Notes:

--- "London Evening Post" 28 Feb 1744, page 2
On Monday last died Mrs. Elliston, Wife of Edward Elliston, Esq; an eminent Merchant in Basinghall-Street, Sister to Edward Gibbon, Esq; Member of Parliament for Southampton, and Alderman of Vintry Ward.

--- "London, England, Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812" (Wandsworth, St Mary, Putney, 1735-1760, 57) --- seen on Ancestry.com
Mistakenly listed as Mrs. Catherine "Allinstone".

--- "Edward Gibbon, 1737-1794" by D.M. Low, 1937, page 13:
The little we know of Catherine Gibbon is not inconsistent with the character of Flavia. She was akin to her brother's spirit and followed him into the society of such people as the Mallets after their father's death. She married her cousin Edward Elliston. Shortly after that John Byrom came to visit Law at Putney, and a comment in his diary that it was such an absurdity to come to communion with patches and paint as no Christians would have borne formerly, is clearly intended for her. Neither she nor her husband enjoyed their world for long, and their daughter Catherine, after their death, lived with her uncle till her marriage in 1756 with Edward Eliot.

--- --- "The Autobigraphies of Edward Gibbon" by Edward Gibbon, J. Murray, 1896, page 21 --- seen on Google Books:
"Of my two wealthy aunts on the father's side, Hester persevered in a life of celibacy, while Catherine became the wife of Mr. Edward Elliston, a Captain in the service of the East India Company, whom my grandfather styles his nephew in his Will. Both Mr. and Mrs. Elliston were dead before the date of my birth, or at least of my memory, and their only daughter and heiress will be mentioned in her proper place. These two Ladies are described by Mr. Law under the names of Flavia and Miranda, the Pagan and Christian sister. The sins of Flavia, which excluded her from the hope of salvation, may not appear to our carnal apprehension of so black a dye. Her temper was gay and lively; she followed the fashion in her dress, and indulged her taste for company and public amusements; but her expence was regulated by economy: she practised the decencies of Religion, nor is she accused of neglecting the essential duties of a wife or a mother."

Catherine married Edward Elliston on 27 Dec 1733 in St. Paul's Cathedral, London. Edward (son of Oliver Elliston and Hester Gibbon) was born on 30 Aug 1696 in London, England; was christened on 31 Aug 1696 in Christ Church, Greyfriars Newgate, London; died on 08 Jun 1747 in Brentwood, Essex; was buried on 13 Jun 1747 in St. Mary, Putney, Surrey. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Married:
• "London, England, Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812" (City of London, St. Paul's Cathedral, 1697-1740, 123):
Edward Elliston of the parish of St. Peter Cornhill London, Bachelor, and Catharine Gibbon of Putney in the County of Surrey, Spinster, were married with a License from the Archbishop's Office in this Cathedral Church the 27 day of December 1733 by me (Williams Gibbon) . . . present Wm. Reyner

1. Catherine Elliston was born on 04 Aug 1735 in Charterhouse Yard, Parish of St. Sepulchre, Holburn, London; was christened on 15 Sep 1735 in Parish of St. Sepulchre, Holburn, London; died on 23 Feb 1804 in Port Eliot, St. Germans, Cornwall; was buried on 01 Mar 1804 in Eliot Family Vault, Old Cemetery, St. Germans, Cornwall.
2. John Elliston was christened on 27 Apr 1740 in St. Michael's, Bassishaw, London; was buried on 24 Mar 1740/41 in St. Michael's, Bassishaw, London.

Other Events:

• Probate: 13 Jan 1736/37, London, England

Notes:

--- "Newcastle Courant" Saturday, 12 September 1724, page 2:
From the St. James's Evening Post, London, Sept. 3.
The same Day [1 Sep 1724], the Trustees appointed by Act of Parliament for raising Money out of the Estates of the late Directors of the South-Sea Company, met in the Hall of the South Sea House, and proceeded to the Sale of that of Edward Gibbon, Esq; situate in the Mannor of Lenborough, &c. in the County of Bucks, which was put up in one Lot at 8480 l. and was sold for 8485 l. to himself. The second Lot being Timber and Wood upon the Premisses, in the Mannor of Petersfield in Hampshire, put up at 3070 l. was sold for 3075 l. to Francis Acton, Esq; there being no other Bidders.

--- "The Gentleman's Magazine" December 1736, page 749:
Deaths.
[Dec] 25. Edw. Gibson, Esqr [sic] at Putney. He was one of the Commissioners of Customs in the latter Part of Q. Anne's Reign, and one of the Directors of the S. S. Sea Comp. in the Year 1726.

--- "Edward Gibbon, 1737-1794" by D.M. Low, 1937, page 6-8:
In the year 1720 the South Sea Bubble was pricked; in a moment of time the nation's speculative frenzy changed into a vindictive clamour against those upon whom a few hours previously they had been pressing their anxiety to share in certain and unlimited wealth.

The facts were obscure of unprecedented complexity, and it was only clear that there was no help in the law. This was nevertheless instantly felt to be one of those major calamities in the midst of which legality is silent, and Parliament took upon itself the task of interpreting the country's moral indignation. If some people could be made to smart, everyone would feel better. There were members of the government such as Lord Sunderland or Mr Secretary Aislabie upon whom the blow might have fallen as well as on any, but the chosen victims were the members of the committee of the South Sea Company. They were held under arrest for a time, they were compelled to make sworn returns of their property, they were forbidden to alienate any part of it, and then a Parliament -- whose own prolonged existence was of doubtful validity -- sat to consider what was to be done to each culprit. They were to be punished severely, perhaps reduced to beggary.

Prominent among these scapegoats was Mr Edward Gibbon, a successful army contractor, a member of the Board of Customs in Queen Anne's last administration, a man of Tory convictions and suspected Jacobite sympathies. His fortune had been declared at a sum above a hundred thousand pounds, and after Parliament had exhibited every mood from justifiable concern to the most reckless spite and puerile levity, the vote on him decided that all was to be given up with the exception of ten thousand pounds.

But one of whom Bolingbroke had remarked that he had never conversed with a man who more clearly understood the commerce and finances of England was a match for the country gentlemen's assembled wisdom. By settlements which were secure in law, whatever moral judgments might be passed on them, he had already safeguarded a great part of his fortune*, and while his grandson, the historian, remarks that by his skill and industry and credit (which appears to have been little damaged) he created a second fortune not inferior to the first, it must be noted that the great part of the landed property, which he was to bequeath eventually, was already in his possession before the disaster of 1720. In fact, when the dust of the battle subsides, he is decently established at Putney in a fine house with ninety-two acres of land. There he reigned for the remaining sixteen years of his life a tyrant to his family, as we are told, and the oracle of his neighbours among whom he was the oldest, richest and wisest.

* "The Particulars and Inventory of Edward Gibbon, Esq., 1721".
'The freehold estate at Putney, the manor of Lenborough and farm, the manors of Buriton and East Mapledurham, the reversion of Moon's farm and 1/36 share in the New River Water were in pursuance of marriage articles dated 28th-29th March 1720 settled and conveyed to my late mother Hester Acton and Francis Acton and their heirs in trust for my wife's jointure and other uses.' But Mr. Gibbon had married in 1705! His personal property was sworn at £75,072 15s. 2d. and real estate £35,970 10s 4d., a total of £111,043 5s. 6d. Allowing for debts and an interest in his late mother's estate -- she died in 1721 -- the net amount was £106,543 5s. 6d. His furniture and plate were valued at £1208 3s. 4d. Being in Black Rod's custody cost him £130.

Edward married Catherine "Esther" Acton on 09 May 1705 in St. Paul's Cathedral, London. Catherine (daughter of Richard Acton and Anne Llewellyn) was born before 29 Jan 1687/88; was christened on 29 Jan 1687/88 in St. Andrew's, Undershaft, London; died before 11 Apr 1722; was buried on 11 Apr 1722 in St. Mary, Putney, Surrey. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Married:
• "London, England, Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812" (City of London, St. Paul's Cathedral, 1697-1740, 12):
Mr Edward Gibbons Gentleman, and Mrs Katherine Acton of the Parish of St. Helen's Bishops Gate were marryed by License in the Cathedral Church of St. Paul's this 9th of May 1705 by me Sam. Eltwike (?)

• "London, England, Extracted Parish Records" on Ancestry:
16 Apr 1705 Edward Gibbon, Esq., of St Helen's the Great, London, Bachelor, 30, & Catherine Acton, of same, Spinster, 16; consent of uncle & guardian Francis Acton, of St Andrew Undershaft, Mercht, brother & an Ex'or of Richard Acton, decd, father of said Catherine; at St Paul's Cathedral or St Helen's the Great. London: - Marriage Licences, 1611-1828

Notes:

--- "The Gentleman's Magazine" Vol. 63, 1788, page 698-702:
Matthew Gibbon (third son of the second wife) was baptised at Westcliffe, Feb. 23, 1642, and was brought up to Merchandise in London, by which he acquired a handsome fortune, and left issue, Edward Gibbon, esq., a South Sea Director, etc.

--- "The Gentleman's Magazine" Vol. 82, 1797, page1107:
XIII. Matthew Gibbon, thus entered in Westcliffe register: "Matthew, the son of Thomas Gibbon and Alice, baptized Feb. 23, 1642." He was a linen-draper, in Leadenhall-street. He had some concern, or property, in the estate at Westcliffe; for I find, amongst the papers of his nephew, Mr. John Coppin, who was a lawyer, the following notes: "Laid out for my uncle, Matthew Gibbon, to Jan. 6, 1675. -- Notice to Mr. Master -- Horse-hire to Westcliffe, when the seizure was made -- Messenger to Westcliffe, to deliver the letter to Mr. Master."
His widow, whom the Historian calls "an active and notable woman," re-married Richard Acton, goldsmith, whom she also survived, as Mrs. Bradford calls her widow. Her maiden name I have not discovered. Matthew Gibbon was dead on Sept. 14, 1709; for, by a deed of that date, between "Philip Gibbon, of London, gent. and Deborah Bradford, of the same, widow, only surviving issue of Thomas Gibbon, late of Westcliffe, in the county of Kent, by Alice, his wife, who was sister to Dame Jane Maynard," of the one part; and John Bridges, of Gray's Inn, esq. on the other part; after reciting, that, according to a settlement by Lady Maynard, an estate in Romney-Marsh was, upon the death of James Codd, without issue, descended to the said Philip, and Mrs. Bradford, as the only living children of Thomas Gibbon and Alice; the said Mr. P. Gibbon, and Mrs. Bradford, release all their right to Mr. Brydges, who had married their niece, Jane Gibbon. Mr. Matthew Gibbon had issue, by Hesther, his wife, one daughter, Hesther, married to Oliver Elliston, of St. Paul's church-yard, stationer . . . and two sons, of whom Thomas, the younger [sic], was afterwards dean of Carlisle; and Edward, the eldest . . . was a contractor for cloathing King William's army in Flanders, afterwards a commissioner of the customs, and a South Sea Director. . . . He died at Putney, Dec. 25, 1736, and his name is recorded in the Gent. Mag. Vol. VI p. 749, the name being, by mistake, printed Gibson.

--- "Edward Gibbon, 1737-1794" by D.M. Low, 1937, page 8-9:
Gibbon tells us that whereas his grandfather had received his education in the rough school of affairs he prepared his son for the considerable fortune which should come to him by sending him to Westminster, where he might become an elegant scholar and would certainly mingle with the highest ranks of society. It would be wrong, however, to infer for this that Edward Gibbon the first was a man of no education or too humble a position. For the greater part of his life Gibbon was remarkable ignorant and indifferent about his family history, and confesses that for all he knew his grandfather might have been a cottager's son or a foundling. The truth of the matter was very different.

Matthew Gibbon, the historian's great-grandfather, was the son of a landowner at Westcliffe in Kent, whose grandfather had bought the property in Queen Elizabeth's reign. The family was believed to have been well established in the Weald of Kent long before that, and it is therefore possible that Gibbon my after all be descended from the Gibbons of Rolvenden, though not by the line which he claims in his Autobiography.

Mattew was one of several children, and coming to London in the second half of the seventeenth century, is said to have made a fortune as a linen-draper in Leadenhall. At the age of twenty-five he married Hester Abrahall of All Hallows, Barking. Of his five children the two daughters made good marriages and one son, Thomas, went from St. Paul's School to St. John's, Cambridge, and became Dean of Carlisle. It is not improbable that Edward also went to St. Paul's.*

*Gardiner, "Register of St. Paul's School", gives an Edward Gibbon who was at the school under Dr. Gile, i.e. 1672-97, and was a Steward of the Feast in 1701. There was another son, Matthew, who was 'not right in his head'. Gibbon appears aware of only two sons and one daughter. He does not seem to know that his aunt Catherine married her first cousin, since Edward Elliston's mother was Matthew's daughter, Hester.

--- "Notes and Queries" 01 Sep 1951, page 391:
Gibbon Family: Portrait. -- On December 11th 1909, a number of portraits of the Gibbon family, the property of the then Lord Sheffield, were sold at Christie's. They were bought by various dealers and since then, all trace of most of them seems to have been lost.
I am preparing an edition of the letters of Edward Gibbon, and as some of the portraits would make very interesting illustrations to the book, I should be very grateful if any of your readers could give me any information as to the present whereabouts of the following: the numbers attached to each item are taken from Christie's catalogue of the sale on December 11th, 1909:
60. Edward Gibbon in a blue coat and buff vest. Bought Parsons.
61. Mrs. Edward Gibbon in a in a blue and white dress. Bought Sutton.
87. Edward Gibbon in brown dress with white cravat. By T. Hudson. Bought Agnew.
88. Mrs. Edward Gibbon holding a lamb. By T. Hudson. Bought Leggatt.
124. Matthew Gibbon in a yellow gown. By R. Wignall. Bought T. Permain.
signed, Miss J.E. Norton

--- "The Gentleman's Magazine" July 1789, Vol. 59, Part 2, page 585- :
June 22.
Mr. Urban,
As you did me the honour to insert, vol. LVIII. p. 698, the account I sent you of the families of Gibbon and Yorke, I now send you a few additions, which I then either forgot or did not know . . .

Alice (wife of Thomas Gibbon, esq.) the great-grandmother of the Historian, must have been dead in 1651; for then her husband was married again to Mary, daughter of Robert Osborne, of Hartlip, gent. and, having given up his mansion at Westcliffe to his eldest son, retired to her estate at Hartlip. The said Alice was one of the daughters of Cheney Selherst, of Tenterden, esq. Her sister Jane married, 1st Edward Austen, esq.* and afterwards Sir John Maynard, of Gubbersbury, knt. appointed one of the Lords Commissioners of the Great Seal (not Lord Keeper), March 2, 1688. He survived her many years, for she died, March 28, 1688**; he, at Gunnersbury, Oct. 9, 1690.

Edward Gibbon, esq. first husband of the mother of the Chancellor, died about 1677, and was buried in the church of Greenwich, Kent. She could have been married to him but a short time, for his first wife did not die till 1674. However, she had a son by him of the name of Philip (who died a youth), half brother both to Mrs. Brydges and Lord Chancellor Hardwicke. The latter, the issue of her second husband, was born 1690.

Matthew Gibbon, the Historian's grandfather, seems himself to have had some share in the estate at Westcliffe, which I can no otherwise account for, than by supposing his father died intestate, and that he took his part in the estates as co-heir by gavelkind.

. . . Matthew Gibbon had a handsome house at Putney, the same (I have been told) which afterwards belonged to Mr. Wood, who published the Ruins of Palmyra, and which his widow lately pulled down. The family have a vault in the church there.

I shall now throw together a series of dates, &c. collected from various volumes of your useful Magazine ---
. . . "Phylip Gibbon, M.P. for Rye, in Sussex, died Mar. 12, 1762. He sat in eleven parliaments." Gent. Mag. for that year; and see vol. LVIII p. 834.
In the Bibliotheca Topographica, No. XLV I find the following epitaph, which, that I may throw all that regards this family together, I here transcribe, though it does not seem perfectly to agree with the account given by Philpot, in Vill. Cant. p. 196.
Inscription on a brass plate in the possession of John Beardsworth, esq. of the Hole, in Rolvenden, Kent, and taken from that church:
Here resteth Robert Gibbon, sonne and Heire of Thomas, sonne and heirs of Gibbon Sackford, lineally and lawfully Descended from the familys of Sackford Hall in Suffolke, and Clan Gibbon*** in Ireland. Ob. XIII die Junii, anno D'ni MDCXVIII.

* Elder brother to the ancestor of the baronets of that name.
** She had no issue by either husband -- Sir John must, therefore, have had another wife, for he left at least a son and daughter. The latter married Sir Duncombe Colchester, of Westbury, in the county of Gloucester, knt. The former Joseph Maynard, of Gunnersbury, esq. left two co-heirs, of whom Mary was second wife of Thomas Grey, second Earl of Stamford, though S.P. Gunnersbury, built by Inigo Jones, afterwards belonged to Mr. Furnese, of whose family it was bought for the late Princess Amelia. -- Lady Maynard devised (according to a power reserved in her marriage settlements) her estates to the issue of her two sisters successively in tail, among which were 200 acres of marsh land in Dimechurch, Joychurch, and Medley, subject to an annuity of £40 per annum to Merchant-Taylers school, which now continues to be paid by the family.
*** Camden in Britannia, p. 984, ed. 1694, under Limerick in Ireland, says, "Near Adare stands Clan Gibbon, the lord whereof, John Fitzgerald, called John Oge Fitz John, Fitz Gibbon, and, from the grey hair of his head, the White Knight, was banished by act of parliament: but, by the clemency of Q. Elizabeth, his son was restored to his whole estate."

Matthew married Hester Abrahall on 17 Oct 1667. Hester (daughter of Thomas Abrahall) died in 1721; was buried on 08 Mar 1720/21 in St. Mary's, Acton Round, Shropshire. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events:

• Will: 30 Jul 1718, Will Written
• Probate: 19 May 1721, P.C.C., London

Notes:

--- St Peter, Cornhill, burial register reads:
"1703/4. March 21. Richard Acton, linen draper, in the middle Isle."
(This will be the same vault where he buried his first wife in 1697/8.)

--- Listed as a Linen Draper on his first wife's burial record and his own burial record, but as a Vintner in his will.

--- Extracts from the Last Will of "Richard Acton Citizen and Vintner of London":
(signed 13 March 1703/4) :
Wife Hester Acton
Daughter Ann, wife of Mr Thomas Parrott, linen draper
£200 pound for Mourning for said Thomas & Ann Parrott and their children
Son Richard
Daughter Catherine
Wife Hester gets the dwelling house at Richmond, Surrey
Sister Catherine Evance [Evans], wife of Thomas Evance, draper of Bridgnorth
Nephew Richard Acton, son of my brother Robert Acton, deceased (who is now on a voyage to the East Indies, the sum of £200 to be paid to him if he lives to return to England).
Doctor Bray of Richmond
Son-in-law Edward Gibbon of London, Gentleman, another of my executors
Brother Francis Acton

Richard married Anne Llewellyn. Anne was buried on 17 Jan 1697/98 in St. Peter's, Cornhill, London. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

St Andrew, Undershaft, parish register reads: Anne wife of Mr Richard Acton dyed here and was buried at St Peter's Cornhill, 17 Jan 1697/8.

St Peter upon Cornhill parish register reads: 1697/8. January 17. Anne the wife of Richard Acton, Linen Draper, was buried in the Middle Isle.

Notes:

--- "The Gentleman's Magazine" Vol. 82, 1797, page1108:
Alice, the 2d wife of Thomas Gibbon; the mother of these nine last children, was buried at Westcliffe May 31, 1648; and her husband married, a third time, to Mary, daughter of Robert Osborn, of Hartlip, gent. who survived him, dying Oct. 22, 1678. On this marriage, Thomas Gibbon resided at Hartlip, probably giving up his mansion at Westcliffe to his eldest son. He lived to the great age of 81, and was brought to Westcliffe to by buried Nov. 19, 1671. His property was considerable: I find him sometimes written "Thomas Gibbon, gent." and sometimes "Thomas Gibbon, esq." On Dec. 20, 1647, he bought the manor of Kingston, on Barham-downs, of Sir Anthony Aucher, of Bourne, for £2,850 and this estate still belongs to his descendants. In 1698, he sold to the trustees of Lady Maynard's settlements, lands in Ivychurch, Medley, &c. in Romney-Marsh, for £2,754.

Thomas married Alice Taylor on 15 Oct 1635 in Westcliffe, Kent. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Listed as Thomas Abrahall of Barking.

Notes:

2nd Baronet

Walter married Catherine Cresset. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]