Date Published:
July 2005

L’Encyclopédie de l’histoire du Québec / The Quebec History Encyclopedia

Thomas Nicholson Gibbs

Gibbs, Thomas Nicholson (1821-1883), minister of inland revenue for Canada (1873), was born at Terrebonne, Lower Canada, on March 11, 1821. With his brother, he entered business as a produce merchant, and he became one of the most successful business men in Canada. He was president of the Dominion Telegraph Company, of the Standard Bank, of the Ontario Loan and Savings Co., and chairman in Canada of the English and Scottish Investment Co. He was elected in 1865 to the Legislative Assembly of Canada for South Ontario, and in 1867 to the Canadian House of Commons, on this occasion defeating George Brown. For five months in 1873 he was a member of the Dominion government of Sir John Macdonald, first as secretary of state for the provinces, and then as minister of inland revenue. He was defeated in South Ontario in the general elections of 1874, was again elected to the Commons in a by-election in 1876, and was a second time defeated in 1878. In 1880 he was called to the Senate; and he died at Ellesmere Hall, Oshawa, Ontario, on April 7, 1883.

Source  : W. Stewart WALLACE, ed., The Encyclopedia of Canada, Vol. III, Toronto, University Associates of Canada, 1948, 396p., p. 29.