Dr. Thomas Gibbons (1720–1785) was a

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

nonconformist minister who wrote

hymns A hymn is a type of song, and partially synonymous with devotional song, specifically written for the purpose of adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification. The word ''hymn'' ...

sermons A sermon is a religious discourse or oration by a preacher, usually a member of clergy. Sermons address a scriptural, theological, or moral topic, usually expounding on a type of belief, law, or behavior within both past and present contexts. El ...

, and

poetry Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...

Life

He was the son of Thomas Gibbons, at one time minister of a dissenting congregation at Olney in

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-ea ...

, and afterwards of a congregation at Royston in

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...

. He was born at

Reach, Cambridgeshire Reach is a small village and civil parish on the edge of the fenland in East Cambridgeshire, England at the north end of Devil's Dyke, about west of Burwell. History Reach was an important economic centre in early Anglo-Saxon and Viking time ...

, on 31 May 1720, and went to local schools. At about 15 years of age he was sent to

Abraham Taylor Abraham Taylor ( fl. 1727–1740), was an English Independent minister and dissenting academy tutor, known as a controversialist. Life He was a son of Richard Taylor (d. 1717), independent minister at Little Moorfields, London. His name occurs in ...

dissenting academy The dissenting academies were schools, colleges and seminaries (often institutions with aspects of all three) run by English Dissenters, that is, those who did not conform to the Church of England. They formed a significant part of England's edu ...

Deptford Deptford is an area on the south bank of the River Thames in southeast London, within the London Borough of Lewisham. It is named after a ford of the River Ravensbourne. From the mid 16th century to the late 19th it was home to Deptford Dock ...

, and then to that of

John Eames John Eames (2 February 1686 – 29 June 1744) was an English Dissenting tutor. Life Eames was born in London on 2 February 1686. He was admitted to Merchant Taylors' School on 10 March 1696–7, and was subsequently trained for the dissenting m ...

Moorfields Moorfields was an open space, partly in the City of London, lying adjacent to – and outside – its northern wall, near the eponymous Moorgate. It was known for its marshy conditions, the result of the defensive wall acting like a dam, i ...

. In 1742 Gibbons was appointed assistant to the Rev. Thomas Bures, minister of the Silver Street

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...

congregation, and in the next year he was chosen minister of the

Independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

congregation of Haberdashers' Hall. In 1754 he was elected one of the three tutors of the Mile End academy, where he gave instruction in logic, metaphysics, ethics, and rhetoric, till the end of his life. He was chosen Sunday evening lecturer in the Monkwell Street meeting-house in 1759. He received the degree of M.A. from New Jersey in 1760, and that of D.D. from Aberdeen in 1764. He was elected to the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

in 1775. Gibbons died in the

Hoxton Square Hoxton Square is a public garden square in the Hoxton area of Shoreditch in the London Borough of Hackney. Laid out in 1683, it is thought to be one of the oldest in London. Since the 1990s it has been at the heart of the Hoxton national (digita ...

coffee-house, 22 Feb. 1785. For a lack of poetical talent, Gibbons was satirised in ''An Epistle to the Rev. Mr. Tho. G-bb-ns on his Juvenilia'' (1750); and also by Robert Sanders in ''Gaffer Greybeard'' as "Dr. Hymnmaker".

Samuel Johnson Samuel Johnson (18 September 1709 – 13 December 1784), often called Dr Johnson, was an English writer who made lasting contributions as a poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. The ''Oxford ...

enjoyed his society.

Works

Gibbons's writings included: * ''Juvenilia; poems on various subjects of devotion and virtue'', 1750. * ''Rhetoric'', 1767. * ''Hymns adapted to Divine Worship'', 1769. * ''The Christian Minister, in three Poetic Epistles'', 1772. * ''Female Worthies'', 2 vols. 1777. * ''Memoirs of the Rev. Isaac Watts, D.D.'', 1780. * ''Sermons on evangelical and practical subjects'', 3 vols. 1787. A favourite form of composition was elegies on the death of his friends and others. A list of between forty and fifty works by Gibbons was in the ''Protestant Dissenters' Magazine'', ii. 492, 493, and in Walter Wilson's ''Dissenting Churches'', iii. 181, 182.

Notes

External links

Thomas Gibbons, 1720-1785
* ;Attribution 1720 births 1785 deaths English hymnwriters Musicians from London 18th-century English people 18th-century Christian clergy English male poets 18th-century English writers 18th-century English male writers Dissenting academy tutors Burials at Bunhill Fields Members of the American Philosophical Society {{england-writer-stub