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Colonel John George Nathaniel Gibbes (30 March 17875 July 1873) was a British army officer who emigrated to Australia in 1834, becoming a Crown-appointed member of the New South Wales Legislative Council and the Collector of Customs for the Colony of New South Wales for a record term of 25 years. In his capacity as head of the New South Wales Department of Customs, Colonel Gibbes was the colonial government's principal accumulator of domestic-sourced revenue − prior to the huge economic stimulus provided by the Australian gold rushes of the 1850s − through the collection of import duties and other taxes liable on ship-borne cargoes. Thus, he played a significant role in the transformation of the City of Sydney (now Australia's biggest State capital) from a convict-based settlement into a prosperous, free enterprise-based port replete with essential government infrastructure. Gibbes was born and schooled in London. He saw active service as a military officer during Great Britain's wars against Napoleon which occupied most of the early years of the 19th century. Then, in 1814, while on convalescence leave from the armed forces, Gibbes married Elizabeth Davis, the daughter of a clergyman, at the 17th-century Church of St Andrew, Holborn, in London. Their marriage would give rise to a total of eight children, namely: George (who married Mary Ann Fuller), Eliza (subsequently Mrs Robert Dulhunty), William (who married Harriet Eliza Jamison), Mary (subsequently Mrs Terence Aubrey Murray), Frances (subsequently Mrs Alfred Ludlam), Edmund (who married Frances Simmons), Matilda (subsequently Mrs Augustus Berney), and Augustus (who married Annie Bartram). Following his arrival in Sydney on 19 April 1834, he occupied a seat in the New South Wales Legislative Council from 1834 until his retirement from politics in 1855. Moreover, he was the Collector of Customs for New South Wales for an unsurpassed period spanning one quarter of a century, being the incumbent from 1834 to 1859. Indeed, it was Colonel Gibbes' who persuaded the Governor of NSW, Sir George Gipps, to begin construction of the Customs House, Sydney on Circular Quay in 1844 in response to port's growing volume of maritime trade. This major building project also doubled as an unemployment relief measure for stonemasons and laborers during an economic depression which was afflicting the colony at the time. (The Customs House at Circular Quay replaced inadequate departmental accommodation for Gibbes and his team of officers in The Rocks area of Sydney.) Colonel Gibbes resided in a series of historically and architecturally important private dwellings during his time in New South Wales, including the since demolished Palladian-style Point Piper House (also known as Henrietta Villa or The Naval Villa), Wotonga House (now part of the vice-regal establishment known as Admiralty House on Kirribilli Point), Greycliffe House (which overlooks Shark Beach in the Sydney suburb of Vaucluse, and, finally, Yarralumla Homestead (now the site of Australia's Government House, Canberra). A concise account of Colonel Gibbes' career as a soldier and public servant can be found in ''The Australian Dictionary of Biography'' (on-line edition) and also the official Website of the Parliament of New South Wales, under "Former members". An obituary containing an account of his life was also published in several New South Wales metropolitan and regional newspapers following his death in 1873, including the ''Sydney Morning Herald'' of 28 December of that year. ==Parents and education== The parentage of Colonel Gibbes is unknown. He was a bigamist about whom much has been invented. The ''Australian Dictionary of Biography'', I (166) 439, says that he was 'born in London on 30 March 1787 the son of John Gibbes, planter, of Barbados and later of London. Part of his education was by Rev. D. Geary Dejether, North Wales', but the ''Dictionary'' provides no sources and these people (if they existed) cannot be identified. Gibbes is assumed to be the John Gibbs, born 30 March 1786 (sic), who appears without parentage in the published register of Merchant Taylors' School as having been educated in the school, 1795-99. He entered the British Army as an ensign (junior commissioned officer) in 1804. Ten years later as 'John Gibbes' he married Eliza Davies at Holborn in central London. Eliza had borne Gibbes two children prior to the marriage, six more children followed later. He married bigamously at Quebec, Canada, in 1818, Mary Ann Bell, but he left her the following year and returned to Eliza Davis. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「John George Nathaniel Gibbes」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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