Robert Hibbert (25 October 1769 – 23 September 1849) was the founder of the
Hibbert Trust The Hibbert Trust is a foundation associated with British Unitarianism from its inception in 1853. It was founded by Robert Hibbert (1769–1849) and originally designated the Anti-Trinitarian Fund. It awards scholarships and fellowships, supports ...
.
Biography
The third and
posthumous son
A posthumous birth is the birth of a child after the death of a parent. A person born in these circumstances is called a posthumous child or a posthumously born person. Most instances of posthumous birth involve the birth of a child after the dea ...
of John Hibbert (1732–1769), a Jamaica merchant, and Janet, daughter of Samuel Gordon, he was born in
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...
; hence he spoke of himself as a
Creole. His mother died early.
Between 1784 and 1788, he was a pupil of
Gilbert Wakefield
Gilbert Wakefield (1756–1801) was an English scholar and controversialist. He moved from being a cleric and academic, into tutoring at dissenting academies, and finally became a professional writer and publicist. In a celebrated state trial ...
at Nottingham. He entered
Emmanuel College, Cambridge
Emmanuel College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1584 by Sir Walter Mildmay, Chancellor of the Exchequer to Elizabeth I. The site on which the college sits was once a priory for Dominican mo ...
, in 1788, and graduated B.A. in 1791.
At Cambridge he formed a lifelong friendship with
William Frend, the social reformer.
At a later period (1800–01), when Wakefield was imprisoned in Dorchester for writing a
political pamphlet, Hibbert, though not wealthy then, sent him £1,000.
In 1791, Hibbert went to
Kingston, Jamaica
Kingston is the Capital (political), capital and largest city of Jamaica, located on the southeastern coast of the island. It faces a natural harbour protected by the Palisadoes, a long spit (landform), sand spit which connects the town of Por ...
, as partner in a mercantile house (a trading partnership,
Hibbert, Purrier and Horton Hibbert, Purrier and Horton was a London-based merchant and shipping business, initially founded in 1770,Hall ''et al'', p.210. which was also extensively involved in the slave trade during the late 18th and early-mid-19th century. A partnership (it ...
) founded by his cousin Thomas (not to be confused with his father's eldest brother,
Thomas Hibbert
Thomas Hibbert (1710–1780) was an English merchant and planter who became a prominent figure in colonial Jamaica.
Life
Thomas was the son of Robert Hibbert (1684–1762) and his wife Margaret Tetlow Mills. Born into a family owning cotton ...
). Another cousin,
George Hibbert
George Hibbert (13 January 1757 – 8 October 1837) was an English merchant, politician and ship-owner. Alongside fellow slaver Robert Milligan (merchant), Robert Milligan, he was also one of the principals of the West India Dock Company which ...
, son of another
Robert Hibbert (1717-1784) was one of the principals of the
West India Dock Company
The West India Docks are a series of three docks, quaysides, and warehouses built to import goods from, and export goods and occasionally passengers to, the British West Indies. Located on the Isle of Dogs in London, the first dock opened in 1802 ...
which instigated the construction of the
docks of that name on
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
's
Isle of Dogs
The Isle of Dogs is a large peninsula bounded on three sides by a large meander in the River Thames in East London, England. It includes the Cubitt Town, Millwall and Canary Wharf districts. The area was historically part of the Manor, Haml ...
.
Returning to England in about 1803, he bought the estate of East Hide (now called
Hyde), near Luton, Bedfordshire.
In Jamaica, he had acquired considerable property (in 1791 he purchased two sugar plantations, Georgia and Dundee, both in
Hanover Parish
Hanover () is a parish located on the northwestern tip of the island of Jamaica. It is a part of the county of Cornwall, bordered by St. James in the east and Westmoreland in the south. With the exception of Kingston, it is the smallest par ...
)
and he was not convinced by the arguments of Frend that his ownership of slaves was immoral. Besides plans for their material benefit, he sent out as a missionary to the negroes on his estates, in October 1817, Thomas Cooper (died 25 October 1880, aged 88). Cooper,
a Unitarian minister recommended by Frend, remained on the island until 1821, endeavouring, with little success, to improve their moral and religious condition. A somewhat acrimonious controversy followed the publication of Cooper's 1823 report, ''Negro slavery, or, A view of some of the more prominent features of that state of society :as it exists in the United States of America and in the colonies of the West Indies, especially in Jamaica.''
After 1825, Hibbert's Jamaica property declined in value and in about 1836 he sold it at considerable loss. He had previously (1833) sold his Bedfordshire estate and moved to London. He died at
Welbeck Street
Welbeck Street is a street in the West End of London, West End, central London. It has historically been associated with the medical profession.
Former resident Andrew Berry was one of the men to have successfully deployed a parachute at altitu ...
, London, on 23 September 1849, and was buried in
Kensal Green Cemetery
Kensal Green Cemetery is a cemetery in the Kensal Green area of North Kensington in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in London, England. Inspired by Père Lachaise Cemetery in P ...
. While in Jamaica, he married Elizabeth Jane, daughter of John Nembhard, M.D., who died on 15 February 1853.
Hibbert Trust
On 19 July 1847, Hibbert executed a deed conveying to trustees $50,000 in 6% Ohio stock, and £8,000 in railway shares. The trustees, on the death of his widow, were to apply the income 'in such manner as they shall from time to time deem most conducive to the spread of Christianity in its most simple and intelligible form, and to the unfettered exercise of the right of private judgment in matters of religion'. The trustees were always to be laymen. Appended was a scheme for the administration of the trust, which the trustees were empowered to revise, and were directed to revise at least once in every twenty-five years.
In the original scheme the trust was called 'the
Anti-trinitarian Fund', and its object was, by a provision of
divinity scholarships, to encourage learning and culture among unorthodox Christians. The breadth of the actual trust is largely due to the counsels of Hibbert's solicitor,
Edwin Wilkins Field
Edwin Wilkins Field (12 October 1804 – 30 July 1871) was a British lawyer and painter who committed much of his life to law reform.
Early life
Edwin, a descendant of Oliver Cromwell through his grandmother, was the eldest of thirteen children ...
, but, in opposition to Field, Hibbert 'determined on insisting that all recipients should be
hetero-dox', his intention being 'to elevate the position and the public influence of the unitarian ministry'.
In addition to scholarships and fellowships, the number and conditions of which are settled by the trustees from year to year, the trust, from the revision of 1878 until 1887, maintained an annual
Hibbert Lecture, the first series being delivered by Professor
Max Muller
Max or MAX may refer to:
Animals
* Max (American dog) (1983–2013), at one time purported to be the world's oldest living dog
* Max (British dog), the first pet dog to win the PDSA Order of Merit (animal equivalent of the OBE)
* Max (gorilla) ( ...
in 1878; between 1902 and 1968 it issued ''
The Hibbert Journal
''The Hibbert Journal'' was a large, quarterly magazine in softback book format, issued since 1902 by the Hibbert Trust, best described by its subtitle: ''A Quarterly Review of Religion, Theology and Philosophy''. In the early years it was publis ...
'', a quarterly magazine.
Works
*''Facts Verified upon Oath, in contradiction of the Report of the Rev. T. Cooper, &c.'', 1824, 8vo.
*A political paper, "Why am I a Liberal?" (about 1831) signed 'John Smith', reprinted in Murch's ''Memoir''
*A newspaper address "To the Chartists of England", 1840, advocating the abolition of the
Corn Laws
The Corn Laws were tariffs and other trade restrictions on imported food and corn enforced in the United Kingdom between 1815 and 1846. The word ''corn'' in British English denotes all cereal grains, including wheat, oats and barley. The la ...
and the adoption of the ballot.
References
*''
Monthly Repository
The ''Monthly Repository'' was a British monthly Unitarian periodical which ran between 1806 and 1838. In terms of editorial policy on theology, the ''Repository'' was largely concerned with rational dissent. Considered as a political journal, i ...
'', 1822, pp. 217 sq.
*''Christian Reformer'', 1853, pp. 246 sq.
*Murch's ''Memoir of Hibbert'', with a Sketch of the history of the Trust, 1874.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hibbert, Robert
Jamaican Unitarians
1770 births
1849 deaths
Alumni of Emmanuel College, Cambridge
Merchants from the British West Indies
Burials at Kensal Green Cemetery
Jamaican slave owners