James Gibson

James Gibson (1706 – 1752) was a merchant in the British colonies of Jamaica and the Province of Massachusetts Bay. During King George's War (1744–1748), William Shirley, the Governor of Massachusetts, debated whether to siege and capture the French fortress of Louisburg on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. According to Gibson's journal, he convinced Governor Shirley that the siege would be successful and used his personal wealth to provide 300 soldiers for the campaign. Gibson wrote an account of the Siege of Louisburg, and it was published in London in late 1745. Early life James was born on April 1, 1706, in Boston, Massachusetts to James and Mary Gibson. His father was a mariner and purchased a tavern called "Marlborough Arms" in 1711, located at the corner of Kilby and State streets adjacent to Bunch-of-Grapes. His mother Mary was licensed to sell strong drink in the tavern on June 30, 1712. In 1722, Mary deeded the tavern to her three children: Mary, James, and John. According to his journal, he served in the Royal Regiment of Foot Guards in the British Army, and was ordered to the island of Barbados. While serving in Barbados, he met a widow named Thomazin (Duesbury) Barton, the daughter of James and Rebecca Duesbury. James and Thomazin were married in the parish of Saint Michael, Barbados on 24 October 1730. The Gibsons moved to Boston prior to 1735, and their only child, Mary Duesbury Gibson, was born there on December 27, 1737. Merchant and Ship Captain According to his great-grandson, Lorenzo Dow Johnson (1805–1867), Gibson was a prosperous merchant who owned a plantation on the island of Jamaica, owned a mansion in the neighbourhood of Beacon Hill, Boston, was a ship captain, was a shareholder in Long Wharf, and owned land in what is now Maine, both near the village of Stroudwater, now a neighbourhood of Portland, Maine and beyond the Kennebec River. Boston land records record several purchases that he made between 1722 and 1745 including the Marlborough Arms tavern and the land in the west side of Beacon Hill, and refer to him as "Gentleman" and "Esquire". His father-in-law did own a plantation in Barbados, but Thomazin did not inherit it when her father died in 1717. There was a lucrative triangular trade between New England, the West Indies and Africa, and Boston's Long Wharf was known to be the busiest port in Colonial America.