| 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.
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1671 - 1736 (~ 65 years)
[1] 
Married