An ancestor of the famous historian, Edward Gibbon, was a Kentish man, though some biographers represent him as born in London. He was educated at Jesus College, Cambridge, and for some time served as a soldier in France, the Netherlands and Virginia. Then, becoming known to Dugdale, he obtained the appointment of Norroy King-at-Arms. He published several heraldic works, the best known of which, "Introductio ad Latinam Blasoniam," or an attempt to define in Roman idiom the terms and attributes of Heraldry, appeared in 1682.

[See "Gentleman's Magazine" (1802 and 1806); "Noble's History of the College of Arms."]