Ref: The Pioneers of Maine and New Hampshire, by Charles Henry Pope, pub. 1908.

Ambrose Gibbins came as factor or steward with Walter Neal in 1630; seems to have begun the plantation at Newichewanick (the part of Kittery which became Berwick) in 1631. Letter to him from Mason 13 July, 1632. Removed later to Dover. Had suit in court in 1641. Was chosen one of the town commissioners and first selectman 22 (2) 1648. Wife Rebecca;  only dau. Rebecca married Henry Sherburne.

He made his will 11 July, 1656, "on his sick bed"; prob. May 9, 1657; copy brought from files of Gen. Court at Boston: beq. to grandchildren: Samuel, Elizabeth, Mary, Henry, John, Ambrose, Sarah and Rebecca, children of Henry Sherburne, to be paid them at the ages of 21 and 18. 

Ref:  Genealogical Gleanings in New England, by H. F. Waters 

NOTES--  Ambrose Gibbons was at Plymouth, in England, 8th April 1630, and at Piscataqua, N. H., July 21, 1630. Will dated Oyster River, July 11, 1656, and proven May 9, 1657. In 1632, he was living at Sanders' Point, near Salmon Falls, N. H. (*.) Henry Sherburne married (1st,) Rebecca, daughter of the above Ambrose Gibbons, and (2nd) Sarah, widow of Walter Abbott, who died in Jamaica before 1675, and had brother Thomas Abbott for administrator, and left son Peter, who -had sons John and Peter.

Ref:  The Great Migration Begins, 1620-1640, "Puritans & Pioneers"  Bio. Sketches, pg 490

AMBROSE GIBBONS -- 

ORIGIN: England - MIGRATION: 1630 - FIRST RESIDENCE: Piscataqua - REMOVES: Dover 1641 - OCCUPATION:  Steward

EDUCATION: Wrote many letters, mostly to his superiors in London, and kept many detailed accounts. 

OFFICES:  Assistant, 25 May 1640 (for "lower Piscataqua") [NHPP 1:113]. Commissioner for Piscataqua court, 10 December 1641, 22 May 1646, 11 November 1647 [MBCR 1:345; 2:153, 219; 3:69]. Arbiter, 10 November 1642, 7 September 1647 [NHPP 40:8, 29]. Auditor, 3 October 1648 [NHPP 40:41]. Kittery selectman, 1647, 1648 [Old Dover 2].

ESTATE:  Ambrose Gibbons was rated at £86 and paid a tax of £1 8s. in the Dover tax list of 19 December 1648, which indicated that he was moderately wealthy [NHGR 1:178; Dover Hist 235; Old Dover 352].  In the Dover tax list of 1649 he was assessed £1 4s. 10d. [Old Dover 354 (incorrectly dated 1639)] and in 1650 he was assessed £1 4s. 8d. [Dover Hist 236].

   At some date after 1642 Ambrose Gibbons acquired the twenty acre lot originally granted to Richard Rogers [GDMNH 49 (list 352)].

   In his will, dated 11 July 1656 and proved 9 May 1657, "Ambrose Gibbons of Oyster River in the Town of Dover," described as "on his sick bed," bequeathed to"my grandchild Samuel Sherburne the son of Henry Sherburne now dwelling in the town of Portsmouth" his entire estate, "Henry Sherburne ... with his son Samuell" to be executors; "with the proviso the aforenamed Henry and Samuell are to pay unto the said Henry Sherborn's children Elizabeth, Mary, Henry, John, Ambrose, Sarah and Rebeckah or any more which may be lawfully begotten by Rebeckah Sherborn the wife of Henry Sherborn being the daughter of Ambrose Gibbins" £21 to each child, sons at age twenty-one, daughters at eighteen [NHPP 31:32-33].

   On 6 May 1657 in "answer to the petition of Henry Sherburn, who, for reasons expressed in his petition, renounceth the executorship of Amb[rose] Gibbons, which this Court doth allow & approve of, & grants administration to the estate of the said Ambrose Gibbons to the said Henry Sherbourn, & orders, that after the debts of the said Gibbons be satisfied, that Samuel Sherbourn, his son, shall have a double portion, & the rest of that estate be equally distributed amongst the rest of the children; and this Court doth hereby further empower the said Henry Sherbourn to sell & make good title to the house & lands of the said Gibbons, to whom he shall sell the same" [MBCR 3:429] 

BIRTH:  By about 1592 based on estimated date of marriage.  DEATH:  Dover between 11 July 1656 (date of will) and 9 May 1657 (probate of will). (The Sloper record has 1 July 1656[Waterhouse Anc 62, Rambles 2:52], which Davis puts down to the vagaries of human memory.) 

MARRIAGE:  By about 1617 Rebecca _____; she died at Dover 14 May 1655 [Waterhouse Anc 62; Rambles 2:52]. She was sent by the Laconia Company to her husband in Newichawannock before the last of May 1631 [NHPP 1:61-62].

CHILD:

  i   REBECCA, b. say 1617; married 13 November 1637 HENRY SHERBORNE [Waterhouse Anc 62; Rambles 2:51]. 

COMMENTS:  Perhaps no family in early New England has been so sorely beset by forged records as that of Ambrose Gibbons. "Ambros Gibins, trader for the Company of Laconia," was ostensibly a witness to the forged 17 May 1629 deed of Wahangnonawit, sagamore of Squamscot, to John Wheelwright [NHPP 1:59], but Savage, in showing the falsity of this deed, demonstrated convincingly that Gibbons did not arrive in New England until 1630 [WJ 1:509].

   The so-called "Gibbons Papers," while not an official record, provide an exceptionally detailed picture of the first few years of the Masonian settlement on the Piscataqua [NHPP 1:61-102]. Because these documents were employed in the later disputes over the Masonian claims they must be used with caution, as a number of them are later forgeries [GDMNH 8; GMN 2:30]. All of the documents represented as composed by Gibbons himself appear to be genuine.

   A compilation of family events was made by Mary (Sherborn) Sloper, granddaughter of Ambrose Gibbons. This record has been published a number of times, in some cases with invented entries not included in the original. Walter Goodwin Davis gives an excellent account of this record and its various versions, and evaluates the reliability of the entries included in it [Waterhouse Anc 59-68]. The dates from the earlier version are used here, because they are at least plausible; but some doubt may still attach to them all. (For further discussion on this record see GDMNH 109 and Savage 1:247.)

As early as 9 Mar 1621/2 Ambrose Gibbons was involved w/ John Mason's plans for colonizing north New England [NHPP 29-23] 

Thomas Eyre, an adventurer of the company of Laconia, wrote to "Mr. Gibbons" from London "the last of May 1631" saying:  Yours of the 8th April, 1630, from Plimouth I received and thereby took notice of your entertaining Roger Knight, and here I present his wife 20s. pr. quarter at your desire and £3 per quarter to yours. I hope by this they are both with you according to your desire. I wish all your wives with you, and that so many of you as desire wives, had such as they desire; for the adventurers desire not to be troubled with quarterly payments. 

 Your next to me is dated the 21st of July last at Pascataquacke. I take notice of your complaints for want of the trade goods....

 Your third letter to me is dated the 14th of August, by which I perceive diverse of the commodities and provisions which you carried with you in the bark Warwicke were not to your liking for which I am sorry. You know the trouble we had. I could not look to Mr. Olden [John Oldham] and all besides. I hope by the Pide-Cowe you find it otherwise. I pray write me how you like the hatchets sent you by that ship and how all goeth.  Your wife, Roger Knight's wife and one wife more we have already sent you, and more you shall have as you write for them.... By the bark Warwicke we sent you a factor to take charge of the trade goods; also a soldier for discovery etc. [NHPP 1:61-62].

   The Company wrote to Ambrose Gibbins from London 5 December 1632:

We have written unto Capt. Neale to dismiss the household, only such as will or can live of themselves may stay upon our plantation in such convenient places as Capt. Neale, Mr. Godfrie and you shall think fit.... We pray you to take care of our house at Newich~ewanick and to look well to our vines.... You desire to settle yourself upon Sander's Point. The adventurers are willing to pleasure you not only in this, in regard of the good report they have heard of you from time to time, but also after they have conferred with Capt. Neale, they determine some further good towards you for your further encouragement [NHPP 168-69:]. 

   For want of people, goods and food the settlement did not flourish. Gibbons wrote to the company fr Newichawannock on 13 Jul 1633:

For myself, my wife and child and four men we have but half a barrel of corn; beef and pork I have not had but one piece this three months, nor beer this four months; for I have for two and twenty months had but two barrels of beer and two barrels and four bushels of malt; our number commonly hath been ten. I know the servants have neither money nor clothes. I have been as spare as I could, but it will not do.... The vines that were planted will come to little. They prosper not in the ground they were set [NHPP 1:81-82].

   John Mason replied from Portsmouth [England] 5 May 1634:

I have strained myself to do this at this present, and could have wished that the rest would have joined to have sent you some provisions for trade and support of the place; but that failing, I have directed to you as, a token from myself, one hogshead of malt to make you some beer. The servants with you, and such others as remain upon the company's charge, are to be discharged and paid their wages out of the stock of beaver in your hands at the rate of 12s. the pound.... The crystal stones you sent are of little or no value unless they were so great to make drinking cups or some other works, as pillars for fair looking glasses or for garnishing rich cabinets. Good iron or lead ore I should like better of if it could be found [NHPP 1:90].

   In answer, Ambrose Gibbons replied from Newichawannock 6 August 1634:

... for their sending trade and support I desire it not. I have supported but now sunk under my burden; the more I think on this, the more is my grief.... I perceive you have a great mind for the lakes, and I as great a will to assist you. If I had two horses and three men with me I would by God's help soon resolve you of the situation of it, but not to live there myself.... A good husband with his wife to tend the cattle and to make butter and cheese will be profitable; for maids they are soon gone in this country [NHPP 1:91-93].

   Gibbons's detailed lists of the company goods left to him from time to time by the departing Vaughan and others are printed in NHPP 1:70-74, 76-80, 93-94, 115-17.

   In 1654, Ambrose Gibbins signed the petition to Massachusetts Bay for protection from usurpers [NHPP 1:213]. William Hilton sued Ambrose Gibbons for trespass on a marsh, 24 September 1641 [NHPP 40:5]. He was called "Captain Gibbons" in a case over cows, 2 October 1644 [NHPP 40:17]. He took the administration of Darby Field, 1 October 1651 [NHPP 31:23, 40:80].

BIBLIOGRAPHIC NOTE: Walter Goodwin Davis in 1949 published the best account of the family of Ambrose Gibbons [Waterhouse Anc 107-12]. He included a few entries from London parish registers which may pertain to this immigrant [Waterhouse Anc 107].