Family and Education

b. by 1524, s. of Philip Gibbon alias Payne of ‘Penhebet’ in the lordship of St. Fagan’s, Glam. educ. All Souls, Oxf. fellow 1538-48, BCL 1540, DCL by 1551; adv. Doctors’ Commons Jan. 1551. m. (1) Joan, da. and h. of Thomas Taylor of London, 1s. 2da.; (2) by 1560, Elizabeth, da. of (Sir) William Roche of London, 1s.1

Offices Held

Principal, New Inn Hall, Oxf. Aug. 1548-Dec. 1550; commissary of dean of the arches in June 1553; master in Chancery by 1570; commr. visit Oxf. univ. 1577.2

Biography

John Gibbon was of Welsh birth. Like several other eminent civilians trained at All Souls, including William Aubrey II and Daniel Dunne, he served a term as principal of New Inn Hall after filling various offices within the college and before his admission to Doctors’ Commons and his appointment to a post in the court of arches. John White, the borough’s episcopal lord, was evidently responsible for his return for Hindon together with a fellow-civilian of All Souls, Henry Jones II. Thomas Martin, who sat for Hindon in each of the three previous Parliaments, was also a civilian, and William Aubrey was to sit for the borough in 1559. Gibbon’s name may have been inserted in the indenture in a different hand from that of the document. He is mentioned in the decree book of the court of arches as in attendance on 21 Feb. 1560. Between 1566 and 1572 he acted as a judge-delegate to hear appeals against sentences pronounced in the courts of the arches, the admiralty and the prerogative court of Canterbury. In 1570 he received a grant of a crest for his arms. He is said to have died in London, in the parish of St. Faith the Virgin, ‘about the beginning of the year 1581’.3

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: S. R. Johnson

Notes

• 1. Date of birth estimated from education. Vis. London (Harl. Soc. cix, cv), 79-80; Emden, Biog. Reg. Univ. Oxf. 1501-40, p. 254; G. D. Squibb, Doctors’ Commons, 150.
• 2. Emden, 254; Burnet, Hist. Ref. vi. 296; CPR, 1569-72, p. 262; CSP Dom. 1547-80, p. 543.
• 3. VCH Wilts. v. 118; C219/25/137; Lambeth Palace Lib. decree bk. 1560-1; CPR, 1563-6, pp. 487, 492; 1569-72, pp. 262, 280, 354; 1572-5, p. 194; Grantees of Arms (Harl. Soc. lxvi), 193; Wood, Fasti, ed. Bliss, 131.