 He was devoutly religious, and early chose the life of a Congregational Minister, serving in Rutherglen, Victoria around 1876, and in 1878 moved to Jerilderie, so was there at the time of the Kelly gang's occupation of the town (February 1879).According to one account, Kelly admonished Steve Hart for taking Gribble's watch, on the grounds it was an inferior make, also that Gribble interceded with Kelly on behalf of a girl, whose riding horse the gang had appropriated.Gribble was concerned at the number of local Aboriginal girls and women who had cohabited with white men, to be abandoned when they became pregnant.