George Smeeton (

fl. ''Floruit'' (; abbreviated fl. or occasionally flor.; from Latin for "they flourished") denotes a date or period during which a person was known to have been alive or active. In English, the unabbreviated word may also be used as a noun indicatin ...

1800–1828) was an English printer and compiler of biographical collections.

Life

Smeeton rose to the proprietorship of a printing business in the neighbourhood of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields in

Westminster Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster. The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Bu ...

. He became a strong ally of

James Caulfield James Caulfield (1764–1826) was an English author and printseller, known also as a publisher and editor. Early life Caulfield was born in the Vineyard, Clerkenwell, on 11 February 1764. His father was a music engraver, but poor eyesight preve ...

, of Wells Street, off

Oxford Street Oxford Street is a major road in the City of Westminster in the West End of London, running from Tottenham Court Road to Marble Arch via Oxford Circus. It is Europe's busiest shopping street, with around half a million daily visitors, and as ...

. He moved to the

Old Bailey The Central Criminal Court of England and Wales, commonly referred to as the Old Bailey after the street on which it stands, is a criminal court building in central London, one of several that house the Crown Court of England and Wales. The s ...

, and then to Tooley Street,

Southwark Southwark ( ) is a district of Central London situated on the south bank of the River Thames, forming the north-western part of the wider modern London Borough of Southwark. The district, which is the oldest part of South London, developed ...

, by 1828,

Publications

Smeeton brought out ''

Boxiana ''Boxiana'' is the title given to a series of volumes of prizefighting articles written by the English sportswriter and journalist Pierce Egan, and part-published by George Smeeton in the 1810s. Egan wrote magazine articles about the bareknuckle ...

'' as a serial from 1812. He printed and published, in 1814, ''The Eccentric Magazine'' for Caulfield containing lives and portraits of misers, dwarfs, and idiots. In 1820 he issued, in two volumes, ''Reprints of Rare and Curious Tracts relating to English History'', containing 16 seventeenth-century pamphlets, with reproductions of contemporary portraits and a few notes. Following in Caulfield's footsteps, Smeeton issued in 1822 ''Biographia Curiosa; or Memoirs of Remarkable Characters of the Reign of George III, with their Portraits'' (London; with 39 portraits, and a plate of the ''Beggars' Opera at St. Giles''). From 1825, he published four volumes of ''The Unique'', a series of engraved portraits of eminent persons, with brief memoirs. In 1828 he issued ''Doings in London: or Day and Night Scenes of the Frauds, Frolics, Manners, and Depravities of the Metropolis'', illustrated with designs engraved by

George Wilmot Bonner George Wilmot Bonner (24 May 1796 – 3 June 1836) was a British wood-engraver. Life Bonner was born at Devizes and educated at Bath, he was apprenticed to Allen Robert Branston and then James Henry Vizetelly, wood-engravers in London. He became ...

after

Isaac Robert Cruikshank Isaac Robert Cruikshank, sometimes known as Robert Cruikshank (27 September 1789 – 13 March 1856), was a caricaturist, illustrator and portrait miniaturist, the less well-known brother of George Cruikshank, both sons of Isaac Cruikshank. Just ...

. This is a medley based to some extent on Edward Ward's ''

The London Spy ''The London Spy'' by Ned Ward (1660/1667 – June 20, 1731) was a periodical about London life, later published as a book. First person Ward first published the story as a series of 16-page periodicals in 1698–1700, comprising 18 folio editi ...

'' and the compilations of

Pierce Egan Pierce Egan (1772–1849) was a British journalist, sportswriter, and writer on popular culture. His popular book '' Life in London'', published in 1821, was adapted into the stage play ''Tom and Jerry, or Life in London'' later that year, which ...

and

Charles Molloy Westmacott Charles Molloy Westmacott (c. 1788 - 1868) was a British journalist and author, editor of ''The Age'', the leading Sunday newspaper of the early 1830s. He sometimes wrote under the pseudonym Bernard Blackmantle. Life Born in 1787 or 1788, Westma ...

Notes

;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Smeeton, George Year of birth missing Publishers (people) from London Year of death missing English biographers 19th-century English people English printers