James Edwards (bookseller)
Encyclopedia
Early life and family
Edwards was the eldest son of William Edwards (1720–1808) of HalifaxHalifax, West Yorkshire
Halifax is a minster town, within the Metropolitan Borough of Calderdale in West Yorkshire, England. It has an urban area population of 82,056 in the 2001 Census. It is well-known as a centre of England's woollen manufacture from the 15th century onward, originally dealing through the Halifax Piece...
, who in 1784 set up James and a younger son, John, as the firm of Edwards & Sons in Pall Mall
Pall Mall, London
Pall Mall is a street in the City of Westminster, London, and parallel to The Mall, from St. James's Street across Waterloo Place to the Haymarket; while Pall Mall East continues into Trafalgar Square. The street is a major thoroughfare in the St James's area of London, and a section of the...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. John died soon afterwards, and the business was continued by James. A third son, Thomas (d. 1834), was a bookseller in Halifax. Richard, another son, at one time held a government appointment in Minorca
Minorca
Min Orca or Menorca is one of the Balearic Islands located in the Mediterranean Sea belonging to Spain. It takes its name from being smaller than the nearby island of Majorca....
.
Bookseller
Messrs. Edwards & Sons sold many valuable libraries. One sale in 1784 was formed principally from the libraries of N. Wilson of PontefractPontefract
Pontefract is an historic market town in West Yorkshire, England. Traditionally in the West Riding, near the A1 , the M62 motorway and Castleford. It is one of the five towns in the metropolitan borough of the City of Wakefield and has a population of 28,250...
and H. Bradshaw of Maple Hall, Cheshire
Cheshire
Cheshire is a ceremonial county in North West England. Cheshire's county town is the city of Chester, although its largest town is Warrington. Other major towns include Widnes, Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Runcorn, Macclesfield, Winsford, Northwich, and Wilmslow...
. Among others dispersed in 1787 was the library of Dr. Peter Mainwaring. He made frequent business visits to the continent, and accompanied in 1788 his fellow-bookseller, James Robson
James Robson
James Robson is a fictional character in the television series Oz, portrayed by R.E. Rodgers. Originally, Robson was supposed to be on for one episode and then never to be seen again. However, series creator Tom Fontana was impressed by Rodgers, so Robson became a regular starting in from the...
, to Venice
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
, in order to examine the Pinelli library, which they purchased and sold by auction
Auction
An auction is a process of buying and selling goods or services by offering them up for bid, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder...
the following year in Conduit Street, London. In 1790 Edwards disposed of the libraries of Salichetti of Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
and Zanetti of Venice, and in 1791 that of Paris de Meyzieu.
He had purchased at the Duchess of Portland
William Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland
William Henry Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland, KG, PC was a British Whig and Tory statesman, Chancellor of the University of Oxford and Prime Minister. He was known before 1762 by the courtesy title Marquess of Titchfield. He held a title of every degree of British nobility—Duke,...
's sale in 1786 the Bedford Missal (a book of hours
Book of Hours
The book of hours was a devotional book popular in the later Middle Ages. It is the most common type of surviving medieval illuminated manuscript. Like every manuscript, each manuscript book of hours is unique in one way or another, but most contain a similar collection of texts, prayers and...
by the Bedford Master
Bedford Master
The Bedford Master was an manuscript illuminator active in Paris during the fifteenth century. He is named for the work he did on two books illustrated for John of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Bedford between 1415 and 1435. One is the Bedford Hours, a Book of Hours, in the British Library; the other, a...
, more correctly the Bedford Hours), now in the British Museum
British Museum
The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...
. It was described by Richard Gough
Richard Gough (antiquarian)
Richard Gough was an English antiquarian.He was born in London, where his father was a wealthy M.P. and director of the British East India Company. In 1751 he entered Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, where he began his work on British topography, published in 1768...
in An Account of a Rich Illuminated Missal executed for John, duke of Bedford, Regent of France under Henry VI, 1794. dedicated by the author to Edwards. 'Let me recommend the youthful bibliomaniac to get possession of Mr. Edwards's catalogues, and especially that of 1794,' says Thomas Frognall Dibdin
Thomas Frognall Dibdin
Thomas Frognall Dibdin , English bibliographer, born at Calcutta, was the son of Thomas Dibdin, the sailor brother of Charles Dibdin....
(Bibliomania, i. 123).
Later life
Around 1804, having acquired a fortune, he decided to retire, and with the Bedford Missal and other literary and artistic treasures he went to live at a country seat in the neighbourhood of Old Verulam. He was succeeded by Robert Harding EvansRobert Harding Evans
Robert Harding Evans , bookseller and auctioneer.Evans, was the son of Thomas Evans . After an education at Westminster School he was apprenticed to Thomas Payne of the Mews Gate, and succeeded to the business of James Edwards , bookseller in Pall Mall, which Evans continued until 1812...
. On 10 September 1805 he married Katharine, the only daughter of the Rev. Edward Bromhead, rector of Reepham, Norfolk
Norfolk
Norfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...
, and about the same period bought the manor-house at Harrow
London Borough of Harrow
The London Borough of Harrow is a London borough of north-west London. It borders Hertfordshire to the north and other London boroughs: Hillingdon to the west, Ealing to the south, Brent to the south-east and Barnet to the east.-History:...
, where some of the archbishops of Canterbury
Archbishop of Canterbury
The Archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and principal leader of the Church of England, the symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. In his role as head of the Anglican Communion, the archbishop leads the third largest group...
had once lived. The house was finely situated among gardens, in which was an alcove mentioned by Dibdin, some of whose imaginary bibliomaniacal dialogues are set in the surrounding grounds.
He died at Harrow 2 Jan. 1816, at the age of fifty-nine, leaving five children and a widow, who afterwards married the Rev. Thomas Butt of Kinnersley
Kinnersley
Kinnersley is a village in Herefordshire, England. Home to around 100 residents, it is located about east of the Welsh border and north west of Hereford.- Employment and Society :...
, Shropshire
Shropshire
Shropshire is a county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. It borders Wales to the west...
. His last instructions were that his coffin should be made out of library shelves. A monument to his memory is in Harrow Church.