Early Life
In the
Visitation of London1,
Thomas Gipps is described as "of St Edmonds Bury in com. Suffolke" and is shown to have had two sons: an elder son called Henry and a younger son called
Thomas (it was Thomas the younger son who signed the Visitation entry, so we have some confidence that these names and relationships are correct).
My prime candidate for Thomas Gipps, the elder, of Bury St Edmunds, is the person described in this account
of the Feoffees of the Town Lands of Bury St Edmunds.
GIPPS, Thomas: mercer; will pr. 14 May 1590; signed accounts from 1578-9; feoffee 1582-89; accountant, Smith's, 1585, 1586; name in margin of almshouse regulations, 1582; governor from 21 Jan. 1583; 1568 subsidy, £5 in goods, South Ward; PCC will.
The person described therein died in 1590 and was a mercer, a career which is consistent with the career of his son Thomas Gipps of London (the latter was a clothworker). The linked document notes that Thomas had a son called Henry who died 1625, but makes no mention of a son called Thomas.
A second piece of evidence comes from the will of this same Thomas, mercer of Bury St Edmunds (see
Death below). In that will he names his eldest son Henry and his younger son Thomas. Thus I am fairly confident that we have the right person.
By contrast, Ancestry trees have picked a different Thomas Gyppes, who died in 1625. I think they are wrong, because the person they have picked was a fishmonger who lived in London and was married to Elizabeth ___ (which contradicts instantly with those same Ancestry trees, where his wife is given as "Frances Horseman").
In terms of parentage, this is still to be uncovered, by I'm 90% sure that Thomas was descended from the same ancestry as the Gipps family of Whelnetham in Suffolk; the coats of arms of the Gipps of Bury St Edmunds/London family (per the
Visitation of London) and that of the Gipps of Welnetham are similar. My current hypothesis is that Thomas was the nephew of Richard Gipps (d. bef. 1557) who married Joan Boldero and from whom the more famous Gipps of Welnetham family came. See
Other Research below for some more speculation.
Given that Thomas' son was probably born around 1570, Thomas himself must have been born no later than 1549-1550.
Family Life
I think that Thomas married
Francis ____ (Horseman?), based on the information in his will. The erroneous Ancestry trees mentioned above give the name of "Francis Horseman" which might be the right name, attributed as the wife of the wrong person. Based on Thomas' will, they had the following children:
- Henry, eldest son, described as 'old man' when he died in 1625 so perhaps born 1565 or so
- Thomas, younger son, who married Mary Sherwood; she was born 1572 so he was probably born somewhere around 1570
- Elizabeth, eldest daughter, who married Ambrose Bridon
- Anne, younger daughter
Death
Thomas died in 1590: his will was dated 14
th April 1590 and was proved 14
th May 1590. In it he mentions:
- His wife Francis (he spells it Frauncys)
- His eldest brother John Gippes, and the latter's children William, Thomas and Jane
- His younger sister Susan, married to Ambrose Bridon, and this couple's child John Bridon
- His eldest son Henry Gippes
- His younger son Thomas Gippes
- His eldest daughter Elizabeth Gippes, wife to Thomas Bendo
- His younger daughter Anne, apparently unmarried in 1590
Footnotes
[1]
https://archive.org/details/visitationoflond15howa/page/314/mode/2up
Other Research
https://archive.org/details/greatwhelnethamp15whel/page/424/mode/2up mentions a Thomas of Bury St Edmunds, fl. 1568; could this be Thomas of this page, who might have been 21 in 1568 (if he was born 1547) and so coming of age and named / apprenticed somewhere?
Later on the same page we have (emphasis mine):
In the seventeenth century there was a well-to-do family of Gipps at Little Horringer hall, another at Great Whelnetham hall, and another at Bury....I think myself that the Gippses in the seventeenth century of Bury St. Edmunds and of Great Wheltnetham were closely connected and of long standing in Suffolk; but that the Gippses of Little Horringer had just come from London, and were only remotely, if at all, connected with the other two.
Later, on page 426 of the same document, there is an entry for Henry Gipps who sounds like the same Henry eldest son of Thomas of this page. This Henry is said to have died 18 Feb 1625, which corresponds to the burial date of 20 Feb 1625 given to the Henry Gipps, son of Thomas listed in the
Feoffees of the Town Lands of Bury St Edmunds. This same Henry is said to have left lands in Bury, Thurston and Tostock to his heir. I note that Thomas of this page, in his own will, left lands in Thurston and Tostock to his eldest son Henry, so I find this fairly convincing evidence that the two Henrys are the same person.
On page 445 there is a tentative tree, that includes this same Henry Gipps, but I believe the parentage is wrong here: Henry is shown as the son of Richard Gipps and Ann Boldero, whereas I think he was the son of Thomas Gipps and Francis Houseman. The author himself is at pains to state that this is all quite tentative so no harm, no foul.
On
https://archive.org/details/visitationsofsuf00harvuoft/page/132/mode/2up?q=gipps there is a 1612 Visitation reference to Henry Gipps of Bury St Edmunds, married to Mary Darby.
On page 447 we find the Gipps shield for the Great Wheltnetham family: six stars. The same six stars are shown in the
Visitation of London for the shield of Thomas Gipps of Bury St Edmunds (i.e. the Thomas of this page) - albeit taking up only half of the shield. This is further evidence for a connection between the two families.
One possibility is that Thomas of this page was the brother (or cousin) of Richard Gipps of Barton who married Ann Boldero. Barton is just northeast of Bury St Edmunds.
FindMyPast has the burial of a Thomas Gippis [sic] on 6 Dec 1563 at Bury St Edmunds...could this be the father of Thomas of this page?
The will of Ambrose Bridon, Thomas' brother-in-law, is here:
https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/D940166
Abt 1545 - 1590 (~ 45 years)
[2] 
