Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 2.djvu/123

 University Press in 1880 with (Sir) James Murray as editor, Aldenham helped to settle the final form of the 'New English Dictionary,' and read and annotated every proof down to a few weeks before his death. He wrote many of the articles on words connected with banking, currency, and commerce, one of the last being 'pound.' For the Early English Text Society he edited in 1868 the 'Romance of the Chevelere Assigne.' For the Roxburghe Club, of which he was a member, he prepared in 1873 the 'Hystorie of the moste noble knight Plasidas,' and in 1884 the 'Life and Martyrdom of St. Katharine of Alexandria.' He was a good Spanish scholar, and wrote a booklet for private circulation (printed in 1874) on the game of cards called ombre. Aldenham was deeply versed in liturgical studies and a collector of old Bibles. An enthusiastic bibliophile, he described in 1888 the chief rarities in his library in 'A Catalogue of some Printed Books and Manuscripts at St. Dunstan's, Regent's Park, and Aldenham House, Herts.' His residence, St. Dunstan's, Regent's Park, he took on lease from the crown in 1856; it was formerly tenanted by the Marquis of Hertford, who bought and installed there the clock and automaton strikers of St. Dunstan's Church, Fleet Street, when the church was rebuilt in 1830. Aldenham was appointed a trustee of the National Portrait Gallery on 18 Nov. 1890, was elected F.R.G.S. on 28 Nov. 1859, and F.S.A. on 4 June 1885, serving also on the council of the former society. He was president of Guy's Hospital from 1880 to 1896.

Aldenham died at Aldenham on 13 Sept. 1907; his youngest son, Henry Lloyd Gibbs, died on the following day, aged forty-six; both were buried at Aldenham. His will, dated 19 March (codicil 28 Aug.) 1906, was proved in December 1907; the gross estate was over 703,700l., much of his property having been distributed during his lifetime. He married on 6 May 1845 at Thorpe, Surrey, Louisa Anne, third daughter of William Adams, LL.D,, and Mary Anne Cokayne. His wife's brother, [q. v. Suppl. II], married Lord Aldenham's sister, Mary Dorothea, on 2 Dec. 1 856. Lady Aldenham died at St. Dunstan's, Regent's Park, on 17 April 1897, and was buried in Aldenham churchyard. Of their surviving children—four sons and a daughter—Alban George Henry succeeded to the peerage, having been previously M.P. for the City of London (1892-1906); Vicary, M.P. for St. Albans division, Hertfordshire (1892-1904), has re-edited the 'Complete Peerage' of his uncle, George Edward Cokayne, and Kenneth Francis is archdeacon of St. Albans and vicar of Aldenham.

A miniature portrait (æt. 20) by Sir William Ross, R.A.; a chalk drawing (with his eldest son) by E. U. Eddis (1859); a half-hmgth portrait by Watta (1878), and a full-length by Ouless (1879), belong to the present Lord Aldenham. The Hon. Vicary Gibbs possesses a half-length by T. Gotch (1888) and a marble bas-relief of the head after death by J. Kerr Lawson. The Hon. Herbert Gibbs possesses a second portrait by Watte (1896).



GIFFEN, ROBERT (1837–1910), economist and statistician, born at Strathaven, Lanarkshire, on 22 July 1837, was younger son of Robert Giffen, a small merchant and an elder of the presbyterian church, by his wife Janet Wiseman. Robert was educated at the village school and was put in charge of the Sunday-school library with an elder brother, John, who, destined for the ministry, died prematurely of consumption. The boys read all the books they could find, and wrote anonymously short articles and poems for a Hamilton newspaper. In 1850 Robert was apprenticed to a lawyer in Strathaven. Three years later he removed to a lawyer's office in Glasgow, and remained there seven years, attending lectures occasionally at the university. [q. v. Suppl. I], the novelist, was one of his closest Glasgow friends (Reid, William Black, p. 18). In 1860 he definitely adopted journalism as a profession, becoming a reporter and sub-editor of the 'Stirling Journal.' In 1862 he came to London as sub-editor of the 'Globe' (1862-6). After serving for a time with Mr. John (afterwards Viscount) Morley on the 'Fortnightly Review' he joined the staff of the 'Economist,' under