Archive of Edmund Gibson, Bishop of London, and his descendants

Title

Archive of Edmund Gibson, Bishop of London, and his descendants

Shelfmark

MSS. Eng. b. 2042-2044, c. 3190-3202, d. 2405-2411

Summary

Papers of Edmund Gibson (1669-1748), Bishop of London, with papers of his descendants, 1388-1797.

Date

1388-1797

Language

English

Physical extent

7.45 Linear metres

23 Shelfmarks

Custodial history

Gibson's papers did not survive as a single collection and their history is a complicated one. A substantial collection of 'Codices Gibsoniani' is preserved at Lambeth Palace Library. These include many papers given by Archbishop Tenison to Gibson, then his chaplain and librarian at Lambeth. On Gibson's instructions, his executors deposited them in Lambeth Palace Library with many more papers which Gibson had collected himself. This collection is described in A Catalogue of the Archiepiscopal Manuscripts in the Library at Lambeth Palace (1812) and more fully in a separate unpublished catalogue available only in Lambeth Palace Library. A microfilm of the collection is available in the Bodleian as MSS. Film 285-292.

The papers now in the Bodleian formed part of a collection which was apparently retained in the hands of Gibson's immediate descendants for some years after his death, and eventually offered for sale in 1889 by a Mr. George Collis, to whose father they had been given. The papers were bought by the Revd. Dr. W.J. Sparrow Simpson, Librarian of St. Paul's Cathedral, London, who estimated that they comprised about ninety volumes. They were handed over to the Dean and Chapter for retention in the Cathedral Library, where some were bound. (See Simpson's article in Archaeologia, Vol. 53, pp. 155-160, and MS. Eng. c. 3202, fols. 66-67).

In 1896 a successful claim to the papers was made by three of Gibson's descendants, but certain items considered to be church property and some manuscripts relating to Charles I, once part of MS. Eng. d. 2406, were retained at St. Paul's (see MS. Eng. c. 3202, fol. 67v). The remainder were divided between the claimants, Mr. C.J. Hill, Captain E. Poore, and Colonel J.C. Dalton. It is the latter portion which is represented by the Bodleian's holdings. Many of the volumes still bear the bookplates and reference numbers of St. Paul's Cathedral Library, the pencil numbers apparently given them (by Colonel Dalton?) at the time of the division of the collection, and the bookplates of Colonel Dalton.

The greater part of Mr. Hill's portion of the collection is preserved in the library of the University of St. Andrews (for a list of these, see MS. Eng. c. 3202, fols. 113-17), but three volumes formerly in his possession were bought by Lambeth Palace Library in 1960. They are described in E.G.W. Bill, A Catalogue of Manuscripts in Lambeth Palace Library (1972), pp. 225-234, as Nos. 1741-1743.

Part at least of Captain Poore's portion was sold by Hodgson & Co. on 19 October 1928 (catalogue no. 1, 1928-1929, lot 763), having been in the possession of Dr. H.G. Rosedale. This would appear to be the collection now in the Huntington Library, California, contained in several bound volumes and boxes known as the "Edmund Gibson Papers" (information supplied by a researcher, August 2009). There is a brief description of the contents in Guide to British Historical Manuscripts in the Huntington Library (San Marino, Calif.: 1982), pp. 302-303.

Acquisition

Deposited in the Bodleian in 1960 by Gibson's descendant Major-General Sir Charles J.G. Dalton, from whom they were purchased in 1988.

Subject

14th century

16th century

Religious literature, English

Ecclesiastical law

Antiquarians

x - 15th century

18th century

17th century