JOHN GIBBS : AN ESSEX BOTANIST.
95
from him a sum of £45 8s. 3d. which, it was alleged, he had
collected and ought to have paid over to the Treasurer, less his
agreed commission of 10 per cent. Gibbs counterclaimed for
a sum of £52, for services he said he had rendered to the Com-
mittee in pursuance of an agreement, made in 1875, appointing
him as Curator. Ultimately, the case got into the County
Court, where it was tried before Judge Abdy on 18th May 1880.5
Gibbs defended himself, but made out a pitiably-weak case.
There can be no doubt that he was entirely in the wrong.
In the circumstances, the case inevitably went against him;
and, as he could not find the money, he stood for a time in
danger of actual arrest. Yet it was generally recognised that,
though he may have been culpable, he certainly had no fraudu-
lent intent. There can be no doubt whatever that he vehemently
believed himself to be right in all he had done, and a good deal
of sympathy was felt for him. In the end, I believe he found
£15, while friends found other moneys, and the Committee
relieved him of liability for the balance.
At this time, too, Gibbs' health broke down so completely
that he was unable to do work of any kind. As to employment
in his own trade, that was no longer to be had in the district,
in which the industry was dead. How he and his wife (who was
still living) contrived to exist at this period, I know not. I fear
that they barely managed to do so; for, the last time I called
on him—about 1890, I believe—his cottage seemed practically
destitute of furniture. Moreover, the boys cf the neighbour-
hood, knowing that he was under a cloud of some kind and
unable to protect his property, were accustomed to raid his
little garden(which was almost unfenced), stealing and breaking
his treasured plants and even assaulting him.
As a result of these troubles and his ill-health, Gibbs became,
not unnaturally, soured in disposition and obviously discon-
tented. His misfortunes rankled within him; and he felt
himself, as his intensely-indignant letters to me show, a man
with a grievance. His voice acquired a decidedly-querulous
tone; his features tended to become cadaverous; and his tall
spare frame wasted almost to emaciation. Ultimately, he took
refuge with a married daughter living elsewhere—I believe at
Aylesbury—and he died soon after. The exact date of his
5 See a two-column report in the Chelmsford Chronicle of 21 May.