Gibbons family genealogy

Inver,[1] Barony of Erris, County of Mayo

Arms: Gu. a lion ramp. or. Crest: A lion ramp. holding a scallop shell in his paws. Motto: Auxilium ex oceano (aid from the deep).

The tradition in this branch of the Fitzgibbon family is, that one of their ancestors, a Knight Crusader, accompanied Richard Cœur de Lion to Palestine, in his expedition against the Saracens, and was placed in command of a small outpost of the Christian army. Whilst occupying this position, the said Knight was closely invested by the Saracens, and, after many days hard fighting, he was on the point of being obliged to surrender, when the timely arrival of King Richard by water, saved the small Christian garrison. In remembrance of this event the Knight Crusader obtained permission to take for his Crest the royal lion of Cœur de Lion, rampant, holding in his paws a scollop shell, indicating a Crusader; and adopted for his Motto—Auxilium ex oceano (or aid from the deep): signifying the means (across or out of the water) by which he was delivered from the Saracens.

Traditional history is not always very precise, and in this instance the name of the town or outpost occupied by our Knight Crusader is not mentioned; but an historical confirmation of this tradition is given in Lingard’s History of England, under A.D. 1192, where it is said that the outpost occupied by a portion of the Christian army was the town of Jaffa, which was taken by the Saracens, and the defenders were driven to the citadel. At the first intelligence of this event, King Richard ordered a portion of his army to move by land, while he hastened by sea, in galleys. On his arrival before the town of Jaffa, King Richard, in his anxiety to relieve the besieged garrison, plunged into the water, followed by his companions. The Saracens retired at the approach of his army, and the besieged Christians were thus saved.

This family is connected by marriage with many of the principal families in the county Mayo, namely, those of Blake, O’Donnell, Bingham, Nash, and Carter.

Thomas Gibbons, of Inver, Erris, county Mayo, a younger son of David, who is No. 18 on the “Fitzgibbon” pedigree, and who was transplanted to Connaught by Oliver Cromwell, in 1653, was the ancestor of this branch of that family:

19. Thomas[2] Gibbons, of Inver, Erris: son of David; married into the O’Donnell family, and had three sons and four daughters:

1. Peter,[3] who married into the MacLaughlin of Newport-Mayo family. He joined the Irish Rebellion of 1798, and accepted a Commission of Captain in the French Army, from General Humbert; he was in consequence attainted, but eventually escaped to America, where his descendants now live. His eldest son John died at Inver House, Erris, leaving issue one daughter, who m. Isidore Blake, Esq., Galway.
2. Richard, of whom presently.
3. Thomas, d. unm.

20. Richard[4] Gibbons (born at Inver House): second son of Thomas; m. Elizabeth (his first cousin), dau. and co-heiress of Charles Nash, of Carne House, county Mayo, and had issue two sons:

1. James, who m. and had a son Peter.
2. Richard, of whom presently.

21. Richard: second son of Richard; as a young man entered the Commissariat Department in Ireland, and in that Department went to Western Australia, about 1851 or ’52, when that Colony was made a Penal Settlement. He returned to Ireland about 1879, where he died. This Richard m. a Miss Murphy, of Tramore, co. Waterford (a cousin of the late Frank Power who was killed at the Soudan), and had three sons and two daughters, all living in Western Australia, in 1887:

1. Richard, of whom presently.
2. Percy.
3. Peter.
1. Annie-Mary.
2. Elizabeth.

22. Richard Gibbons, of Fremantle, Western Australia: eldest son of Richard; living in 1887.

See also Gibbons addenda.

Notes

[1] Inver: In Lewis’s Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, under “Kilcommon,” p. 66, this residence is styled “Inver House;” and, ibid., in p, 358, Mayo is mentioned as possessing the ruins of the principal fortress in Erris, called “Inver Castle.”

[2] Thomas: In the lifetime of this Thomas the penal laws prohibited Catholics from holding landed property in Ireland. In order to protect himself from confiscation, he got Mr. Charles Nash, a Protestant landowner and a neighbour, to become the nominal owner in trust of the Inver estate, and thus said Thomas succeeded in handing down to his sons, Peter and Richard, a portion of the property, which they afterwards lost consequent on the Irish Rebellion of 1798.

[3] Peter: This Peter was captured by the English, and a court-martial passed sentence of death on him; but in woman’s clothes he escaped from prison, and sailed for America. A remarkable instance, however, of his innocence of active complicity in the Rebellion was, that the president of the court-martial which tried him refused to pass the sentence, saying that he “would eat his sword” before be would sentence Gibbons.

Here see corrections in the Gibbons addenda.

[4] Richard: This Richard, after having been for many yean confined as a State prisoner, on suspicion of having been actively engaged as one of the “United Irishman,” of that period, died ruined.