Family and Education

bap. 10 Jan. 1729, 4th s. of Henry Gipps, of Ashford by Sarah née Flint. m. (1) 2 Aug. 1755, Elizabeth Joanna (d. 1775), da. of John Roberts of Harbledown, s.p.; (2) 27 Nov. 1780, Sarah (d. 2 June 1789), da. of William Stanton, Spanish merchant, of Harbledown, 2s.; (3) 18 Jan. 1792, Elizabeth, da. of Thomas Lawrence, MD, of Canterbury, s.p.

Offices Held

Alderman, Canterbury 1785.

Biography

Gipps became a freeman of Canterbury by apprenticeship to Charles Knowler, apothecary, in 1751; but it was as a hop merchant that he made his fortune and became a partner in the Canterbury bank of Gipps, Simmons and Gipps, which subscribed £5,000 to the loyalty loan for 1797. Since 1784 he had been a silent and independent supporter of Pitt’s administration. In 1790 he headed the poll. He was listed hostile to the repeal of the Test Act in Scotland in April 1791. He and his colleague Sir John Honywood, 4th Bt.*, were rivals for the vacant receivership of the land tax in Kent in September 1791. He rested his pretensions on Pitt’s knowledge of him and of his conduct, but conceded that if he were not to be chosen, he would wish Honywood to have it. No speech or vote of his survives, but he wrote to Pitt for an interview about the high price of wheat, 22 Mar. 1795, and subsequently submitted his and others’ ideas on taxation to him. He was twice minority teller against the trial of causes regulation bill, 7 and 14 June 1797.

Gipps and his colleague were defeated in 1796 and again when that election was voided in 1797, but regained their seats on petition. He died 13 Feb. 1800 ‘in his 72nd year’, esteemed for his ‘integrity’, his ‘gentle unaffected manners’ and his charity.

PRO 30/8/138, ff. 280, 282; 266, ff. 170, 174; Gent. Mag. (1800), i. 190.

Ref Volumes: 1790-1820

Author: Winifred Stokes

Notes