Gill Street

A number of early New Plymouth streets were named after directors of the Plymouth Company. Not only was Thomas Gill the Deputy Governor of this Company, he was also mayor of Plymouth and a Member of Parliament.

Thomas Gill was born in 1788 and married Jane Flashman in 1816 at Modbury parish church. He has been described as an "entrepreneur par excellence" and a "wily schemer ever looking to the main chance". Whatever his true colours, there is no doubt that he was influential in the business life of Plymouth. The shrewd purchase, at a bargain price, of a valuable limestone quarry proved particularly lucrative. The money he made enabled him to establish the Millbay Soap Works, purchase water-front offices, and even build a pier at Millbay. This profile obviously also helped his political interests. He was elected mayor of Plymouth in 1836 and then, in 1841, a Liberal member of Parliament. Thomas Gill died in 1861, aged 73, and was placed in the family vault at Tavistock parish church.

It was his role as Deputy Governor of the Plymouth Company that links him with our city. Cementing this connection was his generous donation of twenty volumes of the 1823 edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, as well as 30 other reference books, to the fledging town. The precious books arrived aboard the Amelia Thompson, the second of the company ships to arrive in New Plymouth.

When New Plymouth's Carnegie Library opened on King Street in 1908, the donated items formed a large part of the new library's reference collection. Although the famous encyclopaedia is no longer printed, Gill's well-preserved volumes can still be found in the Puke Ariki Heritage Collection.

This story was originally published in the Taranaki Daily News.

Related documents:

Gill Street Is Reeking With History, Fred Butler (Taranaki Daily News 19 February 1955)

Gill Street Is Becoming A Merchants' Street, Fred Butler (Taranaki Daily News 5 March 1955)