John Nembhard Hibbert

1. John Nembhard Hibbert (1796-1886) was the third son of Robert Hibbert (1750-1835) and his wife Letitia Hibbert née Nembhard. Robert Hibbert lived part of his life in Jamaica; he was part of his uncle Thomas Hibbert’s (1710-1780) merchant house. The house had interests in slave factorage and the supply of credit. Robert acted as an attorney for Nathaniel Phillips (1733-1813). Robert was also a slave and plantation owner with an estate called Albion located fifteen miles east of Kingston in what was St. David parish but is now modern day St. Thomas. John was born at Birtles Hall in Cheshire, the estate owned by his father Robert.

2. In 1833 John married Jane, the daughter of Sir Robert Alexander a banker with parliamentary connections who acted as Governor of the Bank of Ireland. John Nembhard Hibbert served in the King’s Dragoon Guards as a Cornet at Waterloo before retiring at the rank of Major in 1848. John’s diary of his experiences during the Napoleonic Wars is kept in the collection of the First Queen’s Dragoon Guards. On his father’s death Robert left the staggering sum of £250,000 in personalty as well as his ‘Jamaica estates with slaves, stocks etc.’ John inherited an estate called Chalfont in Buckinghamshire. In 1837 he was the High Sheriff of Buckinghamshire. After John’s death in 1886 Chalfont was sold by his executors to Captain Berton, and by him in 1899 to Mr. John Bathurst Akroyd, and were purchased from the latter by Mr. Edward Mackay Edgar.

3. John was made Deputy-lieutenant of Buckinghamshire, 03/04/1835.

4. The will of John Nembhard Hibbert late of Chalfont Park Buckinghamshire who died 03/01/1886 was proved by Frederick Drummond Hibbert of Chalfont Park, Leicester Hibbert of Chalfont Lodge and Edmund Joseph Tippinge of Devonport Congleton in Cheshire, the nephews, personal estate £80,190 19s 4d.

1. Mabel Nembhard, ‘The Nembhards of Jamaica’. Oliver Vere Langford, Caribbeana being miscellaneous papers relating to the history, genealogy, topography, and antiquities of the British West Indies, Vol.4 (London, 1919), p.195.

2. CARDG:1988.1764, extracts are available online at http://www.qdg.org.uk/diaries.php?dy=29 [accessed 01/02/2013]. Will of Robert Hibbert in Oliver Vere Langford, Caribbeana being miscellaneous papers relating to the history, genealogy, topography, and antiquities of the British West Indies, Vol.4 (London, 1919), p.199. William Rubinstein, Who were the rich?, Vol. I (2009), 1835/14. 'Parishes: Chalfont St. Peter', A History of the County of Buckingham: Volume 3 (1925), pp. 193-198 available at http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=42545 [accessed 01/02/2013].

3. London Gazette 26/06/1835, Issue 19283, p. 1224.

4. National Probate Calendar 1886.

We are grateful for the assistance of Chris Goodeve-Ballard in compiling this entry and to Sandy Warren for confirming the location of Chalfont House.