On 17 April 1526, when witnessing a document, he is styled ‘that venerable and circumspect man Master William Gibson, dean of Restalrig.’ His predecessor was Patrick Covyntre, who had presided at his graduation, one of thirteen ambassadors for negotiating a peace with England in 1516, who died about 1524. Gibson must, therefore, have become dean about 1525. On 27 Aug. 1527, after Gibson had become dean, James V added the rectory of Ellem to Restalrig.
In 1532 Gibson was appointed a lord of session. To remedy defects in the administration of justice in civil causes, which had rested with the nobility, James V had resolved to institute the College of Justice, of which the first idea is said to have been suggested by the parliament of Paris. This court was to consist of fourteen judges and a president. Ten thousand ‘golden ducats of the chamber’ were to be levied from the Scottish bishoprics and monastic institutions, and in return for this it was stipulated that one half of the judges should be ecclesiastics, and that the president should always be a churchman.
According to Sir Robert Douglas, followed by Brunton and Haig, Gibson was, on account of his extensive abilities, frequently employed in embassies to the pope. Contemporary history does not record many such embassies at that period, but there was one connected with the dispute between James V and the prelates about the expenses of the College of Justice, and probably Gibson had some credit for the amicable settlement of that matter. For some reason he was in favour with the pope, who bestowed on him an armorial bearing of three keys, with the motto ‘Cœlestes pandite portas.’ This has been retained by representatives of the family ever since, but they do not now possess the estate of Durie.
In 1539 James Beaton, archbishop of St. Andrews, died, and the charge of all ecclesiastical affairs was committed to his nephew the cardinal, David Beaton [q. v.], who in 1540 desired to associate Gibson with himself as suffragan. He was to hold his other preferments and to receive a pension of 200l. a year from the cardinal and his successors. To this arrangement the pope's sanction was needful, and in letters dated 4 May 1540 James V and Cardinal Beaton answer for Gibson's knowledge of law and theology, and for his high moral character. It was probably in connection with this appointment that the king gave him the title of ‘Custos Ecclesiæ Scoticæ.’ The precise date of his death is uncertain, but it appears to have been before 1545. On 27 April 1540 Dr. John Sinclair was appointed a lord of session, while abbot of Snaw, which designation he still held in 1542. From that date there is a blank in the register till 1545, when the name of Gibson has disappeared, and Sinclair is on the list of judges as dean of Restalrig.
[Douglas's Baronage of Scotland, p. 568; Brunton and Haig's Senators of the College of Justice, p. 13; Reg. Univ. Glasguensis, ii. 18, 124, 138, 285; Charters of the Collegiate Churches of Midlothian (Bannatyne Club), pp. 273, 280, 290, and preface thereto, pp. xliii–v; Epist. Reg. Scot., printed 1724, pp. 63–6; Tytler's Hist. of Scotland, v. 198; Spotiswood's Church Hist. pp. 67–8, fol. London, 1666.]
GIBSON, WILLIAM (1629–1684), quaker, was born at Caton in Lancashire in 1629. During his early life he was a puritan, and a soldier in the parliamentary forces. While forming part of the garrison at Carlisle he joined a party to insult a quaker meeting, but was so attracted by the preacher's words that he attended other meetings, and finally left the army. In 1654 he was committed to Lancaster gaol for ‘public testimony.’ In 1655 and 1656 he was several times imprisoned for short periods for the same offence, and is believed to have been recognised as a quaker minister about this time. In 1660 he was again imprisoned at Lancaster for some months on account of his refusal to take the oaths of allegiance and supremacy, and in 1661 at Shrewsbury for some unknown cause. During the same year he was seized on the road to a meeting in Denbighshire by a party of soldiers, and sent to gaol with a number of other quakers. They were all liberated at the assizes except Gibson, who was kept in prison and cruelly treated by the gaolers. They once threw him down a flight of stone stairs, and caused a six months' illness. On his discharge he married in 1662, and settled at Warrington in Lancashire, where he is believed to have engaged in trade. Subsequently he seems to have removed to London, and in 1672 his name appears in a list of quakers discharged from the king's bench under the general proclamation of Charles II. During 1676 and 1677, while living in Fenchurch Street, his goods were several times distrained on account of his not paying tithes. From a letter protesting against the eviction of the Friends from Danzig, dated 8 Aug. 1679, Gibson appears to have been engaged in ministerial work in Holland during that year. He died in London, aged 55, on 23 Nov. 1684, and was buried from a meeting in White Hart Court at the Friends' burial-ground, near Bunhill Fields, his funeral being attended by upwards of a thousand quakers. His pub-
