Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 21.djvu/265

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whose own will, dated 19 March 1677–8, was proved 22 Jan. 1682–3. She is assumed to be the person whose burial in the cloisters on 27 Dec. 1682 is entered as that of Elizabeth Bull (see Chester, Registers of Westminster Abbey, pp. 190, 206, where the name of Gibbons's second wife, whether her maiden name or that of a former husband, is stated to have been Ball).

Gibbons excelled less as a composer than as an organ-player, and it was no doubt in the latter capacity that he acted as Blow's instructor. The only printed works by him are contained in ‘Cantica Sacra’ (the second set, published by Playford, 1674; see Dering, Richard). His contributions to the book are ‘Celebrate Dominum,’ ‘Sing unto the Lord,’ ‘Teach me, O Lord,’ and ‘How long wilt thou forget me,’ all for two voices. The second and fourth of these, as well as ‘O give thanks’ and ‘The Lord said unto my lord,’ are in manuscript in the British Museum (Add. MSS. 17799, 17820, 17840); the volume of anthems in Blow's writing in the Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge contains, besides the three English anthems in ‘Cantica Sacra,’ ‘Let Thy merciful ears’ and ‘Teach me, O Lord,’ both by Gibbons; and Hawkins mentions ‘God be merciful,’ ‘Help me, O Lord,’ and ‘Lord, I am not high-minded,’ among ‘those of most note.’ A three-part song, ‘Ah, my soul, why so dismay'd,’ is in Add. MS. 22100. A portrait of Gibbons is in the Music School, Oxford.

[Authorities quoted above; Grove's Dict. i. 565, 595, ii. 157, iv. 647; Hawkins's Hist. ed. 1853, p. 713; Winchester Chapter Books, communicated by Mr. W. Barclay Squire; Notes and Queries, 3rd ser. x. 182, 4th ser. v. 288; Companion to the Playhouse, 1764, vol. i.; Evelyn's Diary, 12 July 1654.]

J. A. F. M.

GIBBONS, EDWARD (1570?–1653?), musical composer, supposed to have been son of William Gibbons, one of the ‘waits’ at Cambridge, was brother of Orlando [q. v.] and uncle of Christopher Gibbons [q. v.] He received the degree of Mus.B. at Cambridge, and on 7 July 1592 was incorporated in the same degree at Oxford. At midsummer in that year he became organist and master of the choristers at King's College, Cambridge, succeeding Thomas Hammond, who returned to the duties in 1599. Between those two dates the ‘Mundum Books’ of the college contain entries showing that Gibbons, or ‘Gibbins’ as he is more usually called, received 20s. a quarter as his own salary, and 11s. 8d. for the tuition of the choristers. He had to provide for the making, mending, &c., of the choristers' clothes. About the beginning of the century he went to Bristol, being appointed cathedral organist, priest-vicar, sub-chanter, and master of the choristers. In 1611 he was given the post of organist and custos of the college of priest-vicars at Exeter Cathedral, and he remained there until 1644. In 1634 a complaint was made that he was in the habit of neglecting his duties, and he, with two other of the vicars-choral, replied to the charge (Hist. MSS. Comm. 4th Rep. Appendix, pp. 137, 139). Hawkins states, but only as a matter of hearsay, that on the outbreak of the civil war he advanced a sum of 1,000l. to the king, and that in consequence of this he was deprived of a very considerable estate by those afterwards in power, and was, with his three grandchildren, driven from his house, though he was then over eighty years of age.

In the Music School at Oxford a few manuscript compositions by him are preserved, and in the Tudway collection (Brit. Mus. Harl. MS. 7340) his ‘How doth the city sit solitary’ is included.

[Wood's Fasti Oxon. vol. ii. col. 258; Mundum Books of King's College, Cambridge, vol. xx.; Lib. Communarum, ib. vols. xxi–xxiii.; Grove's Dict. i. 594 (the dates of his appointment at Exeter are given in Grove, without reference to authoritative documents of any kind); Hawkins's Hist. ed. 1853, p. 573. The Cathedral Registers at Bristol date back only to 1660, so that the exact date of his appointment there cannot be discovered.]

J. A. F. M.

GIBBONS, ELLIS (fl. 1600), musical composer, brother of Edward [q. v.] and Orlando Gibbons [q. v.], is said to have been organist of Salisbury Cathedral at the end of the sixteenth century. The only compositions extant by him are two madrigals, ‘Long live fair Oriana’ and ‘Round about her Chariot,’ contained in ‘The Triumphs of Oriana,’ published 1603.

[Grove's Dict. i. 594; Hawkins's Hist. ed. 1853, p. 573. The Chapter Act Books at Salisbury contain no mention of Gibbons's name; the volume for 1599–1603 is missing, however, and may have contained the entries both of his appointment and of that of his successor.]

J. A. F. M.

GIBBONS, GRINLING (1648–1720), wood-carver and statuary, was born at Rotterdam on 4 April 1648 of Dutch origin. This is proved by a letter preserved in the Ashmolean MSS. (20243) in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, dated 12 Oct. 1682, wherein Gibbons invokes Ashmole's skill in prognostication with reference to a ‘consarne of great consiquens,’ and encloses a letter from his sister, giving an account of his birth, to enable Ashmole to calculate his astrological figure. The mixture of Dutch and English