Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 21.djvu/264

 and he refused to do so. At the Restoration he regained the rectory of Sevenoaks, and was also put in possession of the rectory of Corfe Castle, to which he had been presented more than ten years before. He died at Corfe Castle on 12 Feb. 1697.

His writings were: 1. ‘The Tender of Dr. Gibbon unto the Christian Church for the Reconciliation of Differences,’ s. sh. fol. 1640 (?). 2. ‘The Reconciler, earnestly endeavouring to unite in sincere affection the Presbyters and their dissenting brethren of all sorts,’ 1646. 3. ‘A Paper delivered to the Commissioners of the Parliament (as they call themselves) at the personal Treaty with his Majesty King Charles I in the Isle of Wight, anno 1648.’ 4. ‘A Summe or Body of Divinity Real,’ 1653. This is a large diagram in which the attempt is made to illustrate the connection between the various truths of religion by means of lines, semicircles, and similar devices. 5. ‘Theology Real and truly Scientificall; in overture for the conciliation of all Christians, and (after them) the Theist, Atheist, and all Mankind into the Unity of the Spirit and the Bond of Peace,’ 1663. 6. ‘The Scheme or Diagramme adjusted for future use in a larger Prodromus ere long to be published, and whereof this is then to be a part: at present printed for private hands.’ This is a key to the ‘Summe or Body.’ Baxter, to whom he showed one of his schemes of divinity, denounces it as ‘the contrivance of a very strong headpiece, secretly and cunningly fitted to usher in a Socinian Popery,’ and describes its author as an impostor (Reliquiæ Baxterianæ, pt. i. p. 78, pt. ii. p. 205, pt. iii. p. 69).

[Wood's Athenæ Oxonienses, iv. 787–9; Fasti, i. 422, 451, 508, 510; Walker's Sufferings of the Clergy, pt. ii. pp. 251, 252; Hutchins's Dorset (3rd ed.), i. 539, 542, 543; Hasted's Kent, i. 358; Bodleian Library and Brit. Mus. Catalogues of Printed Books.] 

GIBBONS. [See also .]

GIBBONS, CHRISTOPHER (1615–1676), musical composer, elder of the two surviving sons of Orlando Gibbons [q. v.], was born in 1615, and baptised in St. Margaret's, Westminster, 22 Aug. of that year. He was probably called after his father's patron, Sir Christopher Hatton. He received his musical education in the choir of Exeter Cathedral under his uncle, Edward Gibbons [q. v.] (the double mistake of stating him to have learnt music under Ellis Gibbons [q. v.] and at Bristol originated in a clerical error of Wood). In 1638 he succeeded Thomas Holmes as organist of Winchester Cathedral, a post which he held, in name at all events, until 23 June 1661. He joined a royalist garrison, along with other cathedral officials, in the civil war. In July 1654 Evelyn heard ‘Mr. Gibbon,’ probably Christopher, play the organ in Magdalen Chapel, Oxford. At the Restoration he was appointed one of the organists of the Chapel Royal, to which he had belonged in Charles I's time (, Fasti, ii. 277). He was also made organist of Westminster Abbey, and private organist to Charles II. On 23 Sept. 1646 he married, at St. Bartholomew's the Less, Mary, daughter of Dr. Robert Kercher, a late prebendary of Winchester, and in February 1661 he petitioned the king that he might obtain his tenant right by virtue of this marriage to a tenement in Whitchurch manor belonging to the cathedral (Cal. State Papers, Dom., Charles II, vol. xxxi. No. 65). His wife died in April 1662, and was buried on the 15th of the month in the north cloister of Westminster Abbey. In that year the famous German organist Froberger, who had been robbed on his way to England, and was almost destitute, appealed to him for the post of organ-blower. On the occasion of the king's marriage, Gibbons was playing before the court, when Froberger overblew the bellows, and drew down upon him the rage of his employer. Shortly afterwards Froberger, having filled the bellows, struck a crashing discord on the keys, and resolved it in so masterly a manner that he was recognised by a lady who had been his pupil. By the king's command a harpsichord was brought in, and he played to the admiration of all present, and even drew an apology from Gibbons for his rudeness (, Grundlage einer Ehrenpforte, p. 88). In July 1663 the king requested the university of Oxford to confer upon Gibbons the degree of Mus. D. (Cal. State Papers, Dom. Charles II, vol. lxxvi. No. 12), and accordingly the honour was conferred on him, per literas regias, on the 7th of the month. His ‘Act Song,’ performed in the church of St. Mary on the 11th (, Fasti, ii. 158), is preserved in the library of the Music School, Oxford. He received 5l. on the occasion from the dean and chapter of Westminster. In 1653 he composed, in conjunction with Matthew Lock, who like himself had been a choir-boy at Exeter under Edward Gibbons, the music to Shirley's masque, ‘Cupid and Death,’ which was performed before the Portuguese ambassador on 26 March (the manuscript is in the British Museum, Add. MS. 17799). Gibbons died 20 Oct., and was buried in the cloisters of Westminster Abbey 24 Oct. 1676. His nuncupative will, dated three days before his death, was proved 6 Nov. following by his second wife, Elizabeth,