The youngest son of James and Eleanor (Peters) Gibbons.

William's father’s intentions respecting his education are expressed in a will written by himself, dated July 29, 1796, when William was about fifteen years old. After a bequest to him of a thousand pounds in gold and silver money, together with all his Greek, Latin, French, and mathematical books and surveying instruments, he adds,

"As I had intended myself to instruct my said son William in the rudiments of the Greek, Latin, and French languages, and also in mathematical learning, in order the better to qualify him for the practice of physic, to which I have in my own mind destined him, I now transcribe these thoughts in hope that my said son will have due regard to them, as a special token to him of his father’s last wishes for his welfare."

He then proceeds to make ample provision for his education accordingly. But, contrary to his apparent expectations, the testator lived twenty-seven years after the date of this will, and not only had the pleasure of carrying out his intentions successfully and making a good scholar of his son, but also of seeing him, while yet a young man, in the foremost rank of the profession which he had so judiciously chosen for him.
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Dr. William Darlington, in his "Notae Cestrienses," gives the following sketch of the early career of Dr. Gibbons:

When William arrived at the appropriate age he began the study of medicine under the tuition of Dr. Jacob Ehrenzeller, an expert Revolutionary surgeon, residing in the borough of West Chester. The latter portion of his medical pupilage was under the direction of Dr. John Vaughan, an estimable physician in Wilmington, Del.

At the Medical School of the University of Pennsylvania, in the winter of 1802–3, William Gibbons, William Baldwin, and the compiler of these Notes first met as classmates, and, finding themselves to be congenial spirits, soon contracted an intimate friendship of lifelong duration. At that period it was not usual for country lads engaged in the study of medicine to aspire to the Doctorate, or to persevere until they obtained that degree; but this trio, all from Chester County, discovering that, as far as they could ascertain, no student of the county had been ambitious enough to acquire the title of M.D., they all resolved to obtain it, if practicable; and learning that one of the declared objects of the honor conferred upon successful candidates was, in the language of the diploma, ‘ut . . . a Literatorum vulgo secernerentur’, Gibbons jocosely declared that, so far as he was concerned, he was resolved to be one of those who would go for the ‘secernerentur!’ In fact, all three of the friends united in the declaration, obtained the degree, and were among the earliest from the county so to aspire and to succeed. Dr. Gibbons graduated in the spring of 1805, and the subject of his well-written inaugural thesis was ‘Hypochondriasis.’

Having reached the goal of his student ambition, he returned for a season of relaxation to the home of his parents, who then resided near the ancient village of Dilworthstown, in the county of Chester. Here he remained until the summer of 1806, when he purchased a farm in Kennet township, near the southern border of Chester County.

On this beautiful property he became an amateur agriculturist and practicing physician, until the ensuing spring of 1807, when the death of the lamented Dr. Vaughan created a medical vacancy in Wilmington, which several young physicians attempted to fill, but which was eventually occupied by Dr. Gibbons, who, on the invitation of friends, removed to Wilmington, where he continued during the remainder of his life, in the acceptable exercise of his arduous profession. In this position the doctor settled down to the business of his calling, and was speedily recognized as among the most eminent and reliable members of the faculty. His active mind soon engaged him in scientific research, philological studies, and the acquisition of languages, among which was the Hebrew tongue, wherein he obtained to a remarkable proficiency. He had also a decided taste for the natural sciences, became especially fond of the culture of ornamental plants and choice fruit-trees, and was among the earliest in promoting associated efforts for the extension of those interesting departments of knowledge, one of which was the establishment of the ‘Delaware Academy of Natural Science,’ of which he was presiding officer.

About the year 1821 the Rev. E.W. Gilbert, a young and very able minister of the Presbyterian persuasion, was called to one of the churches of that denomination in Wilmington. His knowledge of Friends and their doctrines and discipline was rather limited, and he was quite surprised to find them so numerous and influential in that place. He conceived it to be his duty to convince them that their notions on the subject of religion were erroneous and heretical. As he could not reach them from the pulpit, he undertook the task with his pen through the public press, and commenced a series of letters addressed to "The Society of Friends," [Quaker] which he published in the Christian Repository over the signature of "Paul." His third letter elicited a reply from "Amicus," who took up the cause of the Friends, and the controversy continued for two years. It commenced in what seemed to be a kindly and charitable spirit; it ended, as all such controversies do, in a spirit of enmity which separated the disputants wider than ever, each being fully convinced that the other was hopelessly blind to the truth.

After the close of this correspondence, Dr. Gibbons (who was erroneously supposed to be "Amicus") assumed the vindication of the doctrines of Friends in a series of letters addressed to the Presbyterians over the signature of "Vindex," which established his reputation as one of the most able and vigorous writers of the day. Mr. Gilbert and his congregation, which was a large one, became very much embittered in their feelings towards Dr. Gibbons particularly and the Quakers generally, and there was very little social intercourse between the two sects. This unhappy condition continued for several years, but was at last providentially terminated by a touching incident.

Dr. Gilbert, then one of the most distinguished ministers of the church, was taken ill, and continued to grow worse and worse, until his life was despaired of. The attending physician desired a consultation, and asked that Dr. Gibbons should be called to the case for that purpose. The family consented. He answered the call promptly, and on reaching the residence of the dying man, found the rooms crowded by sad and weeping members of his congregation waiting to hear the last words of their beloved pastor. They left the house reluctantly by the doctor’s very earnest request. The consultation was held. The treatment was changed. The patient lay for hours in the very arms of death, the Quaker doctor watching by his side, hoping and praying that a life so useful, which had not reached its full maturity, might yet be saved. Feebly the pulse moved. Faintly the breath told that it was yet lingering in the wasted frame, and the good physician hoped on.

There they were, side by side, the earnest antagonists in that polemic strife which had alienated families and brought no soul to God, the one almost unconsciously awaiting the final summons, and the other exhausting his professional skill to avert it, with a hopeful and hearty appeal to the Supreme Physician to perfect his remedies. Presently the pulse quickened and grew stronger and stronger; the patient felt a fresh throb of life; his eyes opened and fell upon the face of a benefactor beaming with pleasure and cheerfulness and praise, and "Paul" and "Vindex" were ever after lifelong friends.

The pen of Dr. Gibbons was afterwards the efficient weapon against a band of social reformers, led by Robert Dale Owen and Fanny Wright D’Arusmont, a woman of remarkable force and persuasive eloquence. They were the editors of a periodical published in the city of New York, called The Free Inquirer, which had a large circulation in the Middle States and in Ohio. It not only disseminated infidel and atheistic doctrines, but assailed the sanctity of the marriage contract, and advocated the right of the husband or the wife to dissolve it at pleasure. Mrs. D’Arusmont, who was separated from her husband, lectured on these subjects in most of the principal cities and towns of the country, attracting large audiences, and scattering the poison broadcast wherever she went. For this purpose she visited Wilmington, and Dr. Gibbons was among those who denounced her mission publicly, and did what they could to defeat it. This led to an attack upon him in the columns of The Free Inquirer, to which he replied in a pamphlet entitled "Exposition of Modern Skepticism." It was published first in Wilmington, and was reprinted in New York and Cincinnati, and extensively circulated and read wherever the infidels had obtained a foothold. The object was to awaken a righteous indignation in the public mind against them and their immoral teachings, and their assaults upon the Christian religion; and this was so successfully achieved that they could not obtain a respectable audience in Wilmington after its publication, and the seed they had sown there never took root.

Dr. Gilbert received a copy of it from the author, his old antagonist but now his personal friend, and did him the honor to read it from his pulpit to his congregation. For this valuable service to the cause of Christianity and public morals, Dr. Gibbons received many letters of thanks and congratulation from ministers and others of various religious denominations in different parts of the country.

He took an active interest in promoting the education of the African race, and was one of the founders and managers of a school in Wilmington for colored children, which was in successful operation for many years. This being the intermedial town between the North and the South, it offered peculiar facilities for the kidnapping of free people of color. Dr. Gibbons was an active member of a society organized for their protection, which saved and rescued many of them from the slave-markets of Baltimore. He was also the president of the first State Temperance Society of Delaware. He was never idle. His residence, a short distance from the improved parts of the town, embraced several acres of land, chiefly occupied by ornamental and fruit-trees of many varieties, the latter all of his own raising and grafted with his own hands.

In the mansion which he built here soon after his marriage he and his noble wife raised a family of thirteen children, all of whom witnessed the death of their honored father on the 25th of July, 1845, in the sixty-fourth year of his age. His widow survived him nearly a quarter of a century.
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William the youngest of twelve children, received a medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1802 and settled just south of Chester County in Wilmington, Delaware.1252
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Physician, Dilworthtown and Kennett Township, 1805-1807; aithor; propenent of temperence and of education for blacks. Many sources cited for biographies.3008