Family and Education

b. c.1728, 3rd s. of John Gipps, staymaker, of Ashford, Kent by his w. Sarah née Flint. m. (1) Aug. 1755, Elizabeth Johanna (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, 1s.; (3) 18 Jan. 1792, Elizabeth, da. of Thomas Lawrence, M.D., 1s.

Offices Held

Biography

Gipps, according to the English Chronicle in 1780, was originally ‘an apothecary in the city of Canterbury, and not at all distinguished either for the extent of his practice, or the affluence of his fortune’. Later ‘he relinquished pharmacy and became a very extensive and fortunate speculator in the hop trade’;1in 1784 he appears in Bailey’s British Directory as a hop merchant; but by 1790 had given up the trade and entered banking as partner in the firm of Gipps, Simmons, and Gipps of Canterbury.

In 1780 he stood for Canterbury on an independent interest in opposition to Lord Newhaven, and was head of the poll. He voted against North’s Administration; supported Shelburne’s peace preliminaries, 18 Feb. 1783; voted for parliamentary reform, 7 May 1783; and against Fox’s East India bill, 27 Nov. 1783. Returned in 1784 after a contest, he supported Pitt; but in 1788 signed the third party manifesto. There is no record of his having spoken before 1790.

He died 13 Feb. 1800.

Ref Volumes: 1754-1790

Author: John Brooke

Notes

• 1. Gent. Mag. 1800, p. 190.