Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Gibson, William Sidney
GIBSON, WILLIAM SIDNEY (1814–1871), miscellaneous writer, born at Parson's Green, Fulham, in 1814, was for some years on the staff of a Carlisle newspaper. He entered Lincoln's Inn, and was called to the bar by that society in 1843. The same year he was appointed registrar of the Newcastle-upon-Tyne district court of bankruptcy. When the Bankruptcy Act of 1869 (32 & 33 Vict. c. 71) abolished this among other like courts, Gibson retired on a pension, and devoted himself entirely to antiquarian and literary studies. He died at the Grosvenor Hotel, London, 3 Jan. 1871, and was interred in the disused burial-ground of the Old Priory, Tynemouth, ‘for which a special permission had been obtained from the home office during the lifetime of the deceased.’ He was an honorary M.A. of Durham, and a fellow of the London Society of Antiquaries and many other learned societies.
Gibson wrote: 1. ‘The Certainties of Geology,’ 1840. 2. ‘Prize Essay on the History and Antiquities of Highgate,’ 1842 (written for a Highgate society). 3. ‘The History of the Monastery founded at Tynemouth in the Diocese of Durham,’ 2 vols., 1846–7 (a review of this, which originally appeared in the ‘Newcastle Guardian,’ was republished, Newcastle-on-Tyne, 1846). 4. ‘An Essay on the Filial Duties,’ 1848. 5. ‘A Letter to the Lord Chancellor on the Amendment of the Law of Bankruptcy,’ 1848. 6. ‘Descriptive and Historical Notices of some remarkable Northumbrian Castles, Churches, and Antiquities, in a Series of Visits to the ruined Priory of Finchale, the Abbey Church of Hexham, &c., with Biographical Notices of Eminent Persons’ (three series, 1848–54; the second series entitled ‘Dilston Hall,’ &c.). 7. ‘Remarks on the Mediæval Writers on English History, intended as a popular Sketch of the Advantages and Pleasures derivable from Monastic Literature,’ 1848. 8. ‘Marvels of the Globe,’ two lectures, 1856. 9. ‘Lectures and Essays,’ two series, 1858–63. 10. ‘A Memoir of Northumberland, descriptive of its Scenery, Monuments, and History,’ 1860, and, in a different form, 1862. 11. ‘Descriptive and Historical Guide to Tynemouth, with Notices of North Shields, &c.,’ Tynemouth and North Shields, 1861. 12. ‘A Memoir of Lord Lyndhurst,’ 1866; new edition, 1869. Gibson also wrote ‘A Memoir of the Life of Richard de Bury, Bishop of Durham,’ articles for Colburn's ‘New Monthly Magazine’ and other periodicals, and was an early contributor to ‘Notes and Queries.’
[Colburn's New Monthly Magazine, April 1871; Solicitors' Journal and Reporter, 14 Jan. 1871, p. 260; Notes and Queries, 4th ser. vii. 48, xi. 28.]