Author: Gisborne, John
Biography:
GISBORNE, John (1770-1851: ODNB)
He was the youngest son of John and Anne (Bateman) Gisborne and was born at St Helen’s, Derbyshire. After his father died in 1779, he was educated privately before entering Harrow in 1784. He attended St John’s College, Cambridge, from 1788, graduating BA the same year that he returned to Derbyshire and married Millicent Pole (1792). The couple had a number of sons and daughters with whom they moved frequently, including to Blackpool (for Millicent’s health: she suffered for six years from a wasting sickness in her limbs). At the time, Blackpool lacked both schools and a church, and Gisborne was instrumental in helping to establish these. The family subsequently toured Scotland and Wales and lived in a number of locations in Derbyshire (the frequent moving may have been related to financial losses). He was noted for his piety and for his interest in botany and landscape observation; Wordsworth is said to have written to compliment him on his poetical descriptions of landscape and nature but the letter has not survived. He died at Pentrich and was buried at Breadsall, near Derby. The following year, his diary, with a memoir, was edited and published by his daughter, Emma Nixon. (ODNB 24 June 2019; E. Nixon, A Brief Memoir of the Life of John Gisborne [1852])
Other Names:
- J. Gisborne