THEIR AUTHORS AND OKIGIN. 177
Thomas Gibbons was born at Beak, in the parish of Swaffham Prior, near Newmarket, May 31, 1720. His father, of the same name, was pastor first at Olney, and then at Royston. Young Gibbons received his early education in Cambridgeshire, and, in 1735, was placed under the care of Dr. Taylor, at Deptford. In 1742, he was ordained, and became assistant preacher to the Rev. Mr. Bures, at Silver Street Chapel ; and, in 1743, he became pastor of the Independent Church assembling at Haberdashers Hall, in which position he continued to the end of his life. In 1744, he married Hannah, daughter of the Rev. John Shuttle- wood. His family consisted of four sons.
In 1 754, he became tutor of the Dissenting Academy at Mile End, where he taught logic, metaphysics, ethics, and rhetoric. In the year 1759, he further added to his duties by becoming Sunday evening lecturer at Monkwell Street. The degree of M.A. was conferred on him in 17(50, by the college of New Jersey, America ; and in 1764, he received the diploma of Doctor of Divinity from Aberdeen. Dr. Gibbons was intimate with the Countess of Huntingdon and other religious celebrities of his day, and especially with Dr. Watts, in whose honour he wrote, in 1749, an elegiac poem. He also wrote a " Memoir of Dr. Watts, in 1780. He died of apoplexy, February 22, 1785.
Amongst Dr. Gibbons works were " Calvinism and Noncon formity Defended, &c.," 1740. " Rhetoric," 17G7. "Female Worthies," in 2 vols., 1777. " Sermons on Various Subjects," 1762 ; and after his death, three volumes of his sermons were published by subscription.
It was a weak point with Dr. Gibbons, that he rated his poetical powers beyond their real worth. He translated Dr. Watts Latin poems, and wrote several elegies, which are more remarkable for their grandiloquence than for any poetic excellence they possess. In 1750 he published " Juvenilia : Poems on Various Subjects of Devotion and Virtue." His first collection of hj-mns, in two books, appeared in 1769 ; and the second, in two books, in 1784. The sermons published in 1762 were entitled, " Sermons
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