John Thomas Ibbetson, later Sir John Thomas Selwin, 6th Bart (sometimes Selwyn), Ibbetson was born at Godstone, Surrey in 1789, younger son of Sir James Ibbetson, 2nd Bart (c.1741-1795) and his wife Jane, only daughter and heiress of John Caygill, merchant, of Skay near Halifax and his wife Jane Selwyn, who married at Halifax in February 1768. Ibbetson was educated at Otley, Halifax; Eton College and admitted as a pensioner at St John's College, Cambridge on 2 July 1801, admitted to Lincoln's Inn on 29 June 1802 and taking a B.A. degree in 1805. In 1817, when his elder brother Charles succeeded to the Selwin estates, Charles took the name Selwin instead of Ibbetson and in 1825, Charles became the 4th baronet and inherited the Ibbetson estates, when he made the Selwin estates over to John Thomas, who, under the terms of his mother’s will, on 5 August 1825, changed his name by royal licence to Selwin. As John Thomas Selwin he married at Nacton, near Ipswich on 8 September 1825, Isabella Leveson Gower, (1804-24 September 1858), daughter of General John Leveson Gower and his wife Isabella Mary, second daughter of Philip Bowes-Broke (d. 1802) of Nacton, they had one son Sir Henry John Selwyn-Ibbetson (1826-1902), later 1st Lord Rookwood, who unsuccessfully contested Ipswich in the elections of 1857 and 1859, and an only daughter Gertrude Louisa Jane Selwin-Ibbetson (1828-1914). Ibbetson exhibited his drawings at the Royal Academy 1811-1812 and at Walter Fawkes's exhibition in 1817, in which year he toured Italy and Sicily. On the death of his nephew, the 5th baronet, on 6 July 1861 he succeeded as 6th Baronet Ibbetson. He lived many years at Bosmere Hall, Creeting St Mary, Suffolk and painted watercolours of many views in the area, including many of his or of his relations properties. His sister Harriet of Henley Hall, near Ipswich, who died on 30 October 1843, aged 67, was buried in Henley Church, Suffolk. On inheriting the title, he also became the owner of Down Hall, Hatfield Heath, Essex where, as Sir John Thomas Selwin, he died on 20 March 1869, aged 84, being succeeded by his only son Sir Henry John Selwin Ibbetson who married three times but had no issue and the titles became extinct.
Royal Academy Exhibits
from 10 Portman Place, Edgware Road, London
1811 9 Cattle Watering, with Hawkshead in the background
143 Cattle, with the village of Leckwith, near Pennant's Point
488 View of Eagle Crag, Borrowdale, from Scandergill Force
1812 74 Landscape and Figures: Scene, Shaws, near Masham, Yorkshire
77 Clappergate, with horses watering
290 Masham Fair
295 Ancient Music
536 Old Man selling Bread
537 Pigs from Nature