Benjamin Gibbons (1783-1873)
Benjamin Gibbons (1783-1873)
1783 Born in Wolverhampton, son of Thomas Gibbons
1816 The three Gibbons brothers were gazetted bankrupt as bankers, pulling the iron business down with them.
1824 The 3 brothers, John, Benjamin and Thomas, were in business together at the Corbyn's Hall Collieries and Blast Furnaces, which were built by them about 1824 on their Corbyn's Hall estate near Dudley.
1838 Benjamin Gibbons, of Corbyns Hall, ironmaster
1841 Ironmaster, living in Kingswinford; of Corbyn's Hall[1]
1848 Joined I Mech E
1848 Iron Manufacturer, Shut End House, near Dudley
Without children to succeed him, Benjamin oversaw the slow run-down of the family business. The Level works were relinquished in the mid-1840s and the Ketley furnaces were never worked after 1858.
1851 Ironmaster, living in Kingswinford[2]
1860 of Hill Hampton House, near Stourport.
1861 Proprietor of land and mines, living in Great Witley, Worcs[3]
1868 of The Leasowes, near Birmingham.
1869 The Corbyns Hall furnaces were blown out, the last part of the family's ironmaking business to go.
1871 Magistrate, living in Halesowen[4]
1873 Died
1874 Obituary [5]
BENJAMIN GIBBONS, one of the oldest of the Ironmasters in South Staffordshire, belonged to one of the families earliest engaged in the iron trade in that district, being a younger son of Mr. Thomas Gibbons of The Oaks, Tettenhall, Wolverhampton.
He was born on 4th August 1783, and thus at the date of his decease, 21st April 1873, had nearly completed his ninetieth year.
After being educated at the grammar schools of Wolverhampton and Birmingham, he acquired his first knowledge of business in the iron works at Cradley, and at the Level, Brierley Hill, belonging to his uncle of the same name.
He was afterwards engaged in business with his eldest brother John and his younger brother Thomas at the Corbyn's Hall Collieries and Blast Furnaces, which were built by them about 1824 on their Corbyn's Hall estate near Dudley; and subsequently with his cousin, Mr. William Gibbons, at the Level New Furnaces, which he afterwards carried on alone. In his later years he resided at Hill Hampton House near Stourport, until 1865, when he became proprietor of Shenstone's estate at the Leasowes, Halesowen, where he was resident at the time of his death.
He was a magistrate for the county of Stafford.
He became a Member of the Institution in 1848, and gave a description of an early pneumatic Sift which he had erected for charging blast furnaces at the Corbyn's Hall New Furnaces (see Proceedings Inst. M. E. July 1849); and also contributed a paper on the ventilation of mines, more particularly in reference to the Thick or Ten-Yard coal of the South Staffordshire district (see Proceedings Inst. M. E. April 1851).
See Also
Sources of Information
- Biography of Gibbons family, ODNB