Samuel Osborne-Gibbes

Sir Samuel Osborne-Gibbes, Second Baronet (27 August 1803 – 12 November 1874) was a British Army officer, Freemason, plantation owner and politician. Born in England, he spent his early years on his father's sugar plantation on Barbados. After his parents' death, he was brought up by an uncle in England. After some military service, he took over the sugar plantation in Barbados, where he remained until the abolition of slavery in 1833. He returned to England, but left his home country in 1850 for Sydney in Australia, where he met up with his nephew, Colonel John Gibbes. In 1855, he emigrated to New Zealand, where he remained for the rest of his life. He was one of the highest Masons in the country and was a Member of the New Zealand Legislative Council from 1855 to 1863.

The baronetcy was inherited from his grandfather and passed on to his son Edward.

Early life

Born in England in 1803^[1] and christened Samuel Osborne Gibbes, he was the grandson of the First Baronet, Philip Gibbes, by the First Baronet's younger son, Samuel, and Samuel's wife, Sarah Gibbes (née Bishop), of Exeter, Devonshire. The Second Baronet assumed the additional surname of Osborne some years after his inheritance of the title in 1815.^[2] He thus became known as Sir Samuel Osborne-Gibbes during the latter part of his life, with his middle and last names joined by a hyphen.

Both of the Second Baronet's parents died when he was still a small child (his father died in 1807), living in the West Indies. Accordingly, he was brought back to England and placed under the legal guardianship of his uncle, Lord Colchester, until he reached his legal majority. He served as a Page of Honour to the Prince of Wales—later King George IV of Great Britain—and prior to entering the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in 1817 as an officer cadet,^[1] he was educated by private tutors in London and Paris under the daily supervision of his maiden aunt and chaperone Agnes Gibbes (1761–1843). The Second Baronet served in the 96th Regiment following his graduation from Sandhurst in 1819 and was aide-de-camp to the Governor of Nova Scotia (The Earl of Dalhousie) for a time;^[1] but opportunities for military promotion were limited in the wake of the Napoleonic Wars and he eventually resigned his commission, having attained captain's rank. He was admitted to St John's College, Cambridge in 1820.^[3]

Time on Barbados

He inherited a sugar plantation on Barbados from his father^[1] and resided there from 1821 until 1833, when the British Parliament passed the Slavery Abolition Act and freed the island's slaves. The Second Baronet received financial compensation from the government for the loss of his 'human chattels'; but this did not prevent him from selling Springhead and his other plantations, which would have been far more costly for him to operate in the absence of an enslaved workforce.

Family

He returned to England to live with his wife, Margaret (née Moore, the grand niece of the Earl of Clonmell), whom he had married in Ireland on 28 September 1825.^[4] His first wife died in 1847, however, and he married for a second time the following year. His second wife, Anne Penny, came from the County of Dorset. The Second Baronet's two marital unions produced a number of children, including the initial heir to the baronetcy, Lieutenant Philip Osborne-Gibbes, of the 41st Bengal Native Infantry, who died while on military service at Multan in 1850, aged 24.

England and Australia

During his time in England, the Second Baronet dwelt chiefly in Exeter and in the seaside town of Weymouth, Dorset, where he owned a house. In late 1850, however, he quit the country of his birth for good. Accompanied by the second Lady Gibbes, he set sail for Sydney in the burgeoning Australian colony of New South Wales. His decision to come to Sydney may have been influenced by the presence there of his nephew, Colonel Gibbes (the son of his sister Agnes), who had been appointed Sydney's Collector of Customs in 1834. Colonel Gibbes and the Second Baronet became friends and newspaper notices list them as attending Government House receptions together during the early 1850s. The Second Baronet remained in Sydney for about four years, residing in Argyle Place and being embraced by the upper tier of colonial society. In 1855, he was made Provincial Grand Master of New South Wales.

New Zealand

That same year he, his wife and their children left Sydney and moved permanently to New Zealand, where further children would be born. The Second Baronet acquired 279 acres (1.13 km²) of farming land at Whangarei, on New Zealand's North Island, erected a house (which he called "Springhead" after his former abode on Barbados), and went on to play a prominent role in the public affairs of the surrounding district. In 1855, he was a founding member of the Waitemata Lodge, the first Masonic lodge in the Auckland Region, and became its first Master.^[5]

He was appointed to the New Zealand Legislative Council on 2 October 1855 and remained a member until 6 October 1863, when he resigned.^[6] Among his wide circle of colleagues and acquaintances in New Zealand was the prominent parliamentarian and pastoralist Alfred Ludlam, who was married to one of Colonel Gibbes' daughters.

The last decade of the Second Baronet's life was clouded by financial difficulties and he was obliged to dispose of most of his land and other assets. He died on 12 November 1874 and was interred at Christ Church, Whangarei.^[7] The Anglican Bishop of Auckland, William Cowie, conducted the funeral service, which was attended by a large number of friends, community leaders, Masons and soldiers.^[1] The dowager He had become one of the highest Masons in New Zealand.^[7] Lady Gibbes outlived him by 44 years, dying at Mount Eden in 1918. She was survived by two sons (including the Third Baronet, their son Edward^[2]) and four daughters.^[8]

See also

• Osborne-Gibbes Baronets

References