Fragile Fortunes ISBN: 978 1 906551 02 5
Elizabeth Neill
New research includes Exwick wool trade
By Elizabeth Neill
This publication includes a lot about Exwick. The author, Elizabeth Neill, writes:
Born in Topsham in Devon and denied his inheritance, George Abraham Gibbs was destined for a career as a surgeon in Exeter. Set against a background of political turmoil and war, this book looks at how he used his extensive network of friends and family in the wool trade to further his fortune.
His eldest son Vicary studied law, becoming attorney general and was knighted. George was a West India merchant in Bristol and Antony, having 'pushed hope and expectation too far', bankrupted the family. Abraham, a friend of Nelson and Sir William and Emma Hamilton, was a successful merchant-banker in Italy, but his life ended suddenly amid rumours of corruption in Sicily.
Using original family papers and archives in London, Exeter, Bristol and Palermo, the author traces the humble origins of the Gibbs family in Clyst St. George and Topsham in the mid-sixteenth century to the 1840s, when after an 'act of insanity', its fortunes changed forever.
£14.99
ISBN: 978 1 906551 02 5
Paperback,448 pages plus 16 pages of colour plates, 234x156mm
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