Henry de Beltgens Gibbins

Henry de Beltgens Gibbins (1865-1907), Victorian economic historian and archaeologist

David Gibbins

I first became intrigued by my Victorian relative Henry de Beltgens Gibbins when I discovered that he had been a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, as I was too. I then read his two best-known books, Industrial History in England and Industry in England, and realised that he was far more than a popular historian of Victorian England, as most of his obituaries would make out - he was also a wide-ranging prehistorian, one of the first to make use of the new evidence for Britain's past then coming to light, at a time when archaeology was still in its infancy and few synopses of this nature had been attempted. This aspect of his achievement has been largely forgotten, overshadowed by his contribution to contemporary economic and social knowledge, yet his books merit study by anyone interested in the first attempts to write prehistory based on archaeological research.

Henry de Beltgens Gibbins (1865-1907) was a popular historian of 19th century England whose books were bestsellers in the late Victorian period; his Industrial History of England and Industry in England both went to ten editions over twenty years, and were published internationally.

On his father’s side he was descended from a Huguenot family who had settled in Hampshire, though his great-grandfather had moved to London in the late 18th century; his maternal grandfather Jean de Beltgens was a member of the House of Assembly in Dominica, British West Indies. Henry Gibbins was born in Cape Colony, South Africa, but returned to England and was educated at Bradford Grammar School and Wadham College, Oxford, where he was a Scholar and won the University Cobden Prize, awarded for an essay on political economy; later he was ordained a priest, and received a D.Litt. from University College, Dublin. He was Assistant Master at Nottingham High School from 1889 to 1895, Vice-Principal of Liverpool College and Headmaster of the Grammar School from 1895 to 1899, and Headmaster of King Charles I School, Kidderminster, from 1899 to 1906. His final appointment in 1906 was as Principal of Bishop’s University, in Lennoxville, Quebec, Canada, but he resigned due to ill health and died soon after in a railway accident at the age of 42. He listed driving and traveling as his recreations, and was a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.

He was a prolific author, specializing in the economic, industrial and social history of England in the nineteenth century, and was also a gifted linguist. His first book was published when he was only 25. As well as the books listed below, he edited Methuen’s ‘Social Questions of Today’ series and their ‘Commerical’ series, contributed to Palgrave’s Dictionary of Political Economy and frequently wrote in the reviews. His skill is best expressed in his own words, in his preface to Industry in England (1896): ‘I have attempted, as far as possible … to connect economic and industrial questions with social, political and military movements, since only in some such mutual relation can historical events obtain their full significance.’ His method was not only to provide a wider contemporary context for economics, but also to seek historical depth:

For some time it has appeared to me that the results of archaeological and antiquarian research into the pre-historic period have not been sufficiently utilized in dealing with our industrial history, and that the origin of the manor, in especial, derives added light from these investigations. It has therefore been my endeavour to weave into the story of industrial progress several of the results arrived at by investigations of pre-historic conditions, believing, as I do, that the many centuries of industrial human life which elapsed before our written history began must have left upon our nation some traces of their course.

The erosion of the power of the aristocratic landowner in England was a major economic theme of the 19th century, particularly following the repeal of the Corn Laws which had put a tariff on grain imports to England and protected landowners’ interests. Henry Gibbins’ position, as well as some remarkable prescience about the rising class structures of the future, is revealed in the preface to the fifth edition of his first book, Industrial History of England, which he himself quoted in full in the preface to the second edition of Industry in England:

It has been said that I write with a prejudice against the owners of land: but this is not the case. The landed gentry of England happen, for some centuries, to have held the predominant power in the State and in society, and used it, not unnaturally, in many cases to further their own interests. It is the duty of an historian to point this out, but it need not, therefore, be thought that he has any special bias against the class. Any other class would have certainly done the same, as, for instance, mill-owners did among their own employés at the beginning of this century, and as, in all probability, the working-classes will do, when a further extension of democratic government shall have given them the opportunity. It is a fault of human nature that it can rarely be trusted with irresponsible power, and unless the influence of one class of society is counterbalanced more or less by that of another, there will always be a tendency to some injustice. I trust that my readers will bear this in mind … and will believe that I intend no unfairness to the landed gentry of England, who have done much to promote the glory and stability of their country.

Henry Gibbins was married and had a daughter. His paternal grandfather, Samuel Gibbins (1808-1886), Master of the Carpenter’s Company in London, also had a son John George Gibbins, Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects, whose son Norman Gibbins was a maths wrangler at Cambridge University – achieving first class honours – and also became a school headmaster. Norman’s brother Arthur Everett Gibbins, also an architect, was son-in-law of the Esperantist Walter Andrew Gale, and great-grandfather of the author and archaeologist David Gibbins.

Select bibliography of Henry de Beltgens Gibbins:

Gibbins, H. de B. 1890. Industrial History of England. London: University Extension Series.

Gibbins, H. de B. and Hadfield, Sir Robert. 1891. A Shorter Working-Day. London: Methuen.

Gibbins, H. de B. 1891. The History of Commerce in Europe. London: Macmillan.

Gibbins, H. de B. 1891. The Companion German Grammar. London: Methuen.

Gibbins, H. de B. 1892. English Social Reformers. London: University Extension Series.

Gibbins, H. de B. 1893. British Commerce and Colonies, from Elizabeth to Victoria. London: Methuen.

Gibbins, H. de B. 1894. The Economics of Commerce. London: Methuen.

Gibbins, H. de B. 1896. Industry in England. London: Methuen.

Gibbins, H. de B. 1898. The English People in the Nineteenth Century: a Short Introduction. London, A.& C. Black.

Gibbins, H. de B. 1901. Economic and Industrial Progress of the Century. London: W. & R. Chambers.

Gibbins, H. de B. 1903. A History of the Grammar School of Charles, King of England in Kidderminster. Kidderminster: privately printed.

Gibbins, H. de B. 1905. The Economics of Commerce. London: Methuen.

Published sources:

The Dictionary of National Biography

Who Was Who, 1897-1916

The Times obituaries, 14 August 1907

Illustrations (from top):

The Rev. Dr Henry de Beltgens Gibbins, M.A.(Oxon), D.Litt.(Dublin), F.R.G.S., c. 1900

Books of Henry de Beltgens Gibbins, including a rare first edition of his bestselling Industry in England (1896) and a Canadian edition of Economic and Industrial Progress of the Century (1901).

Signature of Henry de Beltgens Gibbins

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