John Gibb of Knock and Carribber (c.1550–1628) was a Scottish landowner and courtier.
He was a son of Robert Gibb and Elizabeth Schaw. His mother is sometimes said to have been the Elizabeth Schaw who a mistress of James V of Scotland and mother of James Stewart, Commendator of Kelso, but she died in 1536. He was however a kinsman of the Master of Work, William Schaw and Elizabeth Schaw, Countess of Annandale.
His home, Carribber, is near Linlithgow. His other residence was Knock, in Fife, close to the present day Knockhill Racing Circuit. The surname was often spelled "Gib".
Court life Robert Gibb of Carribber served James V of Scotland as Esquire of the Stable.Andrea Thomas, Princelie Majestie: The Court of James V of Scotland (Edinburgh, 2005), p. 228.
John Gibb was a valet ot varlet of the chamber of James VI of Scotland from 1576.Amy Juhala, 'For the King Favours Them Very Strangely', in Miles Kerr-Peterson and Steven J. Reid, James VI and Noble Power (Routledge: Abingdon, 2017), p. 171. In February 1580 he was paid for supplying tennis balls to the royal tennis court, called the "catchepule". The tennis court for James VI at Stirling Castle had been constructed from timber in June 1576.Charles Thorpe McInnes, Accounts of the Treasurer: 1574–1580, vol. 13 (Edinburgh, 1978), pp. 131, 307.
In October 1582 he met Walter Keyre at Leith, a messenger from the Duke of Lennox who was staying at Rothesay Castle, displaced from his favour at court by the Gowrie Regime. James VI spoke to Gibb privately about the meeting in the "stole" or garderobe at Holyrood Palace. The English ambassador Robert Bowes heard the king advise Gibb that the Duke and Keyre ought not to endanger themselves by sending messages.Bowes Correspondence (London, 1843), pp. 205–6: Roderick J. Lyall, Alexander Montgomerie: Poetry, Politics, and Cultural Change in Jacobean Scotland (Arizona, 2005), p. 97. The story suggests that at this time Gibb's role was similar to the Groom of the Stool at the Tudor court.
In November 1584 he was made keeper of the palace and yards of Dunfermline,Gordon Donaldson, Register of the Privy Seal: 1581–1584, vol. 8 (Edinburgh, 1982), p. 443 no. 2527. which became a special residence of Anne of Denmark. He had a yearly pension of £100 paid from the Dunfermline estate.Annie I. Cameron, Calendar State Papers Scotland: 1593–1595, vol. 11 (Edinburgh, 1936), p. 111. The Master of Gray hoped Gibb would be his agent at court in August 1586.HMC Calendar of the Manuscripts of the Marquess of Salisbury, 3, p. 169 no. 336.
Gibb travelled with James VI to Norway and Denmark, and with his fellow valet William Stewart was recorded making payments and gifts of Danish dalers from the queen's dowry, and settling the king's losses at card games.Miles Kerr-Peterson & Michael Pearce, 'James VI's English Subsidy and Danish Dowry Accounts, 1588–1596', Scottish History Society Miscellany XVI (Woodbridge, 2020), pp. 39, 41–42, 51. In August 1591, Gibb was given £240 Scots to spend on livery clothes allowances given to Danish courtiers returning home.Jemma Field, Anna of Denmark: The Material and Visual Culture of the Stuart Courts (Manchester, 2020), p. 133.
John and other members of the Gibb family, and Willam Schaw, signed a band in June 1590 as cautioners in support of a James Gibb who had fought illegally with James Boyd of Kippis in Edinburgh in a family feud. His death sentence was converted to banishment.George Duncan Gibb, Life and Times of Robert Gib, Lord of Carriber, vol. 1 (London, 1874), pp. 223–230 citing National Archives of Scotland RD1/33, pp. 472–473: Robert Pitcairn, Ancient Criminal Trials (Edinburgh, 1833), pp. 187–9.
Masterton In 1592 he was rewarded with the gift of the rents of Masterton to him and his son James, "remembering the long good true and faithful service done to his majesty as well in his highness' minority as majority by his grace's daily servitor John Gib one of the varlets in his graces chamber."Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland, vol. 3, p. 607. In 1593 James gave him a property in Edinburgh.John Maitland Thomson, Register of the Great Seal of Scotland, vol. 5 (Edinburgh, 1888), p. 772 no. 2264 The lands at Masterton were given to Anne of Denmark in 1593, as part of the settlement of her morrowing gift of Dunfermline lands, and Gibb was compensated with an income of cereal produce from Cockburnspath.Life and Times of Robert Gib, Lord of Carribber, vol. 2, pp. 350–352.
Royal textiles and jewels On 25 April 1584 John Gibb delivered a royal jewel, a tablet or locket with a diamond and an emerald, in a case, to Alexander Clark of Balbirnie, Provost of Edinburgh, as a pledge for a loan of 6,000 merks or £4,000 Scots.Thomas Thomson, Collection of Inventories (Edinburgh, 1815), pp. 310–12: James Marwick, Extracts from the Burgh Records of Edinburgh: 1573–1589 (Edinburgh, 1882), p. 336. In October 1589 the Provost John Arnot formally gave the jewel back to the king as a marriage gift.David Masson, Register of the Privy Seal of Scotland: 1585–1592, vol. 4 (Edinburgh, 1881), p. 420. It was delivered by Clerk's (future) son-in-law John Provand to William Fairlie, who commissioned the goldsmith David Gilbert to upgrade and refashion it, and it was presented to Anne of Denmark during her Entry to Edinburgh in May 1590.Marguerite Wood, Extracts from the Burgh Records of Edinburgh: 1589–1603, vol. 6 (Edinburgh, 1927), p. 7.
Gibb was in charge of jewels in the king's use, and in October 1584 transferred several pieces to the keeping of the Master of the Wardrobe, Patrick, Master of Gray. Some of the jewels had recently been in the possession of Colonel William Stewart. One tablet or locket had been a gift from the Laird of Rosyth. A little hat badge with diamonds and sparks of rubies was a recent present from Queen Elizabeth. A diamond cross was one of the jewels of Mary, Queen of Scots.Thomas Thomson, Collection of Inventories (Edinburgh, 1815), pp. 314–16.
The grooms and valets of the chamber were also in charge of the king's linen. In October 1590 he was paid for ruffs, napkins, shirts, caps called "mutches", and sheets supplied to the king since 1588. These were embroidered with gold and silver thread and edges with "shorn work". His sister, Elspeth or Elizabeth Gibb made the shirts and ruffs.National Records of Scotland, treasurer's accounts, October 1590. In 1591 linen was delivered to Gibb for the cuffs "handis" and "neckis" of the king's shirts, and in August he provided livery clothes for Danish servants of Anne of Denmark who were returning home.George Duncan Gibb, Life and times of Robert Gib, Lord of Carriber, vol. 1 (London, 1874), p. 327. The treasurer's accounts for May 1599 list textiles in the keeping of Gibb and George Murray, including linen for shirts, cuffs, bands, bedsheets, tablecloths, night-caps to be embroidered with gold and red and blue silks, napkins, and a taffeta pocket or bag of powder to scent the linen chest.George Duncan Gibb, Life and times of Robert Gib, Lord of Carriber, vol. 1 (London, 1874), pp. 340–2 Gibb's sister Elizabeth had a similar role in Anne of Denmark's household.Jemma Field, 'Dressing a Queen: The Wardrobe of Anna of Denmark at the Scottish Court of King James VI, 1590–1603', The Court Historian, 24:2 (2019), pp. 160–3 John Tennent had performed a similar role for James V in the 1530s.James Balfour Paul, Accounts of the Treasurer: 1531–1538, vol. 6 (Edinburgh, 1905), p. 256.
In August 1591 Gibb was given £240 to buy clothes for Danish servants of Anne of Denmark who were returning home.Jemma Field, Anna of Denmark: Material and Visual Culture of the Stuart Courts (Manchester, 2020), p. 133. The king also bought clothes for John Gibb, including in February 1591 a cloak of black Naples taffeta, and a black satin doublet with black velvet breeches.National Records of Scotland, E35/13 f.13r, account of Robert Jousie.
Letters and messages at court John Gibb continued as a servant in the bedchamber in England after the Union of the Crowns. On 24 October Gibb, John Auchmoutie, John Murray, and George Murray, grooms of the bedchamber were given winter clothing.George Duncan Gibb, Life and times of Robert Gib, Lord of Carriber, vol. 2 (London, 1874), pp. 2, 13. Gibb was the messenger who brought reprieves from the death sentence for Markham, Grey, and Cobham at Winchester on 9 November 1603.M. S. Giuseppi, HMC Calendar of the Manuscripts of the Marquess of Salisbury, 15 (London, 1930), p. 320. According to Dudley Carleton, Gibb had some difficulty making his way to the Sheriff at the place of execution and had to shout to save Markham's life.Philip Yorke, Miscellaneous State Papers, vol. 1 (London, 1778), p. 393: Thomas Birch & Folkestone Williams, Court and Times of James the First, vol. 1 (London, 1848), pp. 29, 32.Maurice Lee, Dudley Carleton to John Chamberlain, 1603–1624: Jacobean Letters (Rutgers University Press, 1972), p. 52. Gibb gave the king's warrant for the stay of executions to Sir Benjamin Tichborne.Thomas Amyot, Archaeologia, vol. 21 (London, 1827), p. 174.Jonas Hock,EPOCH: Under New Management, Royal PR in 1603
As a member of the king's chamber Gibb was able to forward the business of petitioners. In 1607 Maurice Peeters complained to Robert Cecil that his plan for reforming the manufacture of fabrics in England made from Persian bombazine cotton without wool, and his patent for silk dyeing had been forwarded by Gibb, but then Gibb took it up with other partners and promoted it to the king, to the loss, Peeters claimed, of Cecil and Anne of Denmark.M. S. Giuseppi & David McN. Lockie, HMC Salisbury Hatfield, 19 (London, 1965), p. 450. Gibb was involved with a dispute over property with the Earl of Wigtown in 1613.Original Letters Relating to Ecclesiactical Affairs, 1, p. 315.
Henry Gibb His younger son Henry Gibb also had a bedchamber position. He was first a groom of the bedchamber to Prince Henry.George Duncan Gibb, Life and times of Robert Gib, Lord of Carriber, vol. 2 (London, 1874), pp. 42, 100. John Gibb obtained the lands of Kilcroft and Carriber and transferred them to Henry Gibb.Gordon MacGregor, 'Gibb of Carriber', Red Book of Scotland, vol. 4 (2020), pp. 512. In September 1613 Henry Gibb and Mr May travelled to Veere and Sluis to prevent Henry Howard, a son of the Earl of Suffolk fighting a duel with the Earl of Essex over issues concerning his sister Frances Howard and the annulment of her marriage.William Shaw & G. Dyfnallt Owen, HMC 77 Viscount De L'Isle, Penshurst, vol. 5 (London, 1961), pp. 120–3.HMC Mar & Kellie, vol. 2 (London, 1930), p. 54.
Young Gibb was part of an incident in 1615 connected with the fall of the Scottish favourite, Robert Carr, 1st Earl of Somerset, who had married Frances Howard. He passed a letter and message from a Scottish man called Lumsden to Anne of Denmark's servant, his kinswoman Elizabeth Schaw, Mrs Murray. The letter misrepresented the trial of Weston, an officer at the Tower of London.John Nichols, Progresses of James the First, vol. 3 (London, 1828), p. 105. The letter caused the queen offence and difficulties for Scottish courtiers including Schaw's husband John Murray of the Bedchamber. The Countess of Eglinton heard about the affair and she wrote to the Murrays about Somerset, who she described as the "errant liar", who "wret to you and message sent with that ungret fullich cousing of yours, Herie Gib." He lost his place at court for a while.James Maidment, Letters and State Papers of James the Sixth (Edinburgh, 1838), pp. 289–91, now NLS Adv. MS 33.1.1 vol. 10 no. 120: Thomas Birch (Folkestone Williams), Court and Times of James the First vol. 1 (London, 1848), p. 367