1816 – He ran off with Eliza Pattle and they were subsequently married in Edinburgh.

1826 – On the 7th of March, assisted by his brother William, he abducted Ellen Turner, the fifteen year old daughter of a wealthy family.

1831 – He was giving evidence to a Parliamentary Select Committee enquiring into prison conditions.

         – He became involved in various schemes to promote the colonization of South Australia.

         – The Colonial Office gave the New Zealand Association a charter to promote settlement in New Zealand.

         – The Rebellion in Lower Canada had been suppressed but the colony was in turmoil.

1838 – Edward Gibbon and his son, Edward Jerningham sailed secretly for Canada but before they arrived word had leaked out and the appointment was forbidden by London.

1839 – In March, Edward Gibbon was invited to become the director of the New Zealand Company.

         – He had dispatched eight more ships to New Zealand, before he even knew of the success of the Brother William and the Tory expedition.

1842 – He arrived in Montreal in January and stayed in Canada for about a year.

1843 – He went back to Canada and spent some months there. However when he heard of his brother Arthur’s death at the Wairau Affray, he immediately quit Canada and never returned.

1844 – Edward Gibbon returned to England to find the New Zealand Company under serious attack from the Colonial Office.

1845 – In August, he went to France to recuperate and to give himself a complete break from New Zealand affairs.

1850 – Wakefield co-founded the Colonial Reform Society with Charles Adderley, a landowner and member of parliament for Staffordshire.

1851 – Edward Gibbon continued to work for the Canterbury Association and also to work towards making New Zealand a self-governing colony.