Life

Born in Oxfordshire

Oxfordshire

Oxfordshire is a county in the South East region of England, bordering on Warwickshire and Northamptonshire , Buckinghamshire , Berkshire , Wiltshire and Gloucestershire ....

, he was the illegitimate son of Ozias Humphry by Delly Wickens, daughter of an Oxford

Oxford

The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...

 shopkeeper, called Upcott from the maiden name of Humphry's mother. His father bequeathed to him his miniatures, pictures, drawings, and engravings, as well as correspondence with many leading figures.

Upcott was initially a bookseller, at first an assistant of R. H. Evans of Pall Mall

Pall Mall

-Places:* Pall Mall, urban downtown ares of Bendigo, Australia* Pall Mall, London, a street in the City of Westminster, London* Pall Mall, Tennessee, a small unincorporated community in Fentress County, Tennessee...

, and then of John Wright of Piccadilly

Piccadilly

Piccadilly is a major street in central London, running from Hyde Park Corner in the west to Piccadilly Circus in the east. It is completely within the city of Westminster. The street is part of the A4 road, London's second most important western artery. St...

. While at Wright's shop he attracted the attention of John Ireland

John Ireland (Dean of Westminster)

John Ireland was an English Anglican priest, who served as Dean of Westminster from 1816 until his death. In this role, he carried the crown during the coronation services at Westminster Abbey of two monarchs...

, William Gifford

William Gifford

William Gifford was an English critic, editor and poet, famous as a satirist and controversialist.-Life:Gifford was born in Ashburton, Devonshire to Edward Gifford and Elizabeth Cain. His father, a glazier and house painter, had run away as a youth with vagabond Bampfylde Moore Carew, and he...

, and the writers of the Anti-Jacobin

Anti-Jacobin

The Anti-Jacobin, or, Weekly Examiner was a newspaper founded by George Canning in 1797. William Gifford was its editor. Its first issue was published on 20 November and during the parliamentary session of 1797–98 it was issued every Monday....

who met there, and he witnessed the scuffle there between Gifford and John Wolcot

John Wolcot

John Wolcot , satirist, born in Dodbrooke, near Kingsbridge in Devon, was educated by an uncle, and studied medicine. In 1767 he went as physician to Sir William Trelawny, Governor of Jamaica, and whom he induced to present him to a Church in the island then vacant, and was ordained in 1769...

, helping to eject Wolcot.

When Richard Porson

Richard Porson

Richard Porson was an English classical scholar. He was the discoverer of Porson's Law; and the Greek typeface Porson was based on his handwriting.-Early life:...

 was made librarian of the London Institution

London Institution

The London Institution was an educational institution founded in London in 1806...

, Upcott was appointed as his assistant (23 April 1806), and he continued in the same position under William Maltby. On 30 May 1834 he resigned his office.
Upcott spent the rest of his days at 102 Upper Street, Islington

Islington

Islington is a neighbourhood in Greater London, England and forms the central district of the London Borough of Islington. It is a district of Inner London, spanning from Islington High Street to Highbury Fields, encompassing the area around the busy Upper Street...

. The house in his time was called ‘Autograph Cottage’; among many autograph

Autograph

An autograph is a document transcribed entirely in the handwriting of its author, as opposed to a typeset document or one written by an amanuensis or a copyist; the meaning overlaps with that of the word holograph.Autograph also refers to a person's artistic signature...

s collected by Upcott was that of William Blake

William Blake

William Blake was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of both the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age...

, in 1826, with whom he was on good terms, as his father had been, and made some significant introductions to Blake (Henry Crabb Robinson

Henry Crabb Robinson

Henry Crabb Robinson , diarist, was born in Bury St. Edmunds, England.He was articled to an attorney in Colchester. Between 1800 and 1805 he studied at various places in Germany, and became acquainted with nearly all the great men of letters there, including Goethe, Schiller, Johann Gottfried...

 and Dawson Turner

Dawson Turner

Dawson Turner was an English banker, botanist and antiquary.-Life:Turner was the son of James Turner, head of the Gurney and Turner's Yarmouth Bank and Elizabeth Cotman, the only daughter of the mayor of Yarmouth, John Cotman. He was educated at North Walsham Grammar School, Norfolk and at Barton...

). In imitation of the plan adopted by William Oldys

William Oldys

William Oldys was an English antiquarian and bibliographer.The illegitimate son of Dr William Oldys, chancellor of Lincoln, London was probably his place of birth. His father had held the office of advocate of the admiralty, but lost it in 1693 because he would not prosecute as traitors and...

, he fitted up a room with shelves and a hundred receptacles into which he dropped cuttings on different subjects. The Guildhall Library

Guildhall Library

The Guildhall Library is administered by the Corporation of London, the government of the City of London, which is the historical heart of London, England. It was founded in the 1420s under the terms of the will of Lord Mayor Dick Whittington...

 originated in a suggestion by him, and in 1828 he superintended the arrangement of the books in it.

Upcott died, unmarried, at Islington on 23 September 1845.

Collector

Every inch of the walls in his rooms, whether at the London Institution or at home in Islington, was covered with paintings, drawings, and prints, most of them by Thomas Gainsborough

Thomas Gainsborough

Thomas Gainsborough was an English portrait and landscape painter.-Suffolk:Thomas Gainsborough was born in Sudbury, Suffolk. He was the youngest son of John Gainsborough, a weaver and maker of woolen goods. At the age of thirteen he impressed his father with his penciling skills so that he let...

 or Humphry; all the drawers, shelves, boxes, and cupboards were crammed with his collections. In 1833, while still at the London Institution, he was robbed of the whole of his collection of gold and silver coins and some other curiosities; £500 was voted to him.

Upcott's library, books, manuscripts, prints, and drawings were sold by Sotheby at Evans's auction-rooms, 106 New Bond Street (15 June 1846 and following days), and are said to have realised £4,125 17s. 6d. He owned about 32,000 letters, illustrated by three thousand portraits, many of which were engraved in Charles John Smith

Charles John Smith

-Life:He was born in 1803 at Chelsea where his father, James Smith, practised as a surgeon. He was a pupil of Charles Pye, and became an engraver of book illustrations of a topographical and antiquarian character...

's Historical and Literary Curiosities. Many of the autograph letters were bought for the nation, and now form Additional MSS. 15841 to 15957 at 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...

. The sketch-books of Ozias Humphry (Addit. MSS. 15958–69) were purchased by Thomas Rodd

Thomas Rodd

Thomas Rodd was an English bookseller, antiquarian and Hispanist; Rodd purchased some Greek manuscripts for the British Museum ....

 at the sale, but were at once resold to the British Museum.

The main parts of Upcott's collections which were not acquired by the British Museum consisted of the correspondence of Ralph Thoresby

Ralph Thoresby

Ralph Thoresby , born in Leeds and is widely credited with being the first historian of that city. He was besides a merchant, non-conformist, fellow of the Royal Society, diarist, author, common-councilman in the Corporation of Leeds, and museum keeper.-Upbringing:Ralph Thoresby was the son of John...

 (which was edited by Joseph Hunter

Joseph Hunter (antiquarian)

Joseph Hunter was a Unitarian Minister and antiquarian best known for his publications Hallamshire. The History and Topography of the Parish of Sheffield in the County of York and the two-volume South Yorkshire , still considered among the best works written on the history of Sheffield and South...

) and of Emanuel da Costa. A large series of autograph letters from Upcott's stores was purchased by Captain Montagu Montagu, R.N., and left by him at his death in 1863 to the Bodleian Library

Bodleian Library

The Bodleian Library , the main research library of the University of Oxford, is one of the oldest libraries in Europe, and in Britain is second in size only to the British Library...

. Many of Humphry's finest works passed at Upcott's death to his friend, C. H. Turner of Godstone

Godstone

Godstone is a village in the county of Surrey, England. It is located approximately six miles east of Reigate at the junction of the A22 and A25 major roads, and near the M25 motorway.-History:...

.

In 1836 he privately printed a brief catalogue of the letters, manuscripts, and state papers which he had been collecting for more than twenty-five years, in the hope that they might be bought for some public institution. One of his greatest finds was the original manuscript of Thomas Chatterton

Thomas Chatterton

Thomas Chatterton was an English poet and forger of pseudo-medieval poetry. He died of arsenic poisoning, either from a suicide attempt or self-medication for a venereal disease.-Childhood:...

's extravaganza ‘Amphitryon,’ which he chanced upon in the shop of a city cheesemonger. This was purchased by the British Museum in 1841.

Works

Upcott published in 1818, in three volumes, a ‘Bibliographical Account of the Principal Works relating to English Topography.’ It was later largely superseded by the ‘British Topography’ (1881) of John P. Anderson, who refers in his preface to Upcott's ‘excellent catalogue.’ Upcott revised for the press the first edition of John Evelyn's Diary

John Evelyn's Diary

The Diary of John Evelyn, a gentlemanly Royalist and virtuoso of the seventeenth century, was first published in 1818 under the title Memoirs Illustrative of the Life and Writings of John Evelyn, in an edition by William Bray. Bray was assisted by William Upcott, who had access to the Evelyn family...

, brought out by William Bray

William Bray (antiquary)

-Life:Bray was the fourth and youngest son of Edward Bray of Shere in Surrey, who married Ann, daughter of Rev. George Duncomb. When ten years old he was entered Rugby School. On leaving school he was placed with an attorney, Mr...

 in 1818, and for the edition of 1827 he collated the copy with the original manuscript at Wotton and made corrections. In 1825 he further edited Evelyn's ‘Miscellaneous Writings.’ He reprinted in 1814 Andrew Borde's ‘Boke of the Introduction of Knowledge,’ and in 1819 Edmund Carter's ‘History of the County of Cambridge.’

Robert Southey

Robert Southey

Robert Southey was an English poet of the Romantic school, one of the so-called "Lake Poets", and Poet Laureate for 30 years from 1813 to his death in 1843...

 was indebted to Upcott for the transcript of Thomas Malory

Thomas Malory

Sir Thomas Malory was an English writer, the author or compiler of Le Morte d'Arthur. The antiquary John Leland as well as John Bale believed him to be Welsh, but most modern scholars, beginning with G. L...

's ‘King Arthur’ (1817). Upcott corrected it for the press. He took an active part in the publication of the ‘Garrick Correspondence,’ and in the preparation of the ‘Catalogue of the London Institution,’ and assisted in compiling the ‘Biographical Dictionary’ of 1816.