Meanwhile he had become connected in 1861 with the ‘Gardener's Magazine,’ of which he was editor at the time of his death. Hibberd was a man of many schemes. He was a temperance advocate and a vegetarian. But he is chiefly known as a practical writer on horticulture. He made various experiments on fruit-trees and vegetables, notably potatoes, and kept moving further into the suburbs in order to have better opportunities of pursuing his gardening operations. Hibberd died at the Hermitage, near Muswell Hill, on 16 Nov. 1890, and was buried in Abney Park cemetery at Stoke Newington. His portrait appears in the ‘Gardener's Magazine’ of 22 Nov. 1890. He was twice married, and left one daughter by his second wife. Among many other works, Hibberd published:
- ‘Brambles and Bay Leaves: Essays on the Homely and the Beautiful,’ 1855, 8vo; 3rd edit. 1873.
- ‘Profitable Gardening …,’ 1863, 8vo.
- ‘Familiar Garden Flowers …,’ 1879–87, 8vo.
[Gardeners' Chronicle, 22 Nov. 1890; Times, 17 Nov. 1890; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
HIBBERT, GEORGE (1757–1837), collector and merchant, son of Robert Hibbert, a West India merchant, was born at Manchester in 1757. He was educated at a private school kept by a clergyman named Booth first at Liverpool and afterwards at Woolton. He settled in London as junior partner in a West India house, eventually becoming the head of the firm. He was alderman of London from 1798 to 1803, and from 1806 to 1812 was M.P. for Seaford, Sussex. He was a lucid and forcible speaker, and supported the whigs. At meetings in the city of London he moved the resolutions which led to the imposition of the property tax in 1798, and again those which forced its repeal in 1816. In conjunction with Robert Milligan, he was mainly instrumental in originating and maturing the schemes for establishing the West India Docks. He was also chairman of the West India merchants until 1831, and agent for Jamaica. In the foundation of the London Institution in 1805 he was most active, and was its president for many years.
He was elected F.R.S. in 1811, and F.S.A. in 1812. He was a patron of art and a collector of pictures and books, and formed a large collection of exotic plants at his house at Clapham. In 1829 he succeeded to the estate of R. Parker at Munden, near Watford, Hertfordshire, and removed there; but the size of his new residence necessitated the disposal of the greater part of his literary and art treasures. The sale of his library occupied forty-two days, and the catalogue fills 482 pages. He published in 1807 ‘The Substance of three Speeches on the Abolition of the Slave Trade.’ As a member of the Roxburghe Club he edited for that body in 1819 Caxton's translation of Ovid's ‘Metamorphoses,’ with a preface by himself.
He died at Munden House on 8 Oct. 1837, and was buried at Aldenham. He married Elizabeth Margaret, daughter of Philip Fonnereau, esq. His portrait and that of his wife were engraved by Ward after Hoppner. Another portrait of Hibbert by Sir Thomas Lawrence hangs in the board-room of the East and West India Company.
[Gent. Mag. January 1838, pt. i. p. 96 (memoir), and July 1829, p. 64 (sale of his library); Evans's Cat. of Engraved Portraits, ii. 200; Baker's Memorials of a Dissenting Chapel, p. 90; Cussans's Hertfordshire, ‘Dracorum,’ p. 268, and ‘Cashio,’ p. 179.]
HIBBERT, HENRY (1600?–1678), divine, was born in Cheshire about 1600. In 1618 he entered Brasenose College, Oxford, and graduated B.A. on 27 June 1622 (Wood, Fasti Oxon. ed. Bliss, i. 405). He became rector of Settrington, Yorkshire, and in 1651 vicar of Holy Trinity, Kingston-upon-Hull, in the same county, but was ejected for nonconformity in 1660. Hibbert soon conformed, and on Restoration day, 29 May 1661, he preached at St. Paul's before the lord mayor a very loyal sermon, published as ‘Regina Dierum, or the Joyful Day,’ 4to, London, 1661. He was rewarded in 1662 by the rectory of All Hallows the Less, London, and on 22 Sept. of the same year was instituted to the vicarage of St. Olave Jewry (Newcourt, Repertorium, i. 515). As a member of St. John's College, Cambridge, he was made B.D. in 1664 by royal mandate, and D.D. in 1665 (Cantabr. Graduati, ed. 1787, p. 192). On 12 Jan. 1668–9 he was installed prebendary of St. Paul's (Le Neve, Fasti, ed. Hardy, ii. 376). Hibbert died in September 1678, leaving two daughters, Hannah and Mary.
He was author of:
- ‘Waters of Marah, drawn forth in two Funerall Sermons, October 1653 [on the two children of William Lyme, collector of the customs at Hull]. Since (upon desire) enlarged,’ 8vo, London, 1654.
- ‘Syntagma Theologicum; or a Treatise wherein is concisely comprehended the Body of Divinity, and the Fundamentals of Religion orderly discussed. Whereunto are added certain Divine Discourses,’ &c., 2 pts., fol., London, 1662, to which is prefixed his portrait engraved by D. Loggan. It bears a slavish dedication to James, duke of York.
