▶Date of birth:   4 April 1843       Place of birth:  Hexham, Northumberland

▶Father:   Nevison Walker Gibson    Mother: Elizabeth Nicholson

▶Spouse(s):  Ellen Cardell    Date(s) of marriage:  17 August 1869     Place(s) of marriage: Aston Juxta, Birmingham

▶Occupation: Watchmaker; Clergyman (Wesleyan Methodist minister)

▶Lifestory: Methodist William Gibson was a popular minister who served in and around the Midlands before moving to Cheltenham as Superintendent Minister of the district in 1892. He was born in 1843 in Hexham, Northumberland, the eldest son of merchant and master clog-maker Nevison Walker Gibson, and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of William Nicholson, of Hexham. At the time of the 1861 census Gibson was living in Hexham with his parents, working as a watchmaker.

His career as a Methodist started in 1863. In 1866-7 he was stationed at Hinckley, Leicestershire, and in 1869 married Ellen, daughter of Sampson Cardell Esq., at Aston, Brmingham; the couple had no children. In 1870 and early 1871 he was stationed at Birmingham (New Town Row) as a junior minister, progressing from 1871 until 1873 at Bradford (Low Moor). The pattern of his life was typical of a Wesleyan Ministry, stationed in a new location every two or three years. He officiated subsequently in London (Brixton Hill), from 1875, where in 1877 he became the Superintendent Minister of the district, a role he undertook in his subsequent appointments.

In 1881 he was a Wesleyan Minister living in Newport, Monmouthshire; from 1883 until 1885 he served at Wellington, Shropshire, and then at Lancaster 1886-8. In 1889 he came south, to Bristol (Wesley) from 1889-91, and in 1892 was appointed to superintend the Cheltenham district: from 1893 until 1895 he lived at the Wesleyan Superintendent’s residence, 27 Clarence Square, Pittville. Throughout his career he was a popular and energetic minister, gradually taking on additional responsibility. In 1893 he was President of the Gloucester and District Methodist Council, and withdrew courteously when tied in the ballot to become President of the newly founded Cheltenham Nonconformist Council in the same year (he was President two years later).

He hoped to extent his stay in Cheltenham in 1895 for an unusual fourth year, but he was narrowly beaten in the ballot, and went as Superintendent of the Devon and Dorset Mission 1895-6. He transferred in this capacity to Ramsgate 1897-9 and then to Dover, where he immediately became Chairman of the Kent district and a member of the Committee of the fund for the Extension of Methodism in Great Britain. He also chaired the Kent Synod for four years, retiring from active work in the Church in 1904, when he stepped down to become a Supernumerary Minister and went to live quietly with his wife at Hazelwood in Clevedon, Somerset’ he died at Clevedon in Somerset in 1911, at the age of sixty-eight. His estate at death was valued at just over £9,815.

▶Moved to Pittville from:   Bristol     Moved from Pittville to: Devon

▶Date of death: 15 April 1911       Place of death: Clevedon, Somerset

▶Date of burial:         Place of burial:

▶Notes:        ID: 5634

Contributor(s):  John Simpson