Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hubbard, John Gellibrand
HUBBARD, JOHN GELLIBRAND, first Lord Addington (1805–1889), born 21 March 1805, was eldest son of John Hubbard (d. 1847), Russia merchant, of Stratford Grove, Essex, by Marian (d. 1851), daughter of John Morgan of Bramfield Place, Hertfordshire. He was educated privately, and, his health being delicate, he was sent in 1816 to a school at Bordeaux, where he remained for four years. In 1821 he entered his father's counting-house, and was soon connected with many important commercial undertakings. He was in 1838 elected a director of the Bank of England. From 1853 until his death he was chairman of the public works loan commission. Hubbard entered the House of Commons in 1859 in the conservative interest, as member for Buckingham. He was not re-elected in 1868, but sat for the city of London from 1874 until 22 July 1887, when he was raised to the peerage as Baron Addington of Addington in the county of Surrey. On 6 Aug. 1874 he was sworn of the privy council. In the House of Commons Hubbard was a recognised authority on financial questions. The income tax was his special study. He wrote on it several pamphlets, including 'How should an Income Tax be levied?' (1852). In 1861, in spite of the opposition of Mr. Gladstone, then chancellor of the exchequer, he carried a motion for a select committee to inquire into the assessment of the tax. Hubbard's schemes involved the application to imperial taxation of the principle now governing local rating, and they were afterwards largely adopted. Hubbard also spoke and wrote on the coinage, ecclesiastical difficulties, and education. He built and endowed St. Alban's Church, Holborn, which was consecrated 26 Feb. 1863, but afterwards (1868), in a letter to the Bishop of London, protested as churchwarden against certain ritualistic practices of which, though a high churchman, he did not approve [see under Mackonochie, Alexander Heriot].
Addington spoke for the last time in the House of Lords on the third reading of the Customs and Inland Revenue Bill, 28 May 1889, and died at Addington Manor 28 Aug. 1889. He was buried in the parish churchyard. He married, 19 May 1837, Maria Margaret, eldest daughter of William John, eighth lord Napier, and by her had five sons and four daughters. He was succeeded by his eldest son, Egerton, the present Lord Addington.
[Information from the Hon. A. E. Hubbard; Men of the Time, ed. 1887; Times, 20 July 1868 and 29 and 31 Aug. 1889; Church Times, 6 Sept. 1889; Hansard's Parl. Debates; A. H. Mackonochie, edit. 1890; Return of Memb. of Parl.]