Born at No.6 Calle de Cantarranas, Madrid, Spain,[2] he was the second son of merchant-trader Antony Gibbs (1756–1815) and his wife, Dorothea Barnetta (née Hucks, 1760–1820).

From 1800, William attended Blundell's School in Tiverton, but was withdrawn in 1802 to join his father and brother on a business trip to their offices in Cadiz.

Based in the Port of Bristol, this firm acted as a landside agent for various shipping operators, and had built itself further on the Atlantic slave trade.

Imports started slowly, with 182 tonnes in 1842 but grew rapidly after 1847, when Peru granted the firm a monopoly on trade with Europe and North America.

[4] In the early 1850s, reports began to reach Europe and Asia that the mining of guano on the Chincha Islands was reproducing the evils of African slavery in the Caribbean.

In 1882 Great Britain was converted into a sailing ship to transport bulk coal, but after a fire on board in 1886 she was found on arrival at Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands to be damaged beyond repair.

She was sold to the Falkland Islands Company and used, afloat, as a storage hulk (coal bunker) until 1937, when she was towed to Sparrow Cove, scuttled and abandoned.

[3] A noted supporter of the revivalist Oxford Movement, after leaving his daily career William increased his philanthropic work, especially in religious matters.

He was involved in more than twelve church projects including:[1] From the start of his partnership with his brother in the business through to his death, William Gibbs' principal residence was always in London.

[2] In 1854 Gibbs commissioned John Gregory Crace to redecorate 16 Hyde Park Gardens, and then extended the contract to Tyntes Place which he renamed Tyntesfield.

[2] In both properties principal rooms, Crace installed wood panels and gold inlays, with oil-varnished woodwork and mouldings, and Gothic fireplaces.

But between 1863 and 1865, with John Norton as architect and William Cubitt & Co. as builders, the property was substantially remodelled as the benchmark Anglo-Catholic Gothic Revival architecture country house.

[2][3] Gibbs' final addition to Tyntesfield was between 1872 and 1877, when he commissioned Arthur Blomfield to add a dramatic chapel to the north side of the house.

[2] In praise of the resultant building, Yonge hailed the chapel as the necessary culmination of the Tyntesfield project, giving "a character to the household almost resembling that of" the Little Gidding community much idealised by 19th-century Anglo-Catholics.

[2] On 1 August 1839, William married Matilda Blanche Crawley-Boevey at St Mary the Virgin church in Flaxley, Gloucestershire.