Author: TIBBITTS, John
Biography:
TIBBITTS, John (1750-1811: ancestry.co.uk)
He was baptised on 3 Dec. 1750 at Kidderminster, Worcestershire, the eldest child of John Tibbitts, a saw-maker, and his wife Rebecca Field, who had married on 18 Feb. 1750 at Upton upon Severn. Nothing is known of his education, but on his marriage in 1786 he was listed as a hop and cider merchant and in a 1791 trade directory as a cider merchant. In 1796 he was Secretary of the Bewdley Annuity Society, set up in 1786 for the benefit of widows and aged members (and inmates of the local asylum). He was also listed as Clerk to the Wribbenhall Turnpike Trustees in 1802; he dedicated his book to them. He married Betty Clarke (1757-1839), from Kidderminster, on 20 Apr. 1786 at Ribbesford. They had eight children baptised at Bewdley Presbyterian in the High Street, three of whom died before reaching full age. He died at Bewdley and was buried at Ribbesford on 11 Apr. 1811. Betty Tibbitts died in 1839 and her will left an estate of several hundred pounds to her surviving children and made special provision for her unmarried daughters Sarah and Susannah. She also left a bookstall and a copy of Harvey’s Meditations to her son John, Milton’s Paradise Lost to her daughter Maria, and the remainder of her books to her daughters Sarah and Susannah. The Clarke-Tibbitts family were probably connected to the Cartwright and Beddoe families, either through marriage or business. A Rebecca Cartwright had been a witness at their marriage in 1786, five Cartwrights and two Beddoes subscribed in 1811, and members of both families are mentioned in the 1839 will. The volume listed here, which is Tibbitts’s only known publication, is notable for its account of Bewdley and its activities (“A Descriptive Essay on Bewdley,” 5-47) and a topographical poem (“Spring Grove,” 48-86). (ancestry.co.uk 1 Aug. 2022; findmypast.co.uk 1 Aug. 2022; Universal British Directory [1791], 467; Aris’ Birmingham Gazette 24 Apr. 1786, 22 Feb. 1796 et passim; Lizzie Hill, Bewdley Historical Research Group) AA