Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 21.djvu/277

 bert were acquitted of the charges brought against them, arising out of articles which had appeared in the ‘Examiner’ and the ‘Morning Chronicle’ respectively. In 1811 Lord Holland in the House of Lords and Lord Folkestone in the House of Commons drew attention to the extraordinary increase in the numbers of these prosecutions, and Gibbs made a long speech in his own defence, declaring that ‘it would be found that every prosecution of that nature had been conducted with the greatest lenity’ (ib. xix. 129–74, 548–612). The statute passed at his instigation authorising the arrest of any person who should be prosecuted by indictment or information in the king's bench (48 Geo. III, c. 58), was of so oppressive a nature that it was never put into force. Gibbs was elected a bencher of Lincoln's Inn in Easter term 1795, and acted as treasurer of that society in 1805. He married, in June 1784, Frances Cerjat Kenneth, daughter of Major William Mackenzie, a sister of Francis, lord Seaforth, by whom he had an only child, Maria Elizabeth, who married General Sir Andrew Pilkington, K.C.B. Lady Gibbs survived her husband many years, and died at Hayes on 1 May 1843, aged 88. His portrait by William Owen, R.A., is in the possession of his granddaughter, Mrs. Burrell Hayley of Catsfield, Sussex. It has been engraved by S. W. Reynolds and T. Lupton, and a replica of the picture is preserved at Eton College. Mrs. Hayley has another portrait of Gibbs by Mrs. Hoare of Bath, and a third by her brother, Mr. Prince Hoare, is in the possession of Mr. H. Hucks Gibbs of Aldenham House, near Elstree. Gibbs's speeches in the defence of Hardy and Tooke were published separately in 1795. A collection of his opinions, transcribed and selected from the numerous volumes of manuscripts which Gibbs left behind him, was many years ago presented to the Truro Law Library.

[Townsend's Lives of Twelve Eminent Judges (1846), i. 239–98; Foss's Judges of England (1864), viii. 287–94; Brougham's Statesmen of the Time of George III (1839), 1st ser. pp. 124–134; The Georgian Era (1833), ii. 318; Annual Register, 1820, chron. p. 163*; Gent. Mag. (1794) lxiv. pt. ii. 1061, (1820) xc. pt. i. 190, 275, 640, (1843) new ser. xix. 667, (1853), xxxix. 436; Burke's Landed Gentry (1879), i. 365; Grad. Cantabr. (1856), pp. 150, 445; Notes and Queries, 5th ser. v. 220, 275; Haydn's Book of Dignities (1851); Official Return of Lists of Members of Parliament, pt. ii. pp. 217, 236, 242; Lincoln's Inn Registers.] 

GIBSON, ALEXANDER,  (d. 1644), Scottish judge, was son of George Gibson of Goldingstones, a clerk of session (d. 1590?), by his wife Mary Airth, of the ancient family of Airth of that ilk in Stirlingshire. Thomas Gibson (1488–1513), member of an old family in Fife, had two sons, George and William [see, fl. 1540, lord of session]. George, the elder son of Thomas, was grandfather of George, father of Sir Alexander and of Archibald, who was bred to the church.

Alexander graduated M.A. at the university of Edinburgh, August 1588. On 14 Dec. 1594 he was admitted third clerk of session. James VI was present at his admission, and promised to reward the first and second clerks for their consent. On 10 July 1621 he was appointed a lord of session, when he took the title of Lord Durie, his clerkship being conferred on his son Alexander, to be held conjointly with himself. He is described in many charters as ‘Alexander Gibson de Durie, Miles’ before December 1628. In that year, according to Douglas, he was created a baronet of Nova Scotia, but does not appear to have actually assumed the dignity. In 1633 he was named a commissioner for reviewing the laws and collecting the local customs of the country. In 1640 he was elected a member of the committee of estates, and on 13 Nov. 1641 his appointment as judge was continued under a new commission to the court. While the office of president of the College of Justice continued elective, Durie was twice chosen head of the court, namely for the summer session on 1 June 1642, and for the winter session of 1643 (, Senators of the College of Justice, p. 264). He died at his house of Durie 10 June 1644, having from 11 July 1621, the day after his elevation to the bench, to 16 July 1642 preserved notes of the more important decisions. They are the earliest digested collection of decisions in the Scottish law, and are often referred to as ‘Lord Durie's Practicks.’ They were published (with his portrait prefixed) by his grandson, Sir Alexander Gibson (d. 1693) [q. v.], folio, Edinburgh, 1690. Durie married, 14 Jan. 1596, Margaret, the eldest daughter of Sir Thomas Craig [q. v.] of Riccarton, by whom he had three sons, Sir Alexander of Durie (d. 1656) [q. v.], Sir John of Pentland, and George of Balhousise. William Forbes, in the preface to his ‘Journal of the Session’ (1714), says that Durie ‘was a man of a penetrating wit and clear judgment, polished and improved by much study and exercise.’ He was constantly studying the civil law, as appears from the preface to Sir Thomas Craig's ‘Jus Feudale,’ and his abilities are further proved, according to Forbes, by his own book, by his frequent election to the vice-presidency of the court of session, to which no one else was