Robert Hibbert - Biography

Biography

The third and posthumous son of John Hibbert (1732–1769), a Jamaica merchant, and Janet, daughter of Samuel Gordon, he was born in Jamaica; hence he spoke of himself as a Creole. His mother died early. Between 1784 and 1788, he was a pupil of Gilbert Wakefield at Nottingham. 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. He entered Emmanuel College, Cambridge, in 1788, and graduated B.A. in 1791. At Cambridge he formed a lifelong friendship with William Frend, the social reformer.

In 1791, Hibbert went to Kingston, Jamaica, as partner in a mercantile house (a trading company) founded by his father's eldest brother, Thomas Hibbert. (See also his son George Hibbert, one of the principals of the West India Dock Company which instigated the construction of the docks of that name on London's Isle of Dogs.) Returning to England about 1803, he bought the estate of East Hide (now called Hyde), near Luton, Bedfordshire. In Jamaica, he acquired considerable property 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 report.

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, London, on 23 September 1849, and was buried in Kensal Green Cemetery. While in Jamaica, he married Elizabeth Jane, daughter of John Nembhard, M.D., who died on 15 February 1853.