ABSTRACT
Although so much is known of Gibbons’s family and his life, there are two important gaps. One concerns his activities after he left King’s College and before he joined the Chapel Royal. Unless his name is found in some so far undiscovered document, the gap will not be filled. The other lack is of a contemporary statement about the sort of man he was. The posts he held at court and at Westminster Abbey testify to the regard in which he was held as a musician, as do references to him as ‘the best Finger of that Age’ and ‘the best hand in england’, 1 but there is little to cast light on his personality and social relationships.
