Modern Art of Poetry … With a Preface containing some observations of the great and general Defectiveness of former Versions in Greek, Latin, and English,’ London, 1701, 4to. The title-page of the second edition (1712) states that ‘some of the lords spiritual freely proposed to recommend’ it to ‘parliament and convocation.’ 3. ‘Observations of various eminent cures of scrophulous distempers, commonly called the King's Evil, such as tumours, ulcers, curiosity of bones, blindness, and consumptions … to which is added An Essay concerning the animal spirits and the cure of convulsions. …’ Exeter, 1712, sm. 4to. It contains an essay written in vindication of a trial at Launceston in 1710 concerning the cure of a lad from Plymouth. Some of the cases relate to persons living at Tregony, Gorran, and other places in Cornwall. In manuscript are: ‘Carmen in honorem principis Poetarum, doct. Gibbesii, cum diploma a Cæsarea Majestate in Musarum templo concessum est,’ Worcester Coll. MS. No. 58, pp. 99–101; ‘Proposal of J. Gibbs to the Archbishop of Canterbury for a New Translation of the Psalms, with a printed translation of the first and second Psalm into English verse,’ Lambeth MS. 937, art. 24, 25.
[Boase and Courtney's Bibl. Cornub. i. 171–2, iii. 1193; Nichols's Lit. Anecd. i. 286; works of Swift, 1843, ii. 369–72.]
GIBBS, JAMES (1682–1754), architect, son of Peter Gibbs, a Roman catholic merchant, and Isabel Farquhar, his second wife, was born 23 Dec. 1682, at his father's house of Footdeesmire, in the Links of Aberdeen. A son by the first wife was the only other surviving child. Gibbs was educated at the grammar school and the Marischal College of Aberdeen, where he took the degree of M.A. His father and mother both dying, he studied for some time in Aberdeen, living with his aunt, Elspeth Farquhar, and her husband, Peter Morison. He afterwards resolved to seek his fortune abroad, and in Holland made the acquaintance of John Erskine, eleventh earl of Mar [q. v.] Mar supplied him with letters and money, enabling him to travel to Rome and study architecture under Carolo Fontana, surveyor-general to Pope Clement XI, and architect to St. Peter's. The illness of his only brother induced him to return in 1709. His brother was already dead, and, after settling his affairs in Scotland, he went to London, where he was patronised by Mar and by John, second duke of Argyll. The first public building upon which he was employed after his arrival from Italy was St. Mary-le-Strand, one of fifty new churches. The foundation-stone was laid 15 Feb. 1714, and the building consecrated 1 Jan. 1723. The steeple was substituted for a campanile, when a column with a statue of Queen Anne was abandoned in consequence of her death. The base of the campanile having been already built, he was obliged to make the plan of the steeple oblong instead of square. The consequent shallowness of the steeple, as seen from the north or south side, is the only serious defect in the design of this building. Although one of Gibbs's very finest works, it can scarcely be called truly distinctive of him, as its delicate beauty suggests the influence of Wren. In 1719 Gibbs added the steeple and the two upper stages to the tower of Wren's church of St. Clement Danes in the Strand. His next church was ‘Marybone Chapel,’ better known as St Peter's, Vere Street, begun in 1721 by Harley, earl of Oxford. He designed about this time the monument in Westminster Abbey to Matthew Prior, who died 18 Sept. 1721. In the following year was commenced the most famous of his buildings, St. Martin-in-the-Fields. Gibbs prepared several plans, and among them ‘two Designs made for a Round Church, which were approved by the Commissioners, but were laid aside on account of the expensiveness of executing them, though they were more capacious and convenient than what they pitch'd upon.’ The first stone was laid on 19 March 1722, and the church consecrated in 1726. The east end of the interior of this church shows very markedly the influence of his Roman studies. In June 1722 he began the Senate House at Cambridge. This was but one wing in a large scheme never completed. A wing to the south was to have contained ‘the consistory and Register office,’ and one on the west ‘the Royal Library.’ Sir James Burrough [q. v.] had some share in the original design. The large church of Allhallows in Derby, his next undertaking, was commenced in 1723, and finished in 1725. The fifteenth-century tower remains, joined to Gibbs's work. In 1723 was erected the monument to John Holles, duke of Newcastle, in Westminster Abbey, executed, from Gibbs's designs, by Francis Bird [q. v.], and the most sumptuous of all the many monuments designed by him. The other monuments in the abbey by Gibbs are those to Mrs. Katherina Bovey, 1727; John Smith, 1718; John Freind, M.D., 1728; the monument erected in 1723 by James, marquis of Annandale, to his mother and younger brother; and the monument to Ben Jonson in Poets' Corner. King's College, Cambridge, was another of his designs commenced about this time. The west side of the great quadrangle was begun in 1724, and
