Giles Gibbs and Unknown
Husband Giles Gibbs
Born: Abt 1602 - St. Sidwell, Exeter, Devonshire, England Christened: Died: 2 May 1641 - Windsor, Connecticut Buried:Marriage:
Other Spouse: Katherine Carwithe ( - ) - 13 Apr 1629 - St. Sidwell, Exeter, Devonshire, England
Wife Unknown
Born: Christened: Died: Bef 1629 - England Buried:
Children
1 M Gregory Gibbs
Born: Christened: 1623 - Crewkerne, Somerset, England Died: Buried:Spouse: Joyce (Smith) Osborn) ( - ) Marr: After 1676
2 F Mary Gibbs
Born: Christened: 1618 - Crewkerne, Somerset, England Died: Buried:
3 F Margaret Gibbs
Born: Christened: 1620 - Crewkerne, Somerset, England Died: Buried:
General Notes (Husband)
There are at least three fairly well documented and distinct Gibbs lines in New England who settled in New England during the 1600s. One of those is that of Giles Gibbs who was probably born in the County of Somerset in southern England about 1600, who removed to the County of Devon by the 1620's, and who emigrated to Dorchester in the Massachusetts Bay Colony prior to 1633. Within about five years, Giles and his family had joined other MA pioneers to found the first incorporated settlement in Connecticut ~ Windsor <http://members.aol.com/gibbsgen/page8/index.htm>. Over the next century, Giles' descendants spread westward through Hartford County into Litchfield County , CT, and southward along the Connecticut River into Middlesex County, CT.
By the Revolutionary War, the ancestral Gibbs home of Windsor had for the most part shifted to Litchfield. During the early years of the new republic, many of this line moved on again ~ this time into the Revolutionary War military land grant areas of central and upstate New York. Meanwhile, many of those who had remained in Windsor and greater Hartford County prior to the Revolution found their way into Vermont & the Berkshire Mountains of western MA.
From Great Migration Begins (newenglandancestors.org)
ORIGIN: St. Sidwell, Exeter, Devonshire MIGRATION: 1632 FIRST RESIDENCE: Dorchester REMOVES: Windsor 1636
CHURCH MEMBERSHIP: Admission to Dorchester church prior to 4 March 1632/3 implied by freemanship. FREEMAN: 4 March 1632/3 [ MBCR 1:367].
EDUCATION: The widow's inventory included 12s. in books.
OFFICES: Committee to make Dorchester rate, 3 November 1633 [ DTR 4]; chosen Dorchester selectman (as "Go[odman] Gibbes"), 28 October 1634 [ DTR 7].
ESTATE: Ordered to build twenty feet of fence, for one cow, 3 April 1633 [ DTR 2]; granted three acres of land, 22 November 1634 [ DTR 9]; granted two acres of meadow, and lot formerly Simon Hoyt's to be divided between Giles Gibbs and Mr. Roger Williams, 17 April 1635 [ DTR 11]; granted ten acres of land, 1 February 1635/6 [ DTR 15]; received Lot #31, four acres, in meadow beyond Naponset [ DTR 321].
In the Windsor land inventory of 28 February 1640/1, Giles Gibbs had been granted four parcels, and had purchased one: seven acre homelot; ten and a half acres at the Great Meade; a parcel over the Great River, thirty rods in breadth by three miles in length; forty-seven acres of upland above Rocky Hill; and (purchased of George Hull) "half an acre of the west end of his homelot." This was annotated to show that Gregory Gibbs had received by bequest from Giles Gibbs the lot over the great river thirty rods in breadth and in length three miles and that Katherine Gibbs had purchased this lot from Gregory Gibbs. Two other purchases had been made (perhaps by the widow Gibbs): four acres from Thomas Stayres and half an acre from Steven Terry [ WiLR 1:94].
In his will, dated 18 May 1641 (but date of probate not known), "Gyles Gibbs, of Wyndsor, on Connecticutt, yeoman, being weak in body" ordered "my son Gregory" to be apprenticed to "some godly man for the space of five years" and if he stay out his time he is to have my lot over the great river, also if "my overseers have any encouragement to judge him worthy ... £5 at age twenty-one years"; and bequeathed to "my two sons Samuel & Benjamin" £20 each; to "my daughter Sarah" £20 at age twenty-one; to "Jacob, my son, ... my house and lots, meadows, home lot and great lot and lots whatsoever on this side the great river after his mother's life"; to "my wife" all my lots, houses, household goods, cattle, chattels, discharge of my debts; "provided that in case my said overseers have no good encouragement concerning the disposition of my son Gregory, but do judge him unworth a father's blessing under their hands, my will is that my executor shall have the said lot toward the education of my children until my son Jacob shall attain the age of twenty-one years, and then my will is that my son Jacob shall have it"; "Katharine my wife" executrix; the deacons of the church of Windsor overseers. In a postscript he bequeathed to "Elizaphatt Gregory ten bushels of corn"; and to "Richard Wellar" 40s. [ Manwaring 1:14-15; CCCR 1:504-05].
In her will, dated 12 September 1660 and proved 6 December 1660, "Catharine Gibbs of Windsor" bequeathed to "my eldest son Jacob my dwelling house, barn & orchard, with the land whereon they stand, & all the land adjoining thereunto, which is my proper right by purchase," but if he dies without an heir living to the age of twenty-one then this land to go to "my second son Samuell"; to "my son Benjamin ... my lot on the other side the Great River, the which I purchased of Gregory Gibbs my son-in-law [i.e., stepson]"; her moveables to "my son Jacob ... & to my daughter-in-law his wife," to "my son Benjamin," to "my son Jacob's daughter Mary," and to "my youngest son and executor Benjamin"; the residue to be divided among "my three youngest children," with specific reference to "my son Samuel's part" and "my daughter Sarah's part" [ Hartford PD Case #2148; Manwaring 1:116-18].
The inventory of the estate "left by the widdoe Gibbs Deceased" was taken 21 November 1660 and totalled £220 7s., including real estate valued at £160: "one home lot, seven acres," £30; "one meadow lot, ten acres," £50; "one lot of upland, forty-eight acres," £20; "the dwelling house with barn & land added to the homelot by the said widow's purchase," £30; and "one lot over the great River," £30 [ Hartford PD Case #2148].
Considerable mention appears in the Suffolk deeds regarding the estate of Katherine Gibbs in Windsor and Wethersfield, particularly as it related to her son, Benjamin, who died in Boston [ SLR 11:192, 197, 252, 369].
BIRTH: By about 1600 based on estimated date of first marriage.
DEATH: Buried Windsor 21 May 1641 [ WiVR ].
MARRIAGE: (1) By about 1625 _____ _____; she died by 1629.
(2) St. Sidwell, Exeter, 13 April 1629 Katherine Carwithe [ TAG 61:33]; she died Windsor 24 October 1660 [ TAG 61:32].
COMMENTS: In 1986 James A. Rasmussen published the marriage record and the two baptisms from St. Sidwell, Exeter, Devonshire, which settle much of the chronology of the Gibbs family [ TAG 61:32-34]. These three records show that Giles Gibbs and his family could not have come on the Mary & John, and, in conjunction with the will of the widow Katherine Gibbs, determine unequivocally the birth order of all five children.
As Rasmussen notes, the minister at St. Sidwell, Exeter, when the Gibbs family appeared there was Rev. JOHN WARHAM , and it may be that Gibbs was attracted to that minister, and followed him to New England in 1632. On 4 August 1635 Massachusetts Bay court ordered "Will[ia]m Wills to pay to Gyles Gibbs the sum of 16s., for felony by him committed" [ MBCR 1:153].
In the years after Giles Gibbs died, the family was often in court for unacceptable behavior. In one court on 7 March 1650/1 Jacob Gibbs was complained of for several misdemeanors and fined 40s., Samuel Gibbs was "to be corrected by his master" and Sarah Gibbs "the daughter of the widow Gibbs hath carried herself very sinfully and disorderly the court judges it necessary that she should be put to service, and therefore if her mother does not provide her a good service ... Sarah Gibbs is to appear at the court ... and from thence be sent to the house of correction" [ RPCC 97]. She was still in trouble in 1660 [ RPCC 217].
http://members.aol.com/gibbsgen/page11/index.htm
Giles Gibbs has commonly been thought to have been born in Perrott Parish of the County of Somerset in southwestern England. As part of this scenario, it has been routinely published that Giles was the son of William Gibbes & Mary Newcourt. In fact, THIS IS MOST LIKELY UNTRUE.
Genealogies which have Giles born in Perrott do so because of the presumed ancestry of William and Mary Gibbs, who were of Perrott. However, it seems that William Gibbes was of a well known and perhaps aristocratic family ~ William's own will is in existence and clearly refers to his children, of whom Giles is notably absent.
The southwestern English counties of Devon and Somerset were indeed the home of many English Gibbses at least back to the 1300s. Our Giles is believed to have been in the County of Somerset during the 1610's, based on marriage records that show a Giles Gibbs marrying a Helen Carey at St. Mary's Church in the Somerset village of Alford on 29 July 1617. Giles and his new wife seem to have immediately settled in nearby Crewkerne, also in Somerset. We know this because of the baptismal record of their first child ~ Mary baptised in November of 1618. Mary only lived one year. Another daughter, Margaret, was baptised in Crewkerne in 1620, but she too only lived one year. In 1623, a son Gregory was born in Crewkerne ~ he is the Gregory who later accompanied Giles to America.
The emigrant Giles was by this time a follower of the Puritan preacher, Rev. John Warham of Crewkerne. When in 1627 Warham was removed from his parish at Crewkerne for his non-conforming teachings, he relocated to the Devon community of Exeter ~ Giles Gibbs was one of his cult to follow him there. Warham's sister Magdalen had married a George Gibbs in 1618, and it has been speculated that this George might be Giles' brother. On 23 April 1629, Giles himself was remarried in St. Sidwell's Church, Exeter, Rev. Warham presiding, to a Katherine Carwithe. Had Helen died or did she leave him over his adopted Puritan beliefs?
Is the Giles Gibbs who married Katherine Carwithe even the same Giles who had previously married Helen? If they were not one and the same, could our emigrant Giles be the Giles baptised on 23 February 1606 in North Petherton, Somerset ~ the son of Hugh Gibbs. Could the Giles who married Helen have been baptised later in life, perhaps in conjunction with a Puritan conversion, and thus have been old enough to have first married in 1617? Or do we just have another unknown Giles born in 1606?
In 1630, Rev. Warham emigrated with a number of his Puritan followers aboard the "William & Mary" to the new Massachusetts Bay Colony, settling in Dorchester at the southern corner of Boston Harbor. Many early genealogies have placed Giles with this initial 1630 emigration, and yet his daughter Sarah is known to have been baptised back in Exeter in 1631. Thus, more recent genealogies have Giles emigrating to Dorchester aboard the "Lyon" in 1632, with his second wife and two or three children. It is of course possible that Giles made both journeys, as this would not have been uncommon at the time. Did Giles leave his family behind in England to accompany Warham to New England, returning for them only after the Dorchester community had become firmly established?
With regards to Giles' wife's ancestry, the Carwithe name is also most likely of Somerset heritage. That surname, though more commonly spelled in variations of the same, is found for generations in Somerset. One uncited source claims Katherine Carwithe to be the daughter of Roger Carwithe & Elizabeth Westcott.
From article on Giles Gibbs, in Search for the Passengers of the Mary & John 1630 Vol 5, 35-47.
Giles Gibbs may have come from South Perrot, Somerset, and possibly descended from William Gibbs and Mary Newcourt of South Perrot, near Crewkerne. Little has been printed on Giles Gibbs until the publication of an article by James A. Rasmussen, in the Jan-Apr 1985 issue of TAG, p 32. Previously it was bvelieved he came on teh "Mary & John" in 1630, with his first wife (name unknown), and a son, Gregory. Records at St. Sidwell's Church in Exeter, Devon, show he married Katherine Carwithe there 13 Apr 1629. They had children bpt there on 28 Mar 1629/30 (Jacob), and 5 June 1631 (Sarah). This would inidcate he did not board the "Mary & John on 20 March 1630 to sail to New England. He probably came a year or two later.
Records in Crewkerne, Somerset show that a Giles Gibbs had children, baptised tehre in 1618 (Mary), 1620 (Margaret) and 1625 (Gregory). Since Giles brought with him a young son, Gregory, this appears to be the emigrant. Also, Gioles' second wife was named Katherine. This means he was in Crewkerne until atleast 1623 and probalby until 1627. In 1627, Rev. John Warham, one of the "Mary & John" ministers was removed from the pulpit in Crewkerne by Bishop William Laud, for his Puritan views, and he went to St. Sidwell's Church in Exeter, Devon. Other Crewkerne families were influenced by Rev. Warham, including William Gaylord, George Hull, Humphrey Pinney & William Phelps, who came with Warham in 1630. It appears that Giles Gibbs followed Warham to St. Sidwell's but did not accompany him in 1630.
Giles Gibbs first settled in Dorchester, Mass, where he was granted land and ordered to build a fence for his cow in 1633. This fence marked to line of an abbatis, erected during the seige of Boston in 1776, which later became teh boundary of Boston Street. In 1634 he was one of the ten Selectmen chosen. He was once cited for "being defective in coming to the meetinghouse". In 1635 he was granted two acres next to Thomas Stoughton. Soon after he moved to Widnsor, Connecticut, where he joined the First Church there. All of his children wree minors when he died in 1641.
Daughters Mary and Margaret from the christening records in Crewkerne listed as "probably" his children in Mary and John article.
Rasmussen, James A. The Gibbs Family of Windsor CT (Parts 1 and 2) TAG 61(1) or 241, (1985-1986) - Jan/Apr 1985, published in 1986 pp 32-43, and July/ Oct 1985, pp 97-109
Giles Gibbs was buried at Windsor CT on 21 May 1641. Henry R. Stiles' History of Ancient Windsor, 2 vols (1892); rpt. Somersworth NH 1976) 2:287-88 (unless otherwise noted, all later references to Stiles are to these pages), cites church, land and probate records on his family and gives his descendants for several generations, but the account contains several misstatements of fact as well as a number of omissions. Much of this incorrect material was later incorporated adn amplified in Robert A. Gibbs' "Teh Descendants of Giles Gibbs", Gibbs Family Bulletin, #5 pp. 37-59 (Los Angeles 1925), hereafter Gibbs Desc., Ruth Gibbs Wiley's Gibbs Genealogy, 1629-1966 (Whittier CA 1967), hereafter Wiley, and and Maude Pinney Kuhn's The Mary and John (1943; rept. Rutland VT 1972), pp 31-33.
Giles Gibbs' will named his children as Gregory (about whom his father had feards that his overseers might judge him unworthy of a father's blessing), Samuel, Benjamin, Sarah, and Jacob, all under 21. His widow's will includes her eldest son Jacob, her second son Samuel, Land purchased from her stepson Gregory Gibbs, her son Jacob's daughter Mary, her youngest son Benjamin, and her daughter Sarah, and mentions Sarah and Samuel among the three youngest children.
Catherine's inventory totalled 220 pounds.
The fact that in May 1641 all of Giles' children were under 21 means the oldest couldn't have been born earlier than 1620. The will of Giles' widow shows that Gregory was the eldest child and the son of an unidentified first wife. Katherine was the mother of Jacob, Samuel, and Benjamin, born in that order, adn of Sarah, who was among the three youngest children.
Gregory was not born at Windsor in 1639 as Stiles has it.
Approximate birth years for Katherine and two of her sons have been deduced from the medical journal of John Winthrop Jr, but the English records presented below indicates that the ages of Jacob and Samuel are exaggerated. Winthrop includes under Windsor, 1657, Jacob, almost 30, widow, almost 80, Gergory, elder than his brother Jacob, and under Windsor, 1668, Samuel 37 years.
James Save says that Giles Gibbs was at Dorchester, Massachusetts Bay Colony, in 1630 (Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England, 4 vols. He was certainly tehre by 4 March 1632/3 when he was made a freeman at Boston (A Volume of REcords Relating t the Early History of Boston..., p 134). but it has commonly been assumed that he was on eof the party led by Rev. John White, which sailed aboard the Mary and John from Plymouth, Co. Devon, on 20 Mar 1630 ... ; all the passengers settled at Dorchester MA. Another of this party was the Rev. John Warham, the outspoken Puritan minister of St. Sidwell, Exeter, County Devon, who later led a group from Dorchester to settle Windsor,Connecticut and who witnessed Giles' will in 1641.
CAI Fursden's transcript of the baptisms in the parish registers of St. Sidwell, however, indicates that Giles Gibbs did not sail on the Mary and John, for it shows the baptisms of "Jacob, son of Gilus Gibes" on 28 March 1628.30 and of Sarah, daughter of Giles Gibbes on 5 June 1631. The close association in America between Giles Gibbs and John Warham and the fact that teh baptisms recorded at St. Sdiwell correspond with Giles' eldest two cihldren by his second wife make it almost certain that in these records we have identified the Windsor settler. I am indebted to Mr. DAvid Gibbs of Tampa FL fo rinformation that the original registers of St. Sidwell, which were examined in his behalf in 1973, show the marriage of Giles Gibbs and (blank) Carwithe on 13 Apr 1629; given Jacob's baptism eleven months later adn teh fact that he was a child of Giles' second wife, we can say with confidence that Giles' marriage in 1629 was to the woman who became his widow and that her name was Katherine Carwithe. There are no earlier or later entries for Giles Gibbs, so it appears that his family came from some other parish to St. Sidwell, perhaps because of Warham's renown, and left after the baptism of Sarah.
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Search for the Passengers of the Mary and John, Vol 5. pp42 -45, 47.
Giles Gibbs may have come from South Perrot, Somerset, and possibly dsecended from William Gibbs and Mary Nwecourt of South Perrot, near Crewkerne. Little has been printed on Giles Gibbs until the publication of an article by James A. Rasmussen, C.G., in the Jan-Apr 2985 issue of TAG, p 32. Previously it was believed he came on teh "Mary & John"in 1630, with his first wife (name unknown), and a son, Gregory. Records of St. Sidwell's Church in Exeter, Devon, show he married, Katherine Carwithe there, 13 Apr 1629. They had children bpt there on 28 Mar 1629/30 (Jacob) and 5 Jun 1631 (Sarah). This would indciate he did not board the "Mary and John" on 20 Mar 1630 to sail to New England. He probably came a year or two later.
Records in Crewkerne, Somserset, show that a Giles Gibbs had children, bptised thre in 1618 (Mary), 1620 (Margaret) and 1623 (Gregory). Since Giles brought with him a young son, Gregory, this appears to be the emigrant. Also, Giles'second wife was naemd Katherine. This emans he was in Crewkerne until at least 1623 and probably until 1627. In 1627, Rev. John Warham, one of the "Mary and John" ministers was removed from the pulpit in Crewkerne by Bishop William Laud, for his Puritan views, and he went to St. Sidwell's Churcn in Exeter, Devon. Other Crewkerne families were influenced by Rev. Warham, including William Gaylord, George Hull, Humphrey Pinney & William Phelps, who came with Warham in 1630. It appears that Giles Gibbs followed Warham to St. Sidwell's but did not accompany him in 1630.
Giles Gibbs first settled in Dorchester, MA, where he was granted land and ordered to build a fence for his cow in 1633. Thsi fence marked to line of an abbatis, erected during the seige of Boston in 1776, which later became the boundary of Boston Street. In 1634 he was on e of the ten Selectmen chosen. He was once cited for "being defective in coming to the meethinghouse". In 1635 he was granted two acres next to Thomas Stoughton. Soon after he moved to Windsor, Ct, where he joined the first Church there. All of his children were minors when he died in 1641.
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Giles Gibb's Y DNA is R1b1c; Looks Frisian. He was probably of Saxon or maybe Danish or Norman ancestry.
393-13 30-23 19-14 391-12 385a-11 385b-14 426-12 388-12 439-11 389.1-13 392-13 389-2-29 456-18 459a,b 9,10 455-11 454-11 447-24 437-15 448-19 449-18 464 a,b,c,d 15,16, 17,18
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