Author: Gibson, John
Biography:
GIBSON, John (1796-1877: ancestry.co.uk)
The dedication of his book to Walter Scott makes it all but certain that he was the John Gibson, Writer to the Signet (solicitor), who served as Scott’s law agent and, from 1826, as one of the trustees administering Scott’s financial affairs after the bankruptcy of Archibald Constable. He was born in South Leith, Midlothian, on 15 Jan. 1796 and baptised on 21 Feb. His parents were George Gibson, also a Writer to the Signet, and his wife Isabella Watt. (The memorial to Gibson and his wife in Dean cemetery gives his date of birth as 15 Jan. 1788.) Gibson was educated at the University of Edinburgh, and married Charlotte Ellen Gordon in 1824. He became a Writer to the Signet in 1819. From 1822 he was an agent for the Duke of Buccleuch. He died at Edinburgh on 4 Sept. 1877. In addition to the book listed here, he contributed verse to the annuals; his “The Highland Hunter’s Coronach” was printed in Friendship's Offering in 1829. (ancestry.co.uk 29 July 2019, 14 Jan. 2025; James C. Corson, Notes and Index to Sir Herbert Grierson’s Edition of the Letters of Sir Walter Scott [1979]; information from David Radcliffe) SR