James Edwards (1757–1816) was an English

bookseller Bookselling is the commercial trading of books which is the retail and distribution end of the publishing process. People who engage in bookselling are called booksellers, bookdealers, bookpeople, bookmen, or bookwomen. The founding of librari ...

and

bibliographer Bibliography (from and ), as a discipline, is traditionally the academic study of books as physical, cultural objects; in this sense, it is also known as bibliology (from ). English author and bibliographer John Carter describes ''bibliography ...

Early life and family

Edwards was the eldest son of William Edwards (1720–1808) of Halifax, who in 1784 set up James and a younger son, John, as the firm of Edwards & Sons in Pall Mall,

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. 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 Menorca or Minorca (from la, Insula Minor, , smaller island, later ''Minorica'') is one of the Balearic Islands located in the Mediterranean Sea belonging to Spain. Its name derives from its size, contrasting it with nearby Majorca. Its capita ...

Bookseller

Messrs. Edwards & Sons sold many valuable libraries. One sale in 1784 was formed principally from the libraries of N. Wilson of

Pontefract Pontefract is a historic market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wakefield in West Yorkshire, England, east of Wakefield and south of Castleford. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, it is one of the towns in the City of Wake ...

and H. Bradshaw of

Maple Hall Maple Hall is a historic home located near Lexington in Rockbridge County, Virginia, USA. The house was built in 1855 and is a two-story, three bay, Greek Revival style brick dwelling on an English basement. It has a hipped roof and rear ell with ...

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county t ...

. 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, to

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

, in order to examine the Pinelli library, which they purchased and sold by

auction An auction is usually a process of buying and selling goods or services by offering them up for bids, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder or buying the item from the lowest bidder. Some exceptions to this definition ex ...

the following year in

Conduit Street Conduit Street is a street in Mayfair, London. It connects Bond Street to Regent Street. History The street was first developed in the early 18th century on the Conduit Mead Estate, which the Corporation of London had owned since the 15th centu ...

, London. In 1790 Edwards disposed of the libraries of Salichetti of

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and Zanetti of Venice, and in 1791 that of Paris de Meyzieu. Edwards had purchased at the

Duchess of Portland The Duchess of Portland refers to the wife or widow of a Duke of Portland, a former title in the peerage of Great Britain. The title was created in 1716 but became extinct in 1990 upon the death of the ninth Duke. Duchesses of Portland * Margaret ...

's sale in 1786 the ''Bedford Missal'' (a

book of hours The book of hours is a Christian devotional book used to pray the canonical hours. The use of a book of hours was especially popular in the Middle Ages and as a result, they are the most common type of surviving medieval illuminated manuscrip ...

by the

Bedford Master The Bedford Master was a 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, ...

, more correctly the ''

Bedford Hours The Bedford Hours is a French late medieval book of hours. It dates to the early fifteenth century (c. 1410–30); some of its miniatures, including the portraits of the Duke and Duchess of Bedford, have been attributed to the Bedford Master ...

''), now in the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...

. It was described by

Richard Gough Charles Richard Gough (born 5 April 1962) is a Scottish former professional footballer who played as a defender. Gough played in the successful Dundee United team of the early 1980s, winning the Scottish league title in 1982–83 and reachi ...

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 (177618 November 1847) was an English bibliographer, born in Calcutta to Thomas Dibdin, the sailor brother of the composer Charles Dibdin. Dibdin was orphaned at a young age. His father died in 1778 while returning to En ...

(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 Evans Robert Harding Evans (1778–1857) was an English bookseller and auctioneer. Life Evans was the son of Thomas Evans (1742–1784). After an education at Westminster School he was apprenticed to Thomas Payne of the Mews Gate, and succeeded to t ...

. On 10 September 1805 he married Katharine, the only daughter of the Rev.

Edward Bromhead Sir Edward Thomas ffrench Bromhead, 2nd Baronet FRS FRSE (26 March 1789 – 14 March 1855) was a British landowner and mathematician, best remembered as patron of the mathematician and physicist George Green and mentor of George Boole. Life Born ...

, rector of Reepham,

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

, and about the same period bought the manor-house at Harrow, where some of the

archbishops of Canterbury The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. The current archbishop is Justi ...

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 is a village and civil parish in Herefordshire, England. The village is about east of the Wales-England border and north-west of Hereford. Geography At roughly 200 metres above sea level and north of the River Wye, the village ...

Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to th ...

. His last instructions were that his coffin should be made out of library shelves. A monument to his memory, sculpted by

Peter Turnerelli Peter Turnerelli (c.1772–1839) was an Irish-born sculptor of Italian descent working in Britain in the early 19th century. Life and career He was born in Belfast, the son of Iacomo (James) Turnerelli, a sculptor, whose own father had left It ...

,Dictionary of British Sculptors 1660–1851, Rupert Gunnis is in Harrow Church.

Legacy

Edwards was Dibdin's "Rinaldo, the wealthy, the fortunate, and the heroic". Some of his books were sold by Christie, 25–28 April 1804. The remainder, a choice collection of 830 articles, fetched the sum of £8,467. 10s. when it was sold by Evans 5–10 April 1815.

References

External links

''Edwards of Halifax''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Edwards, James 1757 births 1816 deaths English bibliographers English male writers