Betson, Thomas (d. 1516), librarian, religious author, and compiler, is first recorded at Cambridge University, where he had studied civil law for two and a half years, canon law for two years, and practised for four years, when he was granted a grace in 1466–7 to proceed to the degree of BCnL. He was rector of ...
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Blades, William (1824–1890), printer and bibliographer, was born on 5 December 1824, in Clapham, Surrey, the third son and the fifth of the nine children of Joseph Blades (c.1786–c.1860) and his wife, Grace Hainsworth (1792–1863). His parents were both English. His father and uncle were partners with ...
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G. C. Boase
revised by Leslie Howsam
Bohn, James George Stuart Burges (1803–1880), bookseller and bibliographer, was born on 20 December 1803 in London, the son of (John) Henry Martin Bohn (c.1757–1843), bookseller of London, and his wife, Elizabeth, niece of James Watt. The translator and publisher Henry George Bohn (1796–1884)...
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Brimley, George (1819–1857), essayist and librarian, was born at Cambridge on 29 December 1819, the son of Augustine Gutteridge Brimley (1794-1862), and his first wife, Hannah née Gotobed (1789-1825). His father, a grocer and hop and provision merchant, was a Baptist, and was mayor of ...
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Brown, James Duff (1862–1914), librarian and compiler of music reference books, was born on 6 November 1862 at 3 Reid Terrace, Stockbridge, Edinburgh, the second of seven children of James Brown of St Fergus, Aberdeenshire, a bookkeeper, and his wife, Margaret Douglas of ...
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Cochrane, John George (1780–1852), publisher and librarian, was born at Glasgow on 21 December 1780, the son of John Cochrane, who worked in the legal profession, and his wife, Katharine, née Morison. By the time he was twenty Cochrane worked in London, where he married, on 30 March 1805, ...
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R. Julian Roberts
Colomiès, Paul (1638–1692), writer and librarian, was born on 2 December 1638 at La Rochelle, France, the son of Jean Colomiès, a doctor at La Rochelle. His family came from Béarn, but his grandfather Jérome was a minister of the Reformed church at ...
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Stephen Collins
Crossley, James (1800–1883), writer and book collector, was born on 31 March 1800 at The Mount, Halifax, the second son of James Crossley (1767–1831), a merchant in the wool manufacturing trade, and his wife, Anne (1772–1813), daughter of William Greenup, a merchant. He received a grounding in classical literature at the grammar schools of ...
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Sidney Lee
revised by John D. Haigh
Daniel, George [pseud. P— P—] (1789–1864), writer and book collector, was born on 16 September 1789 and descended from Paul Danieli, a Huguenot who settled in England in the seventeenth century. His father died when he was eight. Educated at Thomas Hogg's boarding-school...
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Leslie Howsam
Darling, James (1797–1862), bookseller and bibliographer, was born in Edinburgh. He was apprenticed to the Edinburgh publisher Adam Black in 1809 and became active in the Scottish Presbyterian church. On moving to London in 1818, Darling entered the theological bookselling business of Ogle, Duncan, and Cochran...
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Edwards, James (1756–1816), book collector and bookseller, was born on 8 September 1756 at Halifax, Yorkshire, the second of the six sons (there were also two daughters) of William Edwards (bap. 1723, d. 1808), bookbinder and bookseller of Halifax, and his wife, Jane Green (...
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Sir Samuel Ferguson (1810–1886) by unknown photographer by permission of the Royal Irish Academy © Royal Irish Academy
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Peter Denman
Ferguson, Sir Samuel (1810–1886), poet and archivist, was born on 10 March 1810, in High Street, Belfast, the youngest of the six children of John Ferguson (d. 1845) and his wife, Agnes, née Knox (d. 1861), daughter of John Knox, a clockmaker, in whose house the birth took place. His father, whose Scottish forebears had settled in ...
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Henry Buxton Forman (1842–1917) by unknown photographer [detail] © reserved; Keats House, London Borough of Camden
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J. F. R. Collins
Forman, Henry Buxton [Harry] (1842–1917), bibliographer and forger, was born on 11 July 1842 at Camden Place, Southampton Street, Camberwell, the third son and fifth child of the eight children of George Ellery Forman (1800–1867), naval surgeon, and his wife, Maria Courthorpe (1805–1888)...
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Greenwood, Thomas (1851–1908), promoter of public libraries and publisher, son of William and Nanny Greenwood, was born on 9 May 1851 at Mount Pleasant, Woodley, Cheshire. His father, a yeoman farmer turned millworker and an active Chartist, died when Thomas was just five months. From the age of three he attended ...
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F. P. Wilson
revised by H. R. Woudhuysen
Greg, Sir Walter Wilson (1875–1959), literary scholar and bibliographer, was born on 9 July 1875 at Park Lodge, Wimbledon Common, the only son of William Rathbone Greg (1809–1881), a social and political commentator, and his second wife, Julia, second daughter of James Wilson (1805–1860)...
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Edward Harley, second earl of Oxford and Mortimer (1689–1741) by Michael Dahl © Copyright The British Museum
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David Stoker
Harley, Edward, second earl of Oxford and Mortimer (1689–1741), book collector and patron of the arts, was born on 2 June 1689, the only son of Robert Harley, first earl of Oxford and Mortimer (1661–1724), politician, and his first wife, Elizabeth (d...
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W. P. Courtney
revised by Ian Maxted
Heath, Benjamin (1704–1766), literary scholar and book collector, was born at Exeter on 20 April 1704, the eldest son of Benjamin Heath (1672?–1728), fuller and merchant of Exeter, who married Elizabeth Kelland (buried at St Leonard's, Exeter, in October 1723). His father was a prominent Baptist and he was not baptized in ...
