Thomas Field Gibson FGS | |
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Born |
Canonbury, London, England |
3 March 1803
Died | 12 December 1889 Hampstead, London |
(aged 86)
Residence | United Kingdom |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Geology, Palaeontology |
Thomas Field Gibson FGS (3 March 1803 – 12 December 1889) was a Unitarian silk manufacturer and philanthropist. He supported several novel initiatives to enhance British manufacturing quality and international trade while improving life for working people during the industrial revolution – particularly in Spitalfields where his business was centred. He also made important contributions to geology.
He was born to Thomas Gibson Snr and Charlotte née Field (who was Sir Francis Ronalds' aunt) at 2 Canonbury Place Islington – his maternal grandparents and an aunt and uncle were living at No 6 and No 3 Canonbury Place respectively. His schooling was with Unitarian ministers John Potticary in Blackheath (where Benjamin Disraeli was a classmate) and James Tayler (father of John James Tayler) in Nottingham.
In adulthood he resided in Bloomsbury; Hanger Lane, Wood Green; Clay Hill, Walthamstow; Westbourne Terrace, Paddington; 10 Broadwater Down, Royal Tunbridge Wells; and finally in Fitzjohn’s Avenue, Hampstead. He married twice: to Mary Anne Pett and then to Eliza Cogan, daughter of Unitarian schoolmaster Eliezer Cogan, and his only child, Mary Anne, was born the week before her mother and namesake died.
Gibson became a freeman of the Weavers' Company and took over his father’s silk manufacturing business in 1829. From his warehouse in Spital Square, work was put out to several hundred weaving families in the Spitalfields area. He also employed weavers in Halstead, Essex and was a partner in the Depot silk throwing mill in Derby.