GIBBS, William (1599-1689), of Stoke-by-Nayland, Suff.

William Gibbs, the eldest son of Henry Gibbs of Moorecott, Worcestershire, was born in his mother’s home parish of Great Comberton, near Pershore, in the same county, in 1599. His father was a long-serving churchwarden of that parish.29Great Comberton par. reg. In 1615, Gibbs became apprenticed to Robert Jenner*, a member of the Goldsmiths’ Company in London, who worked as a refiner and wire drawer at his premises on Foster Lane.30Goldsmiths’ Co. Appr. Bk. 1, f. 220. Gibbs became free of the company in June 1622, and took on his first apprentice, his brother Richard, a few months later.31Goldsmiths’ Co. Court Bk. P. f. 286v; Appr. Bk. 1, f. 257. Gibbs, like Jenner, was made a freeman of the short-lived Gold and Silver Wire Drawers’ Company in June 1623, though both men were in fact ‘finers’, producing refined gold and silver from imported bullion for the wire drawers.32Carr, Select Charters, 119. During the late 1620s and throughout the 1630s, Gibbs looked after his former master’s business interests in London while Jenner was in Wiltshire, including serving as his deputy as ‘rentor’ warden of the Goldsmiths’ Company during 1629.33Goldsmiths’ Co. Court Bk. T, ff. 143v-44; Court Bk. Q, ff. 148-9. Like Jenner, Gibbs was only a reluctant servant of the Goldsmiths’ Company. In November 1629 it was noted in the company’s court minutes that Gibbs had been an irregular attender at general assemblies, and that he had refused to attend dinner with the sheriff and lord mayor.34Goldsmiths’ Co. Court Bk. Q, ff. 144v, 147v. On 4 Feb. 1631 he was fined for not attending the wardens on Candlemas.35Goldsmiths’ Co. Court Bk. R, f. 29v. In the late 1620s and early 1630s Gibbs joined Jenner as a partner in the purchase and sale of the manor of Eisey in north Wiltshire.36C54/2826/11; C54/2829/32. In December 1634 Gibbs succeeded Jenner as common councilman for their home ward of Aldersgate Within in December 1634.37GL, MS 2050/1, f. 38v. The two men remained close later in the decade, and in May 1640, Gibbs appeared at the Goldsmiths’ Company court of assistants to excuse Jenner’s hasty departure from town at the close of the parliamentary session and his consequent refusal to take up the post of second warden with the company.38Goldsmiths’ Co. Court Bk. V, ff. 56v-57v.

As well as with Jenner, Gibbs was closely associated with another Goldsmith and refiner, (Sir) John Wollaston.39GL, MS 2050/1, ff. 33-40v. Gibbs and Wollaston appear to have been collaborating in the importation of silver bullion by 1636, when they were granted a royal monopoly, much to the chagrin of yet another Goldsmith, Thomas Violet, who later produced a lengthy tract providing his version of how Gibbs and Wollaston came by the monopoly. In it, Violet alleged that in January 1635, in his capacity as surveyor of gold and silver wire and thread, he had entered a complaint against Wollaston and Gibbs for illegally melting down English silver coin, resulting in a case against them in Star Chamber. Acting under authority from the secretary of state, Sir John Coke†, ‘and at the earnest entreaty of Alderman Gibbs who with many tears besought me to do it for God’s sake’, Violet was instrumental in freeing Wollaston from charges (made by Sir Henry Mildmay*) that he had purchased plate stolen from the king.40Violet, Proposals Humbly Presented, 57, 60. On receiving word that they would be pardoned, Wollaston and Gibbs and others put in their bid for the monopoly of refining silver for the wire drawing trade, which was duly granted.41Rymer, Foedera xix. 718, 735; CSP Dom. 1635, p. 598; Violet, Proposals Humbly Presented, 62. According to Violet, the refiners set up in business in a house in Little Britain several months before the pardons had been finally approved. When the pardons arrived at the signet office, Mildmay changed his mind, persuading the king to suspend them. Only when Gibbs and Wollaston offered to increase their bid was it accepted.42Violet, Proposals Humbly Presented, 62-3. The financial benefits to the crown from this new monopoly were clear, with the committee of trade estimating a return of over £8,000 per annum.43CSP Dom. 1635, p. 598. The monopoly lasted until around December 1640 when, Violet alleged, Wollaston and Gibbs petitioned to have their patent of agency dissolved, fearing the consequences of a parliamentary enquiry into such irregular activities.44Violet, Proposals Humbly Presented, 65.

There is little in the way of clear evidence to substantiate Violet’s claims, but his dating of events is consistent with the records of the Privy Council. On 25 January 1635, the Council considered complaints from Mildmay that some of the king’s plate had been stolen and melted into ingots to be sold, and from the Goldsmiths’ Company that refiners were forestalling on both the company and the Mint by selling silver bullion direct to the wire drawers at a higher rate than either the Company or the Mint were allowed.45PC2/44, f. 167. Unfortunately, the refiners in question were not named, and nor was any further mention made of the allegations in the records of the privy council. There is no doubt, however, that Gibbs grew suddenly prosperous in the late 1630s, whether through fair means or foul. He was made justice of the peace for Middlesex in June 1637; and in 1639 he purchased from the 1st earl of Portland’s grandson, Jerome Weston, the manor of Nayland in Suffolk and adjoining property in the parish of Great Horkesley in Essex.46Coventry Docquets, 73; Morant, Essex, ii. 238. In the same period, he was rebuilding his relations with the Goldsmiths’ Company. In November 1638 he was chosen to act as ‘rentor’ for the Company, and he was named to a committee in January 1640 to draft the Goldsmiths’ grievances for presentation to the forthcoming Parliament (although he was to lose the latter place in March when the committee was reappointed from a wider pool of candidates, which included Francis Allein*).47Goldsmiths’ Co. Court Bk. T, ff. 143v-44; Court Bk. V, ff. 33v-34v, 44v-45v. Gibbs’s improved standing at Goldsmiths’ Hall can also be surmised from appointment to the court of assistants in May 1640, during Wollaston’s term as prime warden of the company.48Goldsmiths’ Co. Court Bk. V, ff. 56v-57v.

Although he had been a royal monopolist during the 1630s, Gibbs showed little support for Charles I once the Long Parliament had convened. He was appointed to the City’s militia committee for the first time in February 1642, and would become one of only three committeemen to retain their membership throughout the 1640s.49CJ ii. 428a; LJ iv. 578a; A. and O. In the spring and summer of that year, Gibbs invested £250 in the Irish Adventure.50CSP Ire. Adv. 1642-59, pp. 66, 190. Having been summoned to York by the king in June, Gibbs and Wollaston both deferred answering the summons by seeking advice from Parliament on whether to obey, and were predictably denied permission to leave the City by an order of both Houses.51LJ v. 130b-131a. Sir Simonds D’Ewes* noted wryly that ‘it was done with their own good liking that they were enjoined to stay’.52PJ iii. 52. In August 1642, Gibbs was nominated as alderman of Farringdon Without by Isaac Penington*, Sir Nicholas Rainton and Samuel Warner*.53CLRO, Rep. 56, ff. 6v, 9v. Thereafter, Gibbs became a prominent figure in City affairs. As an alderman, he acted regularly as a representative and spokesman for the militia committee and for the common council. He made regular appearances at Parliament, both as a spokesman and assistant on behalf of the City, as on 23 February 1643 when he was among those who accompanied Alderman John Fowke to present the City’s proposals for a peace treaty with the king.54Add. 31116, pp. 54-5. Gibbs’s attendance with the committee at the bar of the House of Commons suggests that he supported these proposals, which centred on three demands: a reduction in the size (and thus the cost) of the 3rd earl of Essex’s army; indemnity for the City in their adherence to Parliament; and the promotion of a religious covenant ‘for the defence of religion and liberty, in case the treaty take not effect’.55CJ ii. 976a; Add. 31116, p. 55. The demand for indemnity affected Fowke most immediately, as he had been branded as a traitor by the king in January 1643 and excluded from pardon together with John Venn,* Lord Mayor Isaac Penington* and his deputy, Colonel Randall Mainwaring.56Add. 31116, p. 38. But Gibbs too had a vested interest in the demand for indemnity, having sought parliamentary approval to disregard the king’s order to attend at York in June 1642. Gibbs’s support for the establishment of a Presbyterian church system also suggests that he was not prepared to accept peace terms from the king while they continued to include a demand for the retention of the Book of Common Prayer.

Gibbs’s evident wariness of peace deals makes the accusations levelled at him in December 1643 - that he had been involved in a royalist attempt to capture London - all the more curious. According to Sir Basil Brooke, one of the leading members of the conspiracy, ‘though Alderman Gibbs refused to have anything to do in the business but in a public way, yet he was conceived by Violet, notwithstanding to be the same man he was before, inclinable towards peace’.57A Cunning Plot to Divide and Destroy the Parliament and the City of London (16 Jan. 1644), 24-6 (E.29.3). In the end it was his old enemy, Thomas Violet, not Gibbs, who was put under arrest. Gibbs underlined his loyalty to Parliament on 15 December when, as a member of a delegation sent from the City, he requested that the Commons investigate the surrender of Arundel Castle, and expressed the City’s fears for its supply routes, should the king gain control of the home counties.58Add. 31116, p. 201. His reputation in the City suffered no long- term consequences. In May 1644 Wollaston, as the outgoing mayor, named Gibbs as principal sheriff for the ensuing year toasting him with a cup of Canary wine mixed with lemon and sugar. Gibbs at first declined, but Wollaston insisted

telling him that if he had been absent he would (according to an ancient custom in that behalf) have sent the common crier to his house with a flagon of Hippocras [spiced wine] and a box of wafers, but being present that ceremony was needless.59Goldsmiths’ Co. Court Bk. W, ff. 230v-31.

Such extravagant gestures did not extend to the gratuity offered to Gibbs, however. On 20 September 1644, the Goldsmiths’ Company reduced the customary sum from £100 to £50, but offered Gibbs the use of the Company plate (used by Wollaston during his mayoralty) by way of compensation.60Goldsmiths’ Co. Court Bk. W, ff. 256v-57.

As sheriff, Gibbs continued to represent the views and desires of the City to Parliament. On 11 November 1644 he ‘did at large discourse’ upon their fears regarding the defence of London, and requested improved defensive measures for Sussex and the garrison at Windsor.61Add. 31116, p. 345. The Commons gave their assurance that these matters were in hand, but took offence at ‘a passage that fell from the alderman at the bar, as if there were an apprehension (a misapprehension it is, I am sure), in the City, as if the House gave not their wonted respects to the City’.62CJ iii. 693a. When Gibbs reported back to the common council at their next meeting on 28 November, however, he made no mention of the apparent offence, noting only that the House had returned thanks for the City’s care of Parliament.63CLRO, Common Council Jnl. 40, f. 116v. It also fell to Gibbs, in his capacity as sheriff, to oversee the execution of Archbishop Laud, who was handed over to his custody by a parliamentary order of 6 January 1645.64CJ iv. 11a; Add. 31116, p. 368.

Gibbs’s presence was recorded at all meetings of the common council during his shrieval year, and he seems to have become increasingly active from April 1645. He was appointed to committees to inform Parliament of the City’s choice of Francis West as lieutenant of the Tower (24 Apr.), to adjudicate a dispute among porters (29 Apr.), and to pass on the City’s thanks to fast-day preachers (16 May).65CLRO, Common Council Jnl. 40, ff. 126, 126v, 130v. On 9 June 1645, Gibbs intervened in a debate on a Commons’ request for 500 musketeers for the relief of Taunton, informing the council that the militia committee had already made it clear to the House that they would be unable to oblige.66CJ v. 168b; CLRO, Common Council Jnl. 40, f. 132v. Instead, the council voted to assist financially by way of a voluntary subscription. On 23 July Gibbs appeared at the bar of the Commons on behalf of John Fowke, who had been imprisoned by the Committee of Accounts for failing to perfect his accounts in the manner required by them.67CLRO, Common Council Jnl. 40, f. 136. Gibbs complained that, contrary to custom, the lord mayor had not been informed of the intended action.68Add. 31116, p. 444.

Gibbs’s religious views influenced his activities in London. On 19 November 1645, he introduced a petition from the City on behalf of the London clergy expressing their fears of the danger of schism as a result of the failure to establish a Presbyterian settlement.69CJ iv. 348a-b. The petition received a frosty reception in the Commons, which was at that time dominated by Independents hostile to demands of the High Presbyterians in the City.70Juxon Jnl. 95. Notwithstanding this, on 15 January 1646 Gibbs returned with another City petition concerning church government. This petition demanded a Presbyterian church settlement according to the terms of the Solemn League and Covenant, complained of the increase of private religious meetings and of women preachers, and was accompanied by a petition from the ward of Farringdon Within as an example of how widespread feeling went in the City.71CJ iv. 407a; Add. 31116, p. 508. The tone of the petition was barely less insistent than that of November 1645, yet its reception by the House was very different, as the Presbyterians ensured it was ‘extremely well received, and thanks given’.72CJ iv. 407a; Juxon Jnl. 98. With this success behind them, the City activists set about the compilation of a manifesto of all of their grievances, both civil and religious. Gibbs was appointed to the committee of common council to draft the resulting remonstrance on 14 April, and it was eventually presented to Parliament on 26 May.73CLRO, Common Council Jnl. 40, f. 176. Although it is clear that Gibbs gave his wholehearted support to their demands for a strong Presbyterian settlement on the Scottish model, the diarist, Thomas Juxon*, thought him one of ‘the considerate and considerable men’ who opposed the strident tone of the May remonstrance, and especially its demand for the immediate restoration of the king.74Juxon Jnl. 119. Gibbs, however, did not put his criticisms as forcefully as others, such as Robert Tichborne* and Thomas Andrewes, who demanded their opposition be formerly recorded at a meeting of Common Council on 19 May.75Juxon Jnl. 123.

Gibbs continued in pursuit of a strong Presbyterian settlement throughout the course of 1646, becoming closely involved in the ordinances for the abolition of deans and chapters and the sale of their lands. The money raised by the sale had been offered to the City as security for a £200,000 loan to pay off the Scottish army, and Gibbs was named as a trustee of the lands and treasurer for their revenue.76A. and O. He was also named (on 10 Dec.) as a treasurer to transport the £200,000 raised to York and to supervise its delivery to the Scots.77LJ viii. 618b-619a. Between 5 January and 9 February 1647 the House of Lords received several letters from Gibbs and one of his fellow treasurers, the City’s chamberlain, Thomas Noell*, outlining their progress.78Rushworth, Hist. Collns. vi. 558. Having reached York on 1 January, Gibbs and Noell found their progress hampered by the late arrival of the Scottish agents and their refusal to finish counting the first instalment before 21 January.79LJ viii. 645b, 646b, 653a, 678b-679b. The two treasurers handed over the final instalment at Northallerton on 3 February and witnessed the withdrawal of Scottish forces the next day.80LJ viii. 715a, 717a. On their return to London, they gave full accounts of their proceedings to both Houses, and presented acquittances signed by the Scottish agents on receipt of the money.81CJ v. 87a; LJ ix. 16b. Gibbs was reappointed as treasurer in further ordinances concerning the repayment of the £200,000 to the City, and despite a request made on 13 February 1647, was not discharged from his duties in this business until 8 January 1648.82LJ ix. 643a-b, 646b-647a.

The proximity of the army’s headquarters to London during the first half of 1647 was a source of alarm for the City government, and further encouraged them to fund Presbyterian plans to send New Model troops to Ireland and disband the remaining regiments. In return for this support, the City demanded the right, among other things, to choose its own militia committee. When it did so, in April 1647, all those considered to be friends of the army, including Penington, Allein, Venn, Atkin and Rowland Wilson*, were purged.83CJ v. 166a. Gibbs retained his place on the committee, confirming his position as a City Presbyterian. On 12 June 1647, Gibbs was appointed to a committee of common council to reply to Sir Thomas Fairfax’s* letter of 10 June from Royston declaring the army’s intention to march towards the London. The committee, including Fowke, Noell and Christopher Packe*, drafted a letter the same day, requesting Fairfax to keep the army at least 30 miles from London,84CLRO, Common Council Jnl. 40, ff. 220v-21. and in a delegation headed by Fowke, informed the House of Commons of their intended reply.85CJ v. 209a-b. A further sign of Gibbs’s Presbyterian credentials can be seen in July, when information was brought before the army council at Reading that the City militia committee had been questioning its officers on their religious affiliations before granting them their commissions. Lieutenant-colonel Miles Petit of the Orange Regiment in the City, claimed that Gibbs, as chairman of the committee in May 1647, had told him

that he was to take notice he must fight against all malignants, sects and sectaries and all godly persons that shall come to oppose the City, to which the Lieutenant-Colonel replied, ‘Gentlemen, I thought you had all of you professed godliness, for my part I do, and therefore shall not engage against any godly man.’ Whereupon Mr Alderman Gibbs, or some other of the militia, then answered that their meaning was that if any out of pretence of godliness should come to oppose them that he should fight against such, or words to that effect.86Clarke Pprs. i. 152-3.

Not all contemporaries saw Gibbs as a firm supporter of the Presbyterians in the summer of 1647. Indeed, both Clement Walker* and Alderman James Bunce portrayed him as a friend of the New Model.87C. Walker, Hist. Independency (1648), 45; A[lderman] J[ames] B[unce], The Honest Citizen (3 May 1648), 8 (E.438.5). The change in Gibbs’s attitude was said to have coincided with his appointment on 12 June as a commissioner for the City to the army council at Reading, with instructions to ensure ‘a right understanding and a fair correspondence may be between the City and the Army.’88CLRO, Common Council Jnl. 40, f. 221; Rushworth, Hist. Collns. vi. 557. The failure of the commissioners to dissuade the army from demanding that the City militia committee be replaced, coupled with Gibbs’s survival on the new committee, appointed on 23 July, no doubt contributed to suspicions among the hard-line London Presbyterians that he was playing a double game.89A. and O. Such suspicions were apparently confirmed by events in early August. On 2 August, with the imminent collapse of the Presbyterian coup in London, Gibbs was appointed to a common council committee to meet with Fairfax at Hounslow Heath in an attempt to prevent a further breakdown in relations.90CLRO, Common Council Jnl. 40, f. 247. This delegation failed to prevent the army’s march into London on 6 August, and when Fairfax took possession of the Tower on 9 August, Gibbs was there to welcome him with a speech thanking him for the army’s care of the City.91CSP Dom. 1645-7, p. 599. Clement Walker would lay the blame for the army’s presence in the City, and their control of the Tower, on Gibbs and the other citizens sent to Hounslow Heath.92Walker, Hist. Independency, 45. To cap it all, when a pro-army militia committee was appointed in September, Gibbs remained as a member.93A. and O.

Over the next few months, Gibbs continued to liaise between the Independents and the City, but relations once again became strained in November when, frustrated by the slow progress of assessment collection in the City, the army threatened to quarter its soldiers in London.94CJ v. 364a. Gibbs was among the City magistrates who joined a committee of both Houses to avert the crisis, and on 22 November was one of those sent from the City to thank each House for preventing the troops from quartering in the capital. John Fowke spoke on behalf of the City to the Commons while Gibbs acted as spokesman to the Lords.95CJ v. 366a; LJ ix. 539b. On 26 Nov., as a result of further debate, the Commons issued a list of London aldermen to be added as commissioners in all ordinances relating to the assessment in London. Besides Gibbs, the list was dominated by men known to be sympathetic to the army: Thomas Andrewes, John Fowke, John Kendricke and Christopher Packe.96CJ v. 369b. Gibbs tendered a petition to the House of Commons on 1 December, the details of which do not survive.97CJ v. 374a. On 9 January 1648, the House ordered that Gibbs’s petition be read on 15 February.98CJ v. 460b.

On 3 May 1648, the staunchly Presbyterian Alderman Bunce denounced those of his colleagues who had collaborated with the Independents, urging his readers, ‘Trust not your new lights as Fowke, Gibbs, Wollaston, Andrewes, [Stephen] Estwick, Noell, [Thomas] Player and the like; they are only new cheats’.99Bunce, The Honest Citizen, 8. Nevertheless, when the right of nominating the militia committee was returned to the City on 18 May, Gibbs joined Bunce as one of its members.100A. and O. Suspicions remained. In July 1648, Mercurius Elenticus claimed

that Skippon and the Independent rabble of the City have raised such a number of horse as shall be able to overawe so many of the trained band as be not of their faction - and this is diligently endeavoured by the committee appointed to treat with them, but especially by Wollaston, Andrews, Gibbs and Fowke, and such other bellwethers of the faction as have enriched themselves by the late war, whom the Members [of Parliament] have set to work to get hands to a petition against a personal treaty at London which tends in effect (and is their design) [that] it may not be at all.101Mercurius Elenticus (5-12 July 1648), 253-4 (E.452.12).

This was a gross misrepresentation of Gibbs, who was by this stage busy renewing his association with the City Presbyterians. On 22 June, a report from the militia committee by Gibbs and the lord mayor, Samuel Warner, to the common council resulted in the presentation of a petition to Parliament in favour of a personal treaty with the king.102CLRO, Common Council Jnl. 40, f. 281; CJ v. 613b-614a. In a further sign of his opposition to the army, on 15 August Gibbs headed a delegation from the City, to request Parliament to transfer Skippon’s authority to raise horse to the militia committee.103CJ v. 671b. He also opposed the ordinance excluding those who signed the London remonstrance of July 1647 from participation in municipal life, and headed a delegation from the City to the House of Lords in December 1648, to petition against such exclusions.104LJ x. 636b, 637b.

Gibbs’s successful trimming in 1647 and 1648 looked set to continue during the early months of the revolution. He survived the purge of the City’s government which followed Colonel Thomas Pride’s* purge of Parliament on 6 December; he was reappointed to the new militia committee on 17 Jan 1649, and made an assessment commissioner on 7 April.105A. and O. Yet his enthusiasm for the new regime soon cooled. His absence at the proclamation of the abolition of monarchy on 30 May raised eyebrows, and Penington was forced to excuse Gibbs, saying that he had been detained in Essex, dealing with ‘disturbances’.106CJ vi. 221a. Gibbs’s excuse was well founded: his activities at this time resulted in the arrest of George Prior, who was committed to the Gatehouse for attempting to provoke a riot in London on the publication of the act to abolish kingship.107CSP Dom. 1649-50, p. 165. But it soon became clear that Gibbs could not ultimately reconcile himself to the new regime, and on 12 June 1649, on the order of the Rump, he was discharged from the aldermanic bench.108CLRO, Rep. 59, f. 425v.

In the summer of 1649 Gibbs retired from municipal life to his estates in Suffolk, his status as a permanent resident being confirmed by his appointment as assessment commissioner for the county in December 1649, and as a justice of the peace the following year.109A. and O. He received no further appointments in London, although he retained some contact with the City and its environs. On his discharge from the bench in June 1649, he had nominated Richard Waring as alderman of Cheap, and on 2 October 1649 he recommended Francis Allein as his successor at Farringdon Without.110Beavan, Aldermen of London, i. 102, 160. In February 1650, his son Samuel married the daughter of the Middlesex landowner, Sir William Roberts*.111Vis. Suff., 164. Samuel Gibbs seems to have become minister of the parish of Quendon, Essex before the summer of 1653: his petition to the council of state to be allowed to be continued as such was referred to local magistrates on 4 Aug. 1653.112CSP Dom. 1653-4, p. 73.

During the parliamentary elections of 1654, Gibbs appeared as a candidate both in London and in Suffolk. He was not returned in London, where he was one of 47 candidates, and there is no indication of how many votes he received, or where he came in the poll.113Harl. 6810, ff. 164-65. The situation in Suffolk, however, was quite different. According to polling figures recorded by William Bloys*, Gibbs came in sixth place with 955 votes, thus becoming one of Suffolk’s ten MPs.114Suff. RO (Ipswich), GC17/755, f. 140v. Gibbs may have been supported by the Barnardiston family who dominated Suffolk politics during this period. Of the ten MPs returned, the list was headed by Sir Thomas Barnardiston* and contained four others with familial links to the Barnardistons (Sir William Spring*, Sir Thomas Bedingfield*, John Gurdon* and Thomas Bacon*).115P. Pinckney, ‘The Suffolk Elections to the Protectorate Parliament’, in Politics and People in Revolutionary England ed. C. Jones et. al. (Oxford, 1986), 212-3. Barnardiston and his associates attracted the popular vote, which may account for the success of the Presbyterians, Bloys and Gibbs, over long-established landowners such as Henry North.

Gibbs first appeared in the House on 6 October 1654, a month after the beginning of the session, and three weeks after the imposition of the ‘recognition oath’ on 12 September (whereby members were required to pledge their loyalty to the Protector).116CJ vii. 374b. That this delay was caused by scruples of conscience is confirmed by a letter from Thomas Gewen* to William Morice*, which put the case for ‘the dis-sinfulness of subscribing the Engagement in order to your return of the House’, and listed a number of ‘eminent and conscientious men’ of a Presbyterian persuasion who had returned to Parliament, including ‘Alderman Gibbs’.117Archaeologia xxiv. 139-40. During October and November, Gibbs was appointed a wide variety of committees, to consider the level of duty to be imposed on corn and butter exports (6 Oct.), ordinances passed by the Nominated Assembly and the protectoral council (10 Oct.), the petition of those who had participated in the earl of Lindsey’s fenland draining scheme in Lincolnshire (3 Nov.), and a petition from Susanna Bastwick, widow of Dr. John Bastwick, asking that the promised compensation for his sufferings might at last be paid (16 Nov.).118CJ vii. 374b, 375a-b, 380a, 386a. On 22 November 1654 Gibbs was named to a committee to perfect all outstanding accounts relating to public money, perhaps in recognition of his financial expertise.119CJ vii. 387b.

From the end of November, Gibbs can be clearly identified as a member of the Presbyterian faction that pushed for a radical revision of the constitution through what became known as the Government Bill. On 27 November the House discussed the clauses relating to electoral qualification, with Gibbs acting as teller with Sir Ralph Hare* who opposed strict limitations on voting rights. In two previous votes on the same day, Hare had been joined by John Birch* and Sir Robert Pye II* respectively as majority tellers in votes which established the 40s freehold as the basic qualification in the counties, but also allowing those with a real or personal estate of £200 to vote for the county members.120CJ vii. 391b. Hare was then joined by Gibbs on the question of whether to bar those worth £200, who voted in the towns, from voting in the county as well. Hare and Gibbs narrowly carried a motion (53 votes to 49) to allow them to vote in both places on condition that they also had land worth 40s. in the county.121CJ vii. 391b-392a. Gibbs was also involved in moves to establish a Presbyterian church settlement. On 7 December he was added to a committee to allow towns and cities to tax themselves for the maintenance of their ministers, and on 12 December was named to the committee headed by two Presbyterians, John Birch and William Purefoy I*, to consider ‘the particular enumeration of damnable heresies’ to be inserted into the Government Bill.122CJ vii. 397b, 399b. Gibbs’s involvement in the Government Bill can also be seen on 18 December, when he and one of the members for the City, Samuel Avery*, were added to committee to consider a clause for the provision of lands in London and York for the maintenance of the lord protector and his successors in office.123CJ vii. 403b. On 12 January 1655 Gibbs was named to a committee to consider a clause to prevent alteration to the government bill without the consent of Parliament and the protector.124CJ vii. 415a. On 18 January he was appointed to another committee, to consider the cost of disbanding supernumerary forces over and above 30,000 men.125CJ vii. 419a-b. This last measure, along with the proposed religious articles restricting toleration, was singled out for particular criticism by Cromwell when dissolving Parliament on 22 January.126Abbott, Writings and Speeches iii. 586-7, 593.

The county election held at Stowmarket on 20 Aug. 1656 saw a dramatic reversal in the fortunes of Henry North and the conservative gentry of Suffolk who opposed the rule of the major-generals. Gibbs, who had already displayed his opposition to the protectorate during the previous Parliament, polled once again in sixth place with 1,373 votes.127Pinckney, ‘Suffolk Elections’, 206. Unsurprisingly, he was among seven Suffolk MPs excluded from the session and he went on to join Bloys, Edmund Harvey II* and John Sicklemor* as signatories to the remonstrance of excluded members.128Whitelocke, Mems. iv. 280.

With the re-admittance of the excluded members in January 1658, Gibbs resumed his parliamentary career more or less where he had left off in 1655. On 21 January he spoke in favour of a general bill to provide for the maintenance of the ministry, declaring that ‘it is time to begin to build the House of God.’129Burton’s Diary ii. 331. Gibbs was subsequently added to a revived committee, originally appointed on 4 November 1656, for raising the maintenance of ministers in towns and corporations, with a new remit to include parishes in the counties at large.130Burton’s Diary ii. 332; CJ vii. 580b. Gibbs later supported moves to call a new assembly of divines to give direction regarding the ordination of ministers and the question of conformity, taking the opportunity to draw attention to the fact that he had only recently been allowed to return to Westminster, pardoning himself ‘for being so forward to speak before my seat is warm’.131Burton’s Diary ii. 334-5. Similarly, on 22 January he preceded his contribution to the debate on the Other House, by reminding the House of his ignorance regarding all previous debate on this issue.132Burton’s Diary ii. 339. Gibbs was named to a total of five committees during the brief session: on the maintenance of ministers (21 Jan.), privileges (21 Jan.), against the non-residence of masters of colleges (22 Jan.), for the preservation of parliamentary records (26 Jan.), and on the bill for marriages (3 Feb.).133 CJ vii. 580b, 581a, 588a, 591a. His main concern, as reflected in his contributions to debate continued to be the pursuit of a conservative religious settlement and he spoke twice in favour of legislation for the maintenance of the ministry, particularly in the north and in Wales.134Burton’s Diary ii. 331, 334-5, 373. That Gibbs put the question of religious settlement above all others was made even clearer on 28 January, when he joined Henry Darley to demand redress of grievances, in particular the probate of will and ‘matters of religion’ before satisfying Cromwell's request for money.135Burton’s Diary ii. 374. Gibbs was last recorded present in the House on 3 February, during a debate on the nature and powers of the Other House.136Burton’s Diary ii. 425. Supporting a motion for the matter to be dealt with in a grand committee, he pointed out the undesirability of giving the Other House a power of veto. ‘Time was’, he said, ‘when the Lord Mayor claimed a negative upon the [common] council, and I know what use was made of that’.137Burton’s Diary ii. 426. Gibbs ended by urging Cromwell to preserve the rights of Parliament according to his oath, concluding with a statement of grudging support for the protector, as the best chance for ‘settlement’

he is a conscientious person, and we may bless God we have such an one. Long may he live to keep us in settlement, and I am confident he will do all he can in order to safety and settlement.138Burton’s Diary ii. 427.

After the dissolution of Parliament on 4 February 1658, Gibbs fell into political obscurity. Having attracted no local or central commissions in the meantime, he appears as one of the failed candidates at the election for the Suffolk knights of the shire on 17 January 1659.139Pinckney, ‘Suffolk Elections’, 207. Thereafter, Gibbs played little part in politics. On 11 May 1659, he made his first recorded appearance at Goldsmiths’ Hall since 29 May 1646, to hear the court’s debate on the lease of the late Robert Jenner’s house, at that time in the hands of one of his old apprentices, Joseph Archer.140Goldsmiths’ Co. Court Bk. 1, f. 80; Court Bk. X, ff. 182, 184-85. Otherwise, Gibbs appears to have cut all ties with London. In a letter to the poll tax commissioners in October 1660, he stressed that he was neither an alderman nor an office holder of any kind in the City, and that he was, therefore, not liable to be taxed as such.141Bodl. Tanner 46, f. 156. He remained in retirement on his Suffolk estates, while his son Samuel took advantage of the Declaration of Indulgence of 1672 to become licensed as a Presbyterian preacher at his father’s house at Stoke-by-Nayland.142CSP Dom. 1672, p. 679. Gibbs died in 1689 and was buried, according to his own request, at Quendon, beside his wife. By his will, drawn up in September 1688, Gibbs left small charitable bequests to St Bartholomew’s Hospital in London, and to the poor of Great Comberton, Worcerstershire, and of Stoke-by-Nayland and Nayland, Suffolk.143PROB11/395/405. As the will dealt mainly with household goods and mourning tokens, Gibbs must have already settled the Stoke-by-Nayland estate on his son by other indentures. Later maps of the area show that land in Great Horkesley, Essex was still in the hands of the Gibbs family in 1774.144Map of the County of Essex, 1774 (Essex RO Publications, no. 11, Chelmsford, 1950), plate ix. Neither Gibbs’s son nor his grandchildren appear to have followed him into political life.