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GIBBONS, James, cardinal, born in Baltimore, Maryland, 23 July, 1834. At an early age he was taken by his parents to their former home in Ireland, where his education began. When he was seventeen years old he returned to his native City, and after a brief experience as a clerk entered St. Charles's College, Maryland. In September, 1857, he was transferred to St. Mary's seminary, Baltimore, and on 30 June, 1861, he was ordained priest in St. Mary's chapel.

His first mission was that of assistant priest at St. Patrick's Church, Baltimore, but, in the course of a few months, he was made pastor of St. Bridget's Church at Canton, an eastern suburb of the City. While he was performing the duties of parish priest in that obscure place, Archbishop Spalding transferred him to the cathedral, made him his private secretary, and appointed him to the important office of chancellor of the archdiocese. When the second plenary council of the American Roman Catholic Church assembled at Baltimore in October, 1866, he was assigned to the office of assistant chancellor of that body, which represented the entire hierarchy of the United States.

In 1868 he was made vicar apostolic of North Carolina, with the rank and title of bishop, being consecrated in the cathedral of Baltimore by his friend Archbishop Spalding on 16 August. North Carolina then contained a population of one million, of whom only one thousand were Roman Catholics. But Bishop Gibbons was equal to the duties of the office, and in a few years schools were opened, asylums built, Churches erected, and the number of priests increased from five to fifteen.

In 1872 he was translated to the vacant see of Richmond, Virginia, where his zeal and administrative ability were soon made manifest by the establishment of numerous institutions, such as the St. Sophia home for aged persons, in charge of the Little Sisters of the Poor, St. Peter's cathedral male academy and parochial school, the enlargement of St. Joseph's female orphan asylum, the founding of parish schools in Petersburg and Norfolk, and the erection of new Churches in various parts of the diocese. When, in 1877, the health of Archbishop Bailey, of Baltimore, began to decline he asked Pope Plus IX to give him a coadjutor, at the same time suggesting Bishop Gibbons for the office. His request was granted, and on 20 May, 1877, Dr. Gibbons was appointed coadjutor with the right of succession to the see of Baltimore. On 3 October of the same year, on the death of Archbishop Bailey, he succeeded to the vacant see, and thus at the early age of forty-three attained to the highest ecclesiastical dignity of his Church in the United States, for Baltimore, being the oldest, is therefore the primary American see. One of the most important works accomplished by him in his new see was the St. James home for boys, the foundation of which was placed in the hands of Reverend Edmund Didier, pastor of St. Vincent's Church, Baltimore.

In 1883 Archbishop Gibbons was summoned to Rome, with other American archbishops, to confer upon the affairs of the Church in the United States. During this visit he was the recipient of several marked favors from Pope Leo XIII. He was appointed to preside over the third plenary council of Baltimore, which assembled in that City in November, 1884. The success of the council was due in a great measure to the zeal, energy, and executive ability of Archbishop Gibbons. When the acts and decrees of the council were transmitted to Rome, they were after mature deliberation approved by the ecclesiastical authorities. Leo XIII at the same time expressed his appreciation of Archbishop Gibbons's services, and, shortly afterward, at a special consistory, nominated him for promotion to the high dignity of cardinal, and he was immediately confirmed. Upon this occasion the pope said:

 "The flourishing state of Catholicity in the United States, which develops daily more and more, and the condition and form according to which the ecclesiastical canons of that country are formulated, advise us, or rather demand, that some of their prelates be received into the sacred College."

When the bearers of the official insignia called at the Vatican to take leave of the pope before departing on their mission, he charged them to present his affectionate paternal benediction to Archbishop Gibbons, adding, "We remember him with sentiments of the most cordial esteem, and believe we could not confer the hat upon a more worthy prelate." Archbishop Gibbons selected 30 June, 1886, the day of his "silver jubilee" as a priest, as the occasion on which he would be invested with the insignia of his rank as a prince of the Church. The ceremony was surrounded by all the pomp and magnificence prescribed for such occasions in the Catholic ritual. Cardinal Gibbons has endeared himself to all, Protestants as well as Catholics, the poor as well as the rich, by his simple and unostentatious life. He visited Rome in 1887, and asked the pope to give him a coadjutor on the ground of impaired health. He has published" The Faith of Our Fathers," which has been translated into many modern languages (Baltimore, 1871).

GIBBONS, James, educator, born in Westtown, Pennsylvania, 18 May, 1736; died in Birmingham, Chester County, Pennsylvania, 17 October, 1823. His great-grandfather, John Gibbons, was among the earliest Quaker settlers of Pennsylvania. James was educated by his parents and became an accomplished scholar, linguist, and mathematician. He was treasurer of Chester County and a member of the general assembly of Pennsylvania for the three years immediately preceding the Declaration of Independence. As a member of the Society of Friends and a non-combatant, he retired from all public service at the outbreak of the Revolution. He conducted a successful private school at his country home, and afterward in Philadelphia. In 1795 he sold his farm of 600 acres to the Friends, and there they established their well-known "Westtown School." The remainder of his life was spent in retirement upon his farm in Chester County.--His son, William, physician, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 10 August, 1781; died in Wilmington, Delaware, 25 July, 1845, was educated by his father, was graduated in medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in 1805, and practiced in Wilmington, Delaware. He was first president of the Delaware academy of natural sciences, of the Peace society, and of the Delaware temperance society, and was an active member of the Society for preventing the kidnapping of Negroes. Dr. Gibbons established and conducted in 1824-'8, at his own expense, a religious periodical entitled the "Berean," devoted to the principles of the Society of Friends, and took a prominent part in the religious controversy that resulted in the separation of the society in 1827 into the divisions since known as "Friends " and "Orthodox Friends." He also wrote about 1821, under the signature of "Vindex," a series of letters replying to an attack on the Friends made by a Presbyterian clergyman, which is one of the clearest expositions of Quaker doctrines published in modern times, and was the author of a pamphlet entitled "Exposition of Modern Scepticism," assailing the doctrines of the social reformers led by Fanny Wright.--William's son, Henry, physician, born in Wilmington, Delaware, 20 September, 1808; died there, 5 November, 1884, was graduated in medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in 1829, practiced in Wilmington till 1841, and then in Philadelphia, where he was professor of the principles and practice of medicine in the Philadelphia College of medicine. He removed in 1850 to San Francisco, California, where he became, in 1861, professor of materia medica in the medical College of the Pacific (now Cooper medical College), being transferred to the chair of the principles and practice of medicine in 1868. He was president of the California state board of health from its establishment in 1873 till his death, and edited the " Pacific Medical and Surgical Journal" for twenty years. Dr. Gibbons was a founder of the California academy of sciences, he published a prize essay on "Tobacco" and several addresses and essays.--Another son, Jalnes Sloan, merchant, born in Wilmington, Delaware, 1 July, 1810, was educated in private schools in his native City, and in early life removed to Philadelphia, where he became a merchant. He came to New York in 1835, and has since been connected with banks and finance in that City. He has contributed to various literary and financial periodicals, and has published " The Banks of New York, their Dealers, the Clearing House, and the Panic of 1857" (New York, 1858), and "The Public Debt of the United States" (1867). His song, "We are coming, Father Abraham," was very popular during the civil war.--James Sloan's wife, Abigail Hopper, philanthropist, born in Philadelphia, 7 December 1801, is a daughter of Isaac T. Hopper, the Quaker philanthropist. After teaching in Philadelphia and New York, she married Mr. Gibbons in 1833, and in 1836 removed to New York with him. In 1845 Mrs. Gibbons aided her father in forming the Women's prison association, and in founding homes for discharged prisoners, and frequently visited the various prisons in and about New York. She was the principal founder of the Isaac T. Hopper home, and for twelve years was president of a German industrial school for Street children, the attendance at which increased in four months from 7 to nearly 200. Throughout the war Mrs. Gibbons gave efficient aid in hospital and camp, often at personal risk, and in 1863, during the draft riots, her house was one of the first to be sacked by the mob, owing to the well-known anti-slavery sentiments of herself and her husband. The attention of the rioters was first called to the house by some one who pointed it out as the residence of Horace Greeley. After the war she planned and organized a Labor and aid association for the widows and orphans of soldiers. She aided in establishing the New York infant asylum in 1871, and the New York diet kitchen in 1873, and has been one of the active managers of both these institutions.--Charles, another son of William, lawyer, born in Wilmington, Delaware, 30 March, 1814; died in Philadelphia, 14 August, 1885, studied law in Philadelphia with Charles Chauncey, and was admitted to the bar in 1838. He was for several years a member of the state senate and its president in 1847, chairman of the first Republican state committee, one of the founders of the Union league, and the author of its constitution. He represented the government on a commission in the argument of prize cases in the United States courts during the civil war.

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