Genealogy research by Mark Humphrys.
Genealogy research by Mark Humphrys.
Robert Gibbon,
He
mar 8 Feb 1808, St.Peter's, Monkwearmouth, to Hannah Harrison
[Hannah Joanna Harrison, born 1788, England].
Robert Gibbon, of Monkwearmouth,
was owner of the ship
Galatea
from 6 Dec 1808
to 24 May 1810.
Robert Gibbon of Monkwearmouth subscribed to a book of poetry,
Epistles in Verse between Cynthio and Leonora, in three cantos, descriptive of a voyage to and from the East Indies,
by George Marshall, Newcastle, 1812.
"Robert Gibbon" and "Hannah Gibbon" witnessed
his brother Arthur's marriage in Oct 1814
at Bedlington, Northumberland, N England
(a bit N of Sunderland).
He might be "R. Gibbon"
who was owner of the ship
Castle Forbes
(built 1818).
[Wyllie, 2020, p.317]
says he was a ship's captain,
and was living in Sunderland when his father died in 1821.
"R. Gibbon" is still listed as owner of the ship Castle Forbes in 1831.
As at 1834 he was in business with his brother
Arthur,
operating a colliery in Northumberland.
They would be
Robert Gibbon, born Scotland but not in Fife,
and Hannah Gibbon, born England,
who are
listed
in 1841 census
at North Queensferry, Dunfermline, Fife (near Edinburgh).
Hannah died 1846, age 58 yrs.
Her address in burial record is
Southwick, beside Monkwearmouth, Sunderland.
However the [England, Select Deaths and Burials, 1538-1991]
index
says she died in Liverpool (and was bur Monkwearmouth).
She was bur 15 Aug 1846 in Monkwearmouth.
Robert
died 31 Dec 1848, age 67 yrs.
Grave says he
died at
Portobello,
Edinburgh.
[Bedford, 1966, p.38]
suggests his son-in-law Anthony Scott had a pottery at Portobello,
Edinburgh,
which would explain why the widowed Robert died there.
(He would be living with his daughter.)
Gibbon papers
say he died at what looks like "Perla Bella".
Clearly refers to Portobello.
He was
buried in, or at least named on,
Gibbon grave at Nigg Bay, Aberdeen.
Robert and Hannah
had issue:
The letter is in collection BB.7.1 (1800-1804 papers) in section 2.2. C (Demerara: Court of Civil Justice) in 1.05.21 (Archives of the Dutch colonies of Essequibo, Demerara and Berbice, in what is now Guyana, South America). At the National Archives of the Netherlands.
How did the letter end up in Guyana papers?
It is a complex story.
In the letter,
Robert Gibbon writes to Capt. Napier of the British ship
Margaret,
departing from England,
bound for Grenada, West Indies.
Gibbon requests he accept on board a passenger Dr. Ironside, bound for Grenada.
The Margaret left Portsmouth on 2 or 3 Mar 1804.
It
was chased and captured by a French ship in the West Indies on
23 Apr 1804.
The French captors landed in
the Dutch colony of
Berbice
(now in Guyana),
where they were detained, and hence these papers survive.
Robert Gibbon's letter.
From p.1709
of
BB.7.1.
On pp.1709-1711 are accounts of the capture of the Margaret
and its arrival in Berbice.
Map from Bing
showing the area of the Margaret's capture.
The Margaret was headed for Grenada.
It
was chased and captured by a French ship near Barbados on
23 Apr 1804.
The French captors took it E along the coast of South America,
headed for Suriname
or for Cayenne
in French Guiana.
But, uncertain where they were, they landed early, in
the Dutch colony of
Berbice
(now E Guyana, where New Amsterdam is),
where they were detained.
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