Thomas Hibbert junior

Thomas Hibbert Junior (1795-1845) was the son of Thomas Hibbert (1761-1807) and Dorothy Mansfield. His father had been a partner in his uncle Thomas’ (1710-1780) slave factorage business in Kingston alongside his cousins Thomas Hibbert (1744-1819) and Robert (1750-1835). He sold his interest in the firm and bought out his cousins from the Aqualta Vale estate which they had previously co-owned. Thomas had two brothers, John Hubert Washington and Julian Hibbert. John Hubert (q.v., 1804-1875) served as a Captain in the First Dragoons and owned Bilton Grange in Warwickshire. Julian (1800-1834) was a radical who was involved in the establishment of the National Union of the Working Classes and the transformation of the Blackfriars Rotunda.

Thomas’ father died when he was young leaving him an inheritance of £20,000. In 1811 he was sent to be educated by the Reverend Mr. Smith of Winchester and later followed Smith to Glasgow. It was at this point in his life that Thomas began to exhibit some strange behaviours for which he was subject to ridicule by his schoolfellows. In 1813 Thomas attended Trinity College Cambridge although he left the same year and travelled to the continent. He returned to Cambridge to read Classics between 1814-5. He attended Cambridge at the same time as his cousin Nathaniel Hibbert (1794-1865) who remembered that the students referred to Thomas as ‘fool Hibbert’.

Throughout his young adult life Thomas had manifested signs of mental health problems. His behaviour became increasingly erratic and on several occasions he attacked his mother and sister in their home. His father’s will had stated that each son would receive an additional £10,000 when they came to the age of twenty-five. In 1820, with Thomas approaching this age and his mother fearing that he was not of sound mind, a commission of lunacy was brought forth to determine if he was capable of managing his land and finances. At this point Thomas absconded to Brussels but he returned after a year to face the court. Thomas was described as an ‘alleged lunatic’. He was under the guardianship of his uncle John (1768-1855) who ‘did not think he was a man of strong mind, but thought that he was in his sense.’ Despite the support of witnesses which included both medical men and his own family the court ruled that Thomas was incapable of managing either his own person or his estates. The case was followed by The Times; once Thomas had been declared a lunatic an advert was taken out in the newspaper requesting his creditors to come forward to make their claims.

Following the court case it seems Thomas may have resided with his brother John Hubert Washington Hibbert and his mother Dorothy at his brother’s country house, Bilton Grange in Warwickshire. He died in 1845.

The Publications of the Harleian Society, Vol.37 (1894). Christina Parolin, Radical spaces: venues of popular politics in London, 1790-1845 (Canberra, Australian National University Press, 2010), p.231

Oliver Vere Langford, Caribbeana being miscellaneous papers relating to the history, genealogy, topography, and antiquities of the British West Indies, Vol.4 (London, 1919), pp.197. Times, 24/02/1821. Ancestry.com, Cambridge University Alumni, 1261-1900 [database online].

Times, 24/02/1821. Times, 19/11/1821.

http://www.parksandgardens.org/places-and-people/site/410/history [accessed 07/02/2013].