Catalogue description Records of the King, Gibbons and Haynes Bayly families.

Documents relating to John King of Clifton, surgeon.

Documents relating to Maria Edgeworth, novelist, and other members of her family.

Documents relating to Zoe King

Documents relating to Mrs. Psyche Emmeline Gibbons, née King, and her family.

Documents relating to Thomas Haynes Bayly, dramatist and lyricist (a) Literary Works

(b) Correspondence

(c) Family papers and albums

King family

Gibbons family

Haynes Bayly family

Deposited in the Bristol Archives Office by Miss Joan Gibbons in June and November 1973, and August 1974 per Francis Greenacre, Curator of Fine Art, City Art Gallery, Bristol.

32688/216-301 found in folder inscribed "Apallo's Gift or the Musical Souvenir". 1830

• King, John d? 1846, surgeon of Bristol
• Haynes, Bayley Thomas, d 1839, songwriter and poet

John King, who practised as a surgeon in Clifton for forty years at the beginning of the nineteenth century, came originally from Berne in Switzerland as Nicholas Johann Koenig. Several papers from his early life survive, including a pedigree of the Koenig family and an account of its place in the history of Berne, together with his Swiss freemason's apron and certificates. In England he settled in Bristol, working with Dr.Thomas Beddoes at his Pneumatic Institution in Dowry Square, where Humphry Davy was also an assistant. Several letters from Davy after he left Bristol are among King's correspondence. There is little trace of King's great interest in painting, though the City Art Gallery possess both pictures by him and portraits of him. There is evidence of his friendship with Robert Southey in letters from the poet's widow asking that she may have Southey's letters returned to her. King married Emmeline Edgeworth, sister of Dr.Beddoes' wife, by whom he had a son, Edgeworth, who died young, and two daughters, Zoe and Psyche Emmeline. Emmeline's eldest sister was the novelist, Maria Edgeworth, and there are several letters from her to her niece Zoe, and a collection of newspaper cuttings and articles about her. Zoe, who shared many of her father's interests, remained unmarried. She conducted the indefatigable correspondence of a Victorian lady, but her correspondents talk of little save the state of their health and the affairs of their friends. She also kept journals, albums, diaries and an obituary book, together with various printed poems, memoirs, newspaper cuttings etc. Zoe's sister, Emmeline, married Dr.William Gibbons, by whom she had three children, Elizabeth, Catherine and William Edgeworth. There are letters to Emmeline and her daughters, including some frommembers of the Edgeworth family, a Gibbons family pedigree and a large number of photographs.

Thomas Haynes Bayly, whose name is little known today, was one of the most popular song-writers and poets of the 1820s and 1830s. Of good family, he was forced by financial misfortune to spend much of his time in France and support his family by writing. He published one full-length novel in three volumes called "The Aylmers", and several volumes of poetry and prose, but his most consistent source of income came from his work for the stage, musical comedies and farces. His correspondence includes letters about his work from many of the leading theatrical managers and actors of the day, and from other writers and poets including Edward Lytton Bulwer, who was a close friend. After his early death in 1839, Bayly's widow, Helena, wrote a memoir of him to be included in a posthumous publication of some of his work. The collection also contains several of her albums and a volume of press-cuttings reviewing his work. Their only surviving child, Margaret, married William Edgeworth Gibbons, thus accounting for the presence of Bayly's papers among those of the Gibbons family; Bayly himself had no connection with Bristol and his correspondence is almost all from people in London. Margaret's children, Edgeworth and Helena both died unmarried and their branch of the Gibbons family died with them.

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