Vicary Gibbs (12 May 1853 – 13 January 1932)[1] was a British barrister, merchant andConservative Party politician. He sat in theHouse of Commons from 1892 to 1904. He lost his seat after his business created a conflict of interest. He was the editor of the early volumes ofThe Complete Peerage (second edition).
Gibbs came from an oldDevon family.[2]He was the third son ofHucks Gibbs, 1st Baron Aldenham (1819–1907), and his wife Louisa Anne, daughter of William Adams.[3]
Alban Gibbs, 2nd Baron Aldenham, andHerbert Gibbs, 1st Baron Hunsdon of Hunsdon, were his brothers, whileGeorge Edward Cokayne was his great-uncle. His great-grandfather was Antony Gibbs, brother ofSir Vicary Gibbs who becameChief Justice of the Common Pleas.[2]
He was educated atEton College and atChrist Church, Oxford, where he graduated in 1876 with a Bachelor of Arts degree[3] inClassical Moderations.[2] He wascalled to the bar atLincoln's Inn in 1880, and became a partner in the merchant and banking firmAntony Gibbs & Sons.[3]
At the1892 general election he was returned to Parliament forSt Albans division ofHertfordshire.[4]
He was returned unopposed in1895 and1900,[5] but was disqualified in February 1904. He and his brotherAlban were partners in the firmAntony Gibbs & Sons,[6] which had organised the sale to theAdmiralty of two warships which had been built in England for theChilean Navy, to avoid them being sold to a rival power when Chile did not complete the purchase.[7]However, in so doing he was disqualified from the House of Commons, under provisions which debarred MPs from accepting contracts fromthe Crown. He told his constituents on 18 January that he wouldresign from the Commons by taking theChiltern Hundreds, and then present himself for re-election.[7] Both Gibbs and theLiberal Party candidateJohn Bamford Slack were by then campaigning in the constituency,[8]butThe Times newspaper reported on 20 January that the by-election was unlikely to be contested by the Liberals.[9]However, since Gibbs was already disqualified, he did not need to take the usual step of disqualifying himself by taking the Chiltern Hundreds, and in a letter of 1 February 1904 he informed theSpeaker of the contract that "I am advised that by so doing I have, under an Act ofGeorge III, vacated my seat in Parliament".[6]
His letter was read to the Commons on 2 February,[6] and thewrit was moved the following day.[10]
In the meantime, the Liberals had decided to contest the seat, and at a meeting on 24 January they had adopted Slack as their candidate.[11]
At the resultingby-election on 12 February 1904, Slack won the seat with a majority of 132 votes (1.4% of the total).[5]At the1906 general election Gibbs stood unsuccessfully inBradford Central,[12] campaigning as atariff reformer,[13]but never returned to the Commons. He was a member of the Tariff Commission[14]and of the Council of theIndustrial Freedom League, an organisation which opposed the involvement of the state and municipalities in trading companies.[15]
Gibbs was also aJustice of the Peace for Hertfordshire,[3] and the first co-editor of the second edition ofThe Complete Peerage; published beginning in 1910. While he retired well before it completed publication, his extensive notes are represented throughout the volumes.[2] He was a director of numerous companies, and the chairman ofNational Provident Institution.[16][17]
At his seatAldenham House nearElstree in Hertfordshire, he cultivated a garden which became notable for its flowering trees and shrubs.[2] He won many prizes for the flowers and vegetables grown by his head gardener Edwin BeckettFRHS,[18]including a first prize at theFranco-British Exhibition in 1908.[19]
He was a member of theAthenaeum Club and theCarlton Club.[20]
In January 1932 Gibbs died aged 78 at his London home in Upper Belgrave Street; he never married,[2] and most of his huge plant collection at Aldenham was auctioned by Sotheby's in October that year.[21]
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