In the 1780s a group of Edinburgh Whig lawyers came together under the name "Independent Friends", and Gibson was one of them. The leaders included
Henry Erskine and
Malcolm Laing.
William Adam of Blair Adam and
Sir Thomas Dundas acted as their liaison with English opposition politicians. Early in the history of the group, Gibson and others became involved in a theatrical feud between English actors appearing in Edinburgh,
James Fennell and William Woods (1751–1806). Woods was a friend of
Robert Fergusson, and of
Robert Burns who wrote him a prologue for a 1787 benefit performance of the
Merry Wives of Windsor. Matters came to a head over roles in a 1788 performance of ''
Venice Preserv'd'' at the
Theatre Royal, Edinburgh, managed by John Jackson. In it Jackson gave Fennell the role of Jaffier, and Woods the role of Pierre, and there was a riot in the audience. Henry Erskine sent a letter to the theatre manager, backing the claim of Woods to play Jaffier, signed by more than 180 others. The matter became a legal case. In his claim for damages, Fennell named, amongst others,
John Wilde,
John Clerk, Gibson and
David Cathcart. The events of the
French Revolution of 1789 cast the supporters of Charles James Fox in a new light. Gibson's own account of Edinburgh's Foxite Whigs during the early 1790s was not made public for nearly two generations. It appeared in a memoir of his friend
John Allen, based on a letter Gibson had written to Allen's friend
Charles Richard Fox. It gave accounts of a dinner in July 1791, organised in Edinburgh by Gibson and Allen, to celebrate the
storming of the Bastille; and another Edinburgh political dinner given at this period by
Lord Daer. The memoir was published with Allen's
Inquiry into the Rise and Growth of the Royal Prerogative in England in 1849. Writing of the
Pittite repression of the 1790s,
Henry Cockburn stated that it was hard to understand "how
Thomas Muir could be
transported and James Gibson not even tried." Under the
Ministry of All the Talents of 1806–7, Gibson was given an official position, solicitor of stamps.
Sir William Cunynghame, 4th Baronet became the collector of land tax in Scotland. These appointments were at the expense of "Melvillites", the place men of the influential Tory
Robert Dundas, 2nd Viscount Melville. There was no wholesale cull of Tories to satisfy the partisan wishes of some Foxites, such as
William Maule. For the
Edinburghshire constituency, before the reform of 1832, Gibson-Craig and his group supported
Sir George Clerk, 6th Baronet as Member of Parliament. Seeing, however, a prospect of change,
Sir John Dalrymple, 5th Baronet and Gibson-Craig publicly withdrew their support in 1831, and Dalrymple was elected in the
1832 general election. In the city constituency of
Edinburgh, Gibson-Craig proposed
Francis Jeffrey and
Adam Black proposed
James Abercromby, both of whom were elected, ahead of the Tory Forbes Blair. In relation to the freedom of the city of Edinburgh granted to
Henry Brougham, who was born there,
Noctes Ambrosianae (vol. II) commented on Gibson in the terms: "The provosts and bailies thought more of your James Gibsons, your Cockburns, Jeffreys, and so forth, than of any body so much out of their own sphere as Master Brougham." ==Landowner==