Gibson, William

Dates Active in Dublin: 

1762–1790

Business Type: 
Music publisher
Music seller
Musical instrument maker: guitar
Musical instrument maker: harpsichord
Musical instrument maker: organ
Musical instrument maker: piano
Musical instrument seller: unspecified
Address(es): 

College Green, c. 1766–74
6 Grafton Street, c. 1768–90

Details: 

Son-in-law of John Ward (Boydell, Calendar).

Listed in the Dublin Directories from 1770 to 1773 as 'teacher and musical instrument maker, thereafter as 'musical instrument maker'. In 1771, an advertisement in the Dublin Chronicle also stated that he imported music and sold instruments (Pollard).

Flood stated that c. 1765 to 1775, Gibson 'devoted more attention to the guitar which was then all the rage' ('Dublin Harpsichord and Pianoforte Makers'). Rice suggests that the machine heads for the Cither-viol on the Sultana invention by Thomas Perry may have been invented by Gibson.

Gibson seemed to have close links with Cork musical activity. The Cork Evening Post in 1762 contained an advertisement for Phieas and George Bagnell who were accepting commissions for the construction of guitars by Gibson in Dublin (O'Regan). The Hibernian Chronicle in 1786 also contained an announcement that Gibson would visit Cork, reminding readers that he was an organ and harpsichord maker (Pollard).

He worked in partnership with Robert Woffington from 1775 to 1778. It is probably that he is also the Gibson of the 'Claget & Gibson' partnership.

[Dates and addresses differ according to sources: the Dublin Directories give the dates as 1766 to 1790. Flood ('Dublin Music Printing from 1750 to 1790') gives College Green from 1766 to 1774 and No. 6 College Green from 1774 to 1790. Carroll gives 'Gibson's Music Shop' Grafton Street in 1775 and No. 6 Grafton Street in 1777 (citing the Freeman's Journal and Faulkner's Dublin Journal respectively). Teahan gives the College Green address from 1770 to 1774 and 6 College Green from 1775 to 1790. Hogan gives 6 Grafton Street from c. 1774 to 1790. Doyle (citing the Dublin Directories) gives College Green in 1770 and 6 College Green from 1775. T. Lawrence (citing the Dublin Directories) gives College Green from 1766 to 1774 and 6 College Green from 1775 to 1790. Pollard gives College Green from before 1768 to 1774 and No. 6 College Green from 1775 to 1790. O'Regan gives the date of 1762 only (citing the Cork Evening Post).]

Select Product/Work List: 

Produced

  • English guitar, 1764: National Museum of Ireland (Flood, 'Dublin Harpsichord and Pianoforte Makers'; Doyle)
  • Organ: Church of St John the Evangelist, 1778 (Boydell, Card Index)
  • English guitar, 1778: National Museum of Ireland (Doyle)
  • English guitar, 1779: National Museum of Ireland (Doyle)
  • Guitar: National Museum of Ireland (Gogan) [specified 3 in total]

    • Repaired

  • Organ: St Colman's Cathedral, Cloyne, 1784–85 (Grindle)

    • Enlarged

  • Organ: Limerick Cathedral, 1784 (Grindle)
  • Organ: St Fin Barre's Cathedral, Cork, 1785 (Caulfield)

    • Published

  • A Choice Collection of Catches Humbly Dedicated to the Philharmonic Society, [c. 1766–74]
  • 'A favourite Rondeau', 30 March 1772 (Hibernian Journal, cited in Pollard)

    • Sold

  • 'No.1 of Six sonatas, by Mr Bird', 14 April 1768 (Public Gazetter, cited in Pollard)
  • 'Has lately imported newest operas, overtures, quartets', 30 March 1772 (Hibernian Journal, cited in Pollard)
    • See Also: 

    Claget & Gibson
    Gibson & Woffington
    Perry, Thomas
    Ward, John

    Source(s): 

    Dublin Directories

    Caulfield, Richard, Annals of St Fin Barre's Cathedral, Cork (Cork: Purcell & Company, 1871), p. 85

    Flood, W.H. Grattan, 'Dublin Harpsichord and Pianoforte Makers of the Eighteenth Century', The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, 5th ser., 39.2 (1909), 137–45 (p. 141)

    Flood, W.H. Grattan, 'Irish Organ-Builders from the Eighth to the Close of the Eighteenth Century', The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, 5th ser., 40.3 (30 September 1910), 229–34 (p. 233)

    Flood, W.H. Grattan, ‘Dublin Music Printing from 1750 to 1790’, The Bibliographical Society of Ireland: Short Papers, 2.5 (1923), 101–06 (pp. 105–06)

    Carroll, F., ‘Dublin Music Sellers, Etc. 18th Century’, The Irish Book Lover, 31.6 (November 1951), 129–30 (p. 130)

    Gogan, L.S., 'Musical Instrument Collections in the National Museum of Ireland', in Music in Ireland: a Symposium, ed. by Aloys Fleischmann (Cork: Cork University Press, 1952), pp. 299–307 (p. 303)

    Teahan, John, 'A List of Irish Instrument Makers', The Galpin Society Journal, 16 (May 1963), 28–32 (p. 29)

    Hogan, Ita Margaret, Anglo-Irish Music 1780–1830 (Cork: Cork University Press, 1966), pp. 102, 108

    Doyle, Paul, ‘18th Century Musical Instruments in the National Museum Dublin, with notes on an English Guitar 1764 by Gibson of Dublin’, FOMRHI Quarterly, 13 (October 1978), 21-24 (p. 21, 23)

    Boydell, Brian, A Dublin Musical Calendar 1700–1760 (Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 1988), p. 260

    Grindle, W.H., Irish Cathedral Music: a History of Music at the Cathedrals of the Church of Ireland (Belfast: The Institute of Irish Studies, The Queen's University of Belfast, 1989), p. 158

    Rice, John Kenneth, 'The Life and Work of Thomas Perry' (unpublished doctoral thesis, St Patrick's College Maynooth, 1993), p. 45

    Lawrence, Thomas, ‘The History of the Guitar in Ireland 1760-1866’, 2 vols (unpublished doctoral thesis, University College Dublin, 1999), I, p. 26

    Pollard, M., A Dictionary of Members of the Dublin Book Trade 1550–1800: Based on the Records of the Guild of St Luke the Evangelist Dublin (London: Bibliographical Society, 2000), p. 237

    O'Regan, Susan, 'Public Concerts in the Musical Life of Cork 1754–1840', 2 vols (unpublished doctoral thesis, Cork School of Music, 2008), I, p. 93

    Barlow, Chris, 'Lute and English Guitar in a Musical Correspondence of the 1760s', The Lute, 52 (2012), 20–29 (p. 25)

    Boydell, Brian, ‘Gibson, William (1)’, Dublin Music Trade Card Index <http://dublinmusictrade.ie/card-index>

    Boydell, Brian, ‘Gibson, William (2)’, Dublin Music Trade Card Index <http://dublinmusictrade.ie/card-index>

    Boydell, Brian, ‘Stevensons Music Shop’, Dublin Music Trade Card Index <http://dublinmusictrade.ie/card-index>

    Boydell, Brian, ‘Ward, John’, Dublin Music Trade Card Index <http://dublinmusictrade.ie/card-index>

    Last Update: 17-05-2018