coleson's timber-yard in George Street, Sydney. Gibbes engaged James Hume, a well-known builder who dabbled in ecclesiastical architecture, to supervise the construction of the building and its stables. Gibbes, however, hired his own masons, bricklayers, carpenters, plumbers and ironmongers to work on the project, paying each of them separately as work progressed. Colonel Gibbes used the Custom Department's cutter to commute to and from the building site. Once completed, Gibbes' L-shaped residence featured a plain, yet stylish, double façade to maximise the building's magnificent, sweeping views across Sydney Harbour. These views enabled Gibbes to monitor shipping traffic in and out of Darling Harbour and, more importantly, Circular Quay, where the Sydney Customs House was situated. In 1849, Robert Campbell died and the executors of the estate sold the property, comprising the house and land, to Colonel Gibbes for about 1,400 pounds. On 27 December 1851, Gibbes (who was contemplating a departure from the Customs Service at the age of 64), sold the property to James Lindsay Travers, a merchant of Macquarie Place, Sydney, for 1,533 pounds. Colonel Gibbes subsequently changed his mind about leaving his position as head of the NSW Customs Department; instead, he leased Greycliffe House at Shark Beach, Vaucluse, from the Wentworth family and remained in Sydney for the better part of eight years. Greycliffe is now listed by the government as one of the Heritage homes of Sydney. Today, Wotonga forms the core of Admiralty House and the building's 180-degree, east-west panoramic sight-lines are even more spectacular than they were in Gibbes' day, owing to the subsequent high-rise growth of Sydney's CBD. A portrait of Colonel Gibbes, painted in 1808 when he was a redcoat captain service on the personal staff of

William Craven, 1st Earl of Craven (1770–1825) Major-General William Craven, 1st Earl of Craven (28 September 1770 – 30 July 1825) was a British soldier. Early life Craven was the eldest son of William Craven, 6th Baron Craven, and his wife Lady Elizabeth Berkeley. Among his siblings was ...

, now hangs in Admiralty House.

New South Wales Customs Service

Colonel Gibbes took up a commission in 1819 as the Collector of Customs for Falmouth, Jamaica, but remained on the army's half-pay list, which meant that he could be recalled to active service in times of war. Then, from 1827 to 1833, he held the equivalent position of Collector in the major East Anglian port of Great Yarmouth. In 1833, Colonel Gibbes exchanged positions with Michael Cotton who was the Collector of Customs for

. He arrived in Sydney the following year to take up the post. He served as Collector of Customs for New South Wales for a record term of 25 years, from 1834 until 1859. He was forced to retire from the Customs Service when his libertine of a second son, William John Gibbes, became embroiled in a smuggling scandal. Earlier, in 1844, Colonel Gibbes had persuaded the then Governor of NSW,

, to begin construction of the Customs House on Circular Quay in response to Sydney's growing volume of maritime trade. The building project also doubled as an unemployment relief measure for stonemasons and laborers during an economic depression which was afflicting the colony at the time. The original sandstone edifice of the Customs House on Circular Quay remains as the core of a subsequently enlarged edifice on the site. As we have seen, Gibbes lived by the water at Kirribilli Point, on Sydney's northern shore. The Customs Service in the 1840s had an important link with Kirribilli, because the locale afforded panoramic views of Circular Quay and shipping movements on Sydney Harbour's main channel. It was therefore no coincidence that both Colonel Gibbes and his departmental deputy and personal friend, Thomas Jeffrey, elected to live in Kirribilli. The Customs Department's flagstaff, for instance, was located on Thomas Jeffrey's house, serving as a key maritime marker for mercantile vessels. Colonel Gibbes also had an interesting connection in his later years to

Henry Parkes Sir Henry Parkes, (27 May 1815 – 27 April 1896) was a colonial Australian politician and longest non-consecutive Premier of the Colony of New South Wales, the present-day state of New South Wales in the Commonwealth of Australia. He has ...

, known as the "father" of Australia's Federation as a unified nation in 1901 and five times Premiere of New South Wales. About a year after Parkes arrival in Sydney, he was hired by the New South Wales

Department as a Tide Waiter, and given the task by Colonel Gibbes of inspecting merchant vessels in the port of Sydney to guard against the importation of contraband. He had been recommended for this responsible post by Sir John Jamison's son-in-law, William John Gibbes, who was manager of Sir John's Regentville estate, and the third-born offspring of Colonel Gibbes. Parkes left the employ of the Customs Department during the 1840s and went into the newspaper industry and, later, the political arena; but he remained on friendly terms with the Gibbes family for the rest of his life.

Retirement

On retirement, Colonel Gibbes and Mrs Gibbes moved to Yarralumla homestead, now the official Canberra residence of the

Governor-General of Australia The governor-general of Australia is the representative of the monarch, currently King Charles III, in Australia.

Death and Burial

Colonel Gibbes and his wife Elizabeth (known affectionately as Eliza or Betsy) lived to advanced ages by 19th-century standards. Their final years were clouded by various age-related health problems, and they died at Yarralumla homestead in 1873 and 1874 respectively. They were buried initially in a family vault at Yarralumla but, in 1880, their son Augustus moved their remains to the graveyard at the

St John the Baptist Church, Reid St John the Baptist Church is an Australian Anglican church in the Canberra suburb of Reid in the Australian Capital Territory. The church is located at the corner of Anzac Parade and Constitution Avenue, adjacent to the Parliamentary Triangl ...

, where they were re-interred under an inscribed marble headstone which still stands. Interred with him and his wife are the remains of his son Augustus Gibbes, his grandson Henry Gibbes, and his great-grandson Wing-Commander Robert "Bobby" Gibbes. Two stained-glass windows, dedicated to their memories and bearing the Gibbes coat of arms, were also erected in the nave of the church.

Offspring

The Colonel and Mrs Gibbes had eight children, born in the 1809–1828 period. All of them migrated to Sydney with their parents except for the eldest, George Harvey Gibbes (1809–1883), who remained in London and became a senior bureaucrat with the British

War Office The War Office was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the new Ministry of Defence (MoD). This article contains text from ...

. They were:

George Harvey Gibbes (1809–1883)

Unlike his seven siblings, George remained in England. He was born at

Kirk Ella Kirk Ella is a village and civil parish on the western outskirts of Kingston upon Hull, approximately west of the city centre, situated in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. The parish includes West Ella. Kirk Ella has been a village sinc ...

, Yorkshire. He entered the British Public Service at the age of 18, being appointed to the personal staff of the

Duke of Wellington Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, (1 May 1769 – 14 September 1852) was an Anglo-Irish soldier and Tory statesman who was one of the leading military and political figures of 19th-century Britain, serving twice as prime minister ...

in London. He rose subsequently through the bureaucratic ranks at Horse Guards (the headquarters of the Commander-in-Chief of the British Army) and the War Office in

Whitehall Whitehall is a road and area in the City of Westminster, Central London. The road forms the first part of the A3212 road from Trafalgar Square to Chelsea. It is the main thoroughfare running south from Trafalgar Square towards Parliament Sq ...

. In 1869, he retired on an annual half-pay pension from his £1300 per annum position of Assistant Military Secretary. He had wed Mary Ann Fuller (1811–1896) at

Gorleston Gorleston-on-Sea (), known colloquially as Gorleston, is a town in the Borough of Great Yarmouth, in Norfolk, England, to the south of Great Yarmouth. Situated at the mouth of the River Yare it was a port town at the time of the Domesday Bo ...

, in 1831. They spent their married life living in London (in the suburbs of

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...

and

Belgravia Belgravia () is a district in Central London, covering parts of the areas of both the City of Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Belgravia was known as the 'Five Fields' during the Tudor Period, and became a danger ...

) and at a holiday house in

Ryde Ryde is an English seaside town and civil parish on the north-east coast of the Isle of Wight. The built-up area had a population of 23,999 according to the 2011 Census and an estimate of 24,847 in 2019. Its growth as a seaside resort came ...

on the

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight ( ) is a county in the English Channel, off the coast of Hampshire, from which it is separated by the Solent. It is the largest and second-most populous island of England. Referred to as 'The Island' by residents, the Is ...

. There were no children of the marriage.

Eliza Julia Gibbes (1811–1892)

The eldest daughter of the family as born in the naval and military port of

Gosport Gosport ( ) is a town and non-metropolitan borough on the south coast of Hampshire, South East England. At the 2011 Census, its population was 82,662. Gosport is situated on a peninsula on the western side of Portsmouth Harbour, opposite ...

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire ...

. As a girl, according to her own account, she worked in an unofficial capacity for

Queen Adelaide , house = Saxe-Meiningen , father = Georg I, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen , mother = Princess Louise Eleonore of Hohenlohe-Langenburg , birth_date = , birth_place = Meiningen, Saxe-Meiningen, Holy ...

. In Sydney in 1837, she married

Robert Dulhunty Robert Venour Dulhunty (1803 – 30 December 1853) is chiefly remembered as being the first permanent white settler of what has since become the City of Dubbo, in the rural heartland of the Australian state of New South Wales. Early life Robert ...

(1802–1853), an English-born grazier and Police Magistrate who owned Claremont, near Penrith, NSW. During the 1840s, Dulhunty and his family pioneered the

Dubbo Dubbo () is a city in the Orana Region of New South Wales, Australia. It is the largest population centre in the Orana region, with a population of 43,516 at June 2021. The city is located at the intersection of the Newell, Mitchell, and Go ...

region of central-western NSW. Dulhunty died at Old Dubbo Station at the age of 51, leaving Eliza to bring up their large brood of children and run their portfolio of rural properties, many of which were lost to the banks due to the adverse effects of drought and economic recessions. Eliza died in hospital in the NSW town of Bathurst and is buried in the local cemetery.

William John Gibbes (1815–1868)

Colonel Gibbes' second son was William John Gibbes (1815–1868), who had been born in the English garrison

City of York The City of York is a unitary authority area with city status in the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire, England. The district's main settlement is York, and it extends to the surrounding area including the town of Haxby and the villages of ...

. In 1837, William John married Harriet Eliza Jamison in the

Anglican Church Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of the ...

of St James, Sydney. Harriet's father was Sir John Jamison (1776 – 29 June 1844), an important Australian

physician A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

, pastoralist,

banker A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets. Becaus ...

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, ...

, constitutional reformer and public figure. Sir John fathered a number of illegitimate children by several mistresses. Her mother (one of Sir John's mistresses), Catherine Cain(e), the convict 'housekeeper' assigned to him at his Sydney residence. Catherine gave birth to a daughter by Sir John, Harriet Eliza Jamison, in 1819. Harriet grew up to be a cultivated and pious young woman. In 1837, she married into the colonial establishment when she wed William John Gibbes. The wedding took place at St James' Anglican Church, Sydney, in the presence of the governor. Harriet died in Sydney in 1896. By this stage, she had seen her three children, all sons, carve out successful careers for themselves in the political, legal and sporting/civil-service sectors of Sydney society. William John Gibbes, incidentally, lived with his wife at Regentville House, near Penrith, New South Wales, following his marriage. Later, in the second half of the 1840s, he lived in Beulah House at Kirribilli, before moving to Camden Villa in the then Sydney garden-suburb of Newtown in the early 1850s. Beulah was later lived in by the Riley and Lasseter families. Regrettably, this elegant sandstone residence was eventually demolished and its grounds subdivided into numerous residential blocks which were auctioned off by developers in 1905. William became a notorious libertine who sired a number of illegitimate children. He spent the 1850s in a state of

bankruptcy Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debto ...

with debts exceeding £20,000. William was convicted (in the

NSW Supreme Court The Supreme Court of New South Wales is the highest state court of the Australian State of New South Wales. It has unlimited jurisdiction within the state in civil matters, and hears the most serious criminal matters. Whilst the Supreme Cour ...

) of a smuggling charge in 1859 and sentenced to two years imprisonment at

Parramatta Gaol The Parramatta Correctional Centre is a heritage-listed former medium security prison for males on the corner of O'Connell and Dunlop Streets, North Parramatta, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It was in operation between 1798 and 2011. Th ...

in Sydney. Subsequently, he lived in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/ Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a metro ...

and East Sydney. He died at the latter location of a blood disorder, aged 52. William was estranged from his wife at the time of his passing, and the two lived separately. He lies buried in the Old

Balmain Cemetery Balmain Cemetery was a cemetery in Leichhardt, New South Wales, Australia (the area is very close to the present day Sydney suburb of Balmain). The Pioneers Memorial Park now stands in its place. History When the estate of Balmain was laid out i ...

(now Pioneers' Park, in the Sydney suburb of

Leichhardt Leichhardt may refer to: * Division of Leichhardt, electoral District for the Australian House of Representatives * Leichhardt Highway, a highway of Queensland, Australia * Leichhardt Way, an Australian road route * Leichhardt, New South Wales, inn ...

Mary "Minnie" Gibbes (1817–1858)

Mary, known affectionately as Minnie, was born in the garrison town of

Pontefract Pontefract is a historic market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wakefield in West Yorkshire, England, east of Wakefield and south of Castleford. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, it is one of the towns in the City of Wak ...

, Yorkshire. She later married the prominent Irish-born parliamentarian, Sir Terence Aubrey Murray (1810–1873). Murray was the proprietor of Winderradeen sheep station near Lake George, NSW. He also purchased 'Yarralumla sheep station, in what is now Canberra, in 1837. Yarralumla subsequently became Government House, Canberra. Mary's health was frail, and she died at Winderradeen at the start of 1858, following the birth of her third surviving child. She is buried in the grounds of the homestead. In 1859, Murray sold ''Yarralumla'' to his brother-in-law, Augustus Onslow Manby Gibbes. Later that same year, Augustus' parents came to live with him at Yarralumla homestead. Eventually, in 1881, Augustus sold Yarralumla for 40,000 pounds to Frederick Campbell, a descendant of Robert Campbell.

Frances "Fanny" Minto Gibbes (1822/23–1877)

Frances "Fanny" Minto Gibbes (1822/23–1877) was born in Trelawney Parish on the north coast of the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greate ...

island of Jamaica during her father's term there as Collector of Customs for the port of Falmouth. In Sydney, in 1850, she married Alfred Ludlam (1810–1877). Irish-born Ludlam was a leading

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island coun ...

politician, horticulturist and farmer who owned land at

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by ...

and in the

Hutt Valley The Hutt Valley (or 'The Hutt') is the large area of fairly flat land in the Hutt River valley in the Wellington region of New Zealand. Like the river that flows through it, it takes its name from Sir William Hutt, a director of the New Zeala ...

. Ludlam was a member of three of New Zealand's four earliest parliaments, he was also a philanthropist and a founder of Wellington's Botanic Garden. Ludlam was a periodic visitor to NSW. The main reason for these trans-

Tasman Sea The Tasman Sea (Māori: ''Te Tai-o-Rēhua'', ) is a marginal sea of the South Pacific Ocean, situated between Australia and New Zealand. It measures about across and about from north to south. The sea was named after the Dutch explorer ...

visits of Ludlam's was to do business in Sydney, which served as New South Wales' principal trading port, population centre and seat of government; but he also found time to socialise. On 1 October 1850, he married into Sydney's colonial establishment with his wedding to Fanny Gibbes. His wedding took place at St Thomas' Anglican Church (in what is today the North Sydney local government area). Fanny was living with her parents at Wotonga House—nowadays part of Admiralty House complex on Sydney's Kirribilli Point—at the time of her marriage to Ludlam. She and her husband spent their honeymoon relaxing at the New South Wales country property of Yarralumla (now the site of Australia's Government House in Canberra), which at that stage belonged to Fanny's brother-in-law, (Sir) Terence Aubrey Murray. During the 1870s, Fanny and her husband holidayed in London, taking a house at

Maida Vale Maida Vale ( ) is an affluent residential district consisting of the northern part of Paddington in West London, west of St John's Wood and south of Kilburn. It is also the name of its main road, on the continuous Edgware Road. Maida Vale ...

. Fanny fell fatally ill there with an intestinal blockage and was buried in London. Her husband returned to New Zealand, dying in Wellington later that same year (1877) of kidney disease. They had no children.

Edmund Minto Gibbes (1824–1850)

Like his sister Fanny, Edmund was born on Jamaica. After his arrival in Sydney, he was educated with his brother Augustus at Sydney College. He worked for his father as a NSW Customs Department officer in Sydney and at the whaling port of Eden on the NSW South Coast. During the 1840s, he eloped with a wealthy Jewish teenager, Frances Simmons (1833–1910), scandalising colonial Sydney in the process. They had two children, both of whom died in infancy. Edmund belatedly wed Miss Simmons at Campbelltown, NSW, in 1849. He contracted

pulmonary tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, i ...

and sailed for England with his bride in 1850 to begin a fresh life. He died on the voyage and was buried at sea. Edmund's widow later married a London lawyer named Roger Gadsden and returned to Sydney to live.

Matilda Lavinia Gibbes (1826–1916)

Matilda was the third and last child to be born during her father's collectorship at the port of Falmouth, Jamaica. She was born at Brompton on 13 March 1826. She spent her infancy in Norfolk and came to Sydney at the age of seven. In 1858, she married Augustus Berney (1831–1910). Her husband was an officer in the Sydney Customs Department and the heir to landed estates in Norfolk, including Morton Hall and Bracon Ash. They had four children, one of whom died in infancy, and lived in the Sydney suburb of Darlinghurst. In 1896, Matilda's husband inherited his family properties in Norfolk and the family returned there to live. Matilda died at Bracon Ash house, aged 90, during the height of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

and is buried locally in the Berney family mausoleum.

Augustus Onslow Manby Gibbes (1828–1897)

Augustus, nicknamed "Gussie", was the youngest child. He was born in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk. His godfathers were

George William Manby Captain George William Manby FRS (28 November 1765 – 18 November 1854) was an English author and inventor. He designed an apparatus for saving life from shipwrecks and also the first modern form of fire extinguisher. Early life Manby was bo ...

and Captain John Onslow, RN. He became a large-scale sheep farmer and horse breeder in rural New South Wales, owning the Yarralumla estate from 1859 to 1881. He then travelled overseas for a decade before settling down on a farming property named Braemar, near the town of

Goulburn Goulburn ( ) is a regional city in the Southern Tablelands of the Australian state of New South Wales, approximately south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Canberra. It was proclaimed as Australia's first inland city through letters pate ...

, New South Wales, in the early 1890s, with his wife and their four surviving children, all sons. His wife, Annie Bartram (1865–1914) came from the

City of Bath Bath () is a city in the Bath and North East Somerset unitary area in the county of Somerset, England, known for and named after its Roman-built baths. At the 2021 Census, the population was 101,557. Bath is in the valley of the River Avon, ...

in England The two had met in the mid-1880s, entering into a relationship and touring around the United Kingdom. Augustus, however, did not officially marry her until 1896 (at Penrith, NSW). The following year, he died at Braemar House after suffering a stroke and was buried with his parents in Canberra.

Norfolk friends

Members of the Berney family of

landed gentry The landed gentry, or the ''gentry'', is a largely historical British social class of landowners who could live entirely from rental income, or at least had a country estate. While distinct from, and socially below, the British peerage, t ...

were close associates of the Gibbes' during their time in Norfolk. Indeed, the two families later inter-married. Another friend of the Gibbes' in Great Yarmouth was

, who became one of the godfathers of Augustus Onslow Manby Gibbes (1828–1897). Manby was a well-known inventor and a member of England's

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

Great grandson — Bobby Gibbes

One of the numerous great-grandsons of Colonel Gibbes was Bobby Gibbes DSO, DFC &

Bar Bar or BAR may refer to: Food and drink * Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages * Candy bar * Chocolate bar Science and technology * Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment * Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud * Bar ( ...

, OAM (6 May 1916 – 11 April 2007) who was a leading Australian

fighter ace A flying ace, fighter ace or air ace is a military aviator credited with shooting down five or more enemy aircraft during aerial combat. The exact number of aerial victories required to officially qualify as an ace is varied, but is usually co ...

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. He was officially credited with shooting down 10¼ enemy aircraft,Odgers, ''The Royal Australian Air Force'', p.125Garrisson, ''Australian Fighter Aces'', p.133 although his score is often reported as 12 destroyed.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gibbes, John George Nathaniel 1787 births 1873 deaths History of Sydney People from Great Yarmouth 18th-century British people 19th-century British people 19th-century Australian public servants 40th Regiment of Foot officers 69th Regiment of Foot officers Point Piper, New South Wales Members of the New South Wales Legislative Council 19th-century Australian politicians