Life
1829-1898 [J. T. Gilbert, Esq.; Sir John Gilbert]; b. Dublin, ed. Bective
Coll., established Public Records Office, in Dublin, 1867; author of History of the City of Dublin
(1854), compiled from notebooks organised by streets, which was awarded
RIA Gold Medal; History of the Viceroys of Ireland (1865) [see
note, infra]; arranged Muniment Room, 1866; bequeathed his large library
to Dublin Central Library, Pearse St., where it forms a large part of
the collection; a printed catalogue was compiled by Douglas Hyde and D.
J. O’Donoghue (the latter amending the work of the former); there
is a biog. by Rosa Mulholland (Lady Gilbert), whom he married in 1891;
d. suddenly 23 May 1898; centenary commemorations took the form of a lecture
series hosted by the Dublin Corporation Public Libraries, commencing with
Douglas Bennett on ‘The Streets of Dublin Revisited’ (Mansion
House, Feb. 1998). CAB DNB JMC DIW DIB DIL OCIL
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Works
‘The Streets of Dublin’, Irish Quarterly Review, 2 (June
1852), cp.290-91; Documents relating to Ireland, 1795-1804 (Dublin:
J Dollard 1893); History of the City of Dublin, 3 vols. (Dublin:
McGlashan & Gill 1854-59); Do. [another edn., Duffy 1861) [preface
subscribed, ‘Villanova, Black Rock, Dublin, 9th Dec. 1854’];
Do. [facs. rep.], introduced by F. E. Dixon (Shannon: IUP 1972),
with index by Diarmuid Breathnach; History of the Viceroys of Ireland
(Dublin: James Duffy 1865) [infra]; Historic
& Municipal Documents of Ireland 1172-1320, from the archives
of the City of Dublin (1870); History of the Irish Confederation and
the War in Ireland, 1641-49, 7 vols. (Dublin 1882-1891) [cited in
Cat. of Bradshaw Coll. of Irish Books, Cambridge, 1916]; Calendar of
Ancient Records of Dublin (Dublin Corp. 1889). [Check dates of 1st
edns. and early reps. of his History of the City of Dublin, 3 vols.,
?1854, 1859, 1861.]
History of the Viceroys of Ireland [by] J. T. Gilbert, Esq., with notices of the Castle of Dublin and its chief occupants in former times (Dublin: James Duffy 15 Wellington-Quay 1865) 613pp. 12 Chps. covering history from 1166 ad., deposal of Dermod, to 1509, close of reign of Henry VII. The introductory chapter, dealing with relevant pre-conquest history of Ireland, begins, ‘From the earliest period of our authentic history, Ireland was divided into five provinces [as infra]. Incls. Enthusiastic notices on Gilbert’s Viceroys from Athenaeum, Dublin Review, Fortnightly Review, Dublin Univ. Mag., London Review, Tablet, Dublin’s Freeman’s Journal, Saunder’s Newsletter, Dublin Evening Mail, and Irish Times, attached. NOTE, History of the Viceroys (1865), first series, ‘an attempt to embody in narrative form the results of a collation of printed and unpublished documents and chronicles bearing upon the chief adminstrators of the English Govt., in Ireland from its establishment to the termination of the reign of Henry VII in 1509 ... to be resumed in the next series [never issued].’
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- Mary Clark, Yvonne, Desmond & Nodlaig P. Hardiman, eds., Sir John Gilbert, 1829-1898: Historian Archivist and Librarian: Papers and Letters Delivered during the Centenary Year [1998] (Dublin: Four Courts Press 1999), 157pp. [Contains Commemorative Lecture by Douglas Bennett; also contribs. from Deirdre Ellis-King [Dublin City Librarian]; Nodlaig P. Hardiman [Irish Collection, idem], Greagoir O Duill, Siobhan O’Rafferty [RIA Librarian], Máire Kennedy [Dublin Corp. Senior Librarian]; Mary Clark [archivist], Toby Barnard [Hertford]; Appendix: NLI MS Gilbert Catalogue of books, c.1850, ed. Máire Kennedy.
- Irish Book Lover, Vols. 2, 3, 4.
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Notes
University of Ulster Library holds History of Dublin, 3 vols. (Irish
University Press 1972; facs. rep. edn); Morris Collection holds Account
of the Facsimiles of National MSS of Ireland, from the earliest extant
specimens to a.d. 1719, 4 vols. (HMSO, 1887); Documents relating to Ireland,
1795-1804 ([Dublin: J. Dollard] 1893); Reports of the Royal Commission
on Historical MSS (1877).
Belfast Public Library holds 10 antiquarian titles, incl. his History of the City of Dublin (1854), source for Finnegans Wake, list in Annotations to FW. A Life of Sir Thomas Gilbert (1905) by his son, R. M. Gilbert. Justin McCarthy, Irish Lit., gives ‘The Prince of Dublin Printers’ [George Faulkner], from Hist. of Dublin.
Emerald Isle Books (1995) lists Account of the Facsimiles [&c.], Pat. I (Dublin: Thom 1874), 35pp.; Credi Mihi. the Most Ancient Register Book of the Archbishops of Dublin Before the Reformation (Dublin: Dollard 1897), 4to. [£95].
George A Little, Dublin Before the Vikings (1957), cites
Gilbert’s critical reflections on Worsaae’s description of the
‘independent Norwegian town’ and ‘city within a city’ at Oxmanstown on the north side of Liffey in a critique of the Account
of the Danes which he [Gilbert] published in Irish Quarterly Review,
April 1852, p.917ff.
Source for scholars: Gilbert’s ’The Streets of Dublin’, Irish Quarterly Review, 2 (June 1852), is a recurrent source for information about Sir James Ware, Duald MacFirbis, and other antiquarian matters in R. E. Ward and C. Ward, eds., The Letters of Charles O’Conor (1988).
Theatrical historian? Gilbert’s History of Dublin contains sep. chapters on Smock Alley and Crow St. but omits any of the plays of the Restoration on the pretext that no records are available till the re-opening at the end of the Williamite War. He does not appear to use Hitchcock or Victor as sources.
Act of Union: Gilbert’s History of Dublin (1861) estimates that the book trade in Dublin was reduced by eighty percent after the Act of Union. (Cited in Ricard Cargill Cole, Irish Booksellers and English Writers, 1740-1800, 1986, p.153.)
Namesake: an engraving entitled ‘A tavern brawl’ inspired by the death of Christopher Marlowe, done by Sir John Gilbert [R.A.], appears in Times Literary Supplement (12 June 1992, p.8.) Gilbert, the illustrator, supplied engravings for many works incl. Poems of Longfellow (1876) and Don Quixote (1895). An exhibition of his work was held in London in 1898.
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)