John Debrett (8 January 1753 – 15 November 1822) was an English publisher and compiler. His name has become associated with reference books.
Life
Debrett took over the business of
John Almon
John Almon (17 December 1737 – 12 December 1805) was an English journalist and writer on political subjects, notable for his efforts to secure the right to publish reports on the debates in Parliament.
He was born in Liverpool and came to Londo ...
, opposite
Burlington House
Burlington House is a building on Piccadilly in Mayfair, London. It was originally a private Neo-Palladian mansion owned by the Earls of Burlington and was expanded in the mid-19th century after being purchased by the British government. Toda ...
in Piccadilly, in 1781. His shop continued to be the resort of the
whigs, the
Pittites
The Tories were a loosely organised political faction and later a political party, in the Parliaments of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom. They first emerged during the 1679 Exclusion Crisis, when they opposed ...
going chiefly to his neighbour,
Stockdale.
Debrett retired from business about 1814, and lived partly upon a pension from his wife and partly from his compilations. He is described as a kindly, good-natured man, but without business aptitudes. He died at his lodgings in Upper Gloucester Street,
Regent's Park
Regent's Park (officially The Regent's Park) is one of the Royal Parks of London. It occupies of high ground in north-west Inner London, administratively split between the City of Westminster and the Borough of Camden (and historically betwee ...
, on 15 November 1822.
Publications
Among Debrett's publications were a new edition of ''The New Foundling Hospital for Wit'' (1784), 6 vols., and ''Asylum for Fugitive Pieces in Prose and Verse'' (1785–1788), 4 vols. At the end of the former work, ''The New Peerage'' (1784), 3 vols., is advertised. This had been Almon's, who published peerages, but is not known to have had any share in their compilation. He is also known as the publisher of the first British printing of the United States Constitution in 1787.
The first edition of Debrett's ''Peerage of England, Scotland, and Ireland, containing an Account of all the Peers'', 2 vols., was published in May 1802, with plates of arms, a second edition appeared in September 1802, a third in June 1803, a fourth in 1805, a fifth in 1806, a sixth in 1808, a seventh in 1809, an eighth in 1812, a ninth in 1814, a tenth in 1816, an eleventh in 1817, a twelfth in 1819, a thirteenth in 1820, a fourteenth in 1822, a fifteenth in 1823, which was the last edition edited by Debrett, and not published until after his death. The next edition came out in 1825. The first edition of ''The Baronetage of England, containing their Descent and Present State, by John Debrett'', 2 vols., appeared in 1808. For a time the ''British Imperial Calendar'' was edited by Debrett.
See also
*
Debrett's
Debrett's () is a British professional coaching company, publisher and authority on etiquette and behaviour, founded in 1769 with the publication of the first edition of ''The New Peerage''. The company takes its name from its founder, John Deb ...
References
*
*
*"Debrett, John Field (1752-1822)" in ''Chamber's Encyclopaedia''. International Learning Systems. 1968. Volume 4. Page 409
Google Books*The Editors of the American Heritage Dictionaries. "Debrett, John (c. 1750-1822)" in ''The Riverside Dictionary of Biography''. Houghton Mifflin. 2005
Page 220
*"Mr. John Debrett" (1822) Gentleman's Magazine, volume 92 (New Series, volume 15), part 2
p 474*"Debrett, John" The Annual Biography and Obituary for the Year 1823. London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme and Brown. 1823. Volume 7
Page 441
*Timperly, Charles Henry. A Dictionary of Printers and Printing. London: H Johnson. 1839. Pages 823 an
886
*Nichols, John Bowyer. Illustrations of the Literary History of the Eighteenth Century. J B Nichols and Sons. London. 1858. Volume 8
Page 497
*"A Toast to John Debrett" (1953) 49 The Listener 12
Google Books*"Debrett" in ''Fourth Leaders from the Times: A Selection from the Past Twelve Months''. Times Publishing Company. 1953. Page 77
Google Books*Charles Arnold-Baker. "Debrett, John" in ''The Companion to British History''. Routledge. 2015
Page 402
*"Debrett, John" (1881) Notes and Queries 46
Google Books*The Antiquarian Book Review Monthly. 1974. Volumes 1 and 2. Pages ccxxx and ccxxxi
Google Books*(1921) 70 The Bookseller 7
Google Books*Bamber Gascoigne. Encyclopedia of Britain. Macmillan. 1994. Page 179
Google Books*Cross, Nigel. The Common Writer. Cambridge University Press. 1985. Page 43
Google Books*Edinburgh Annual Register, 1822
Page 462
*"Register - Deaths" (Dec 1822) The Edinburgh Magazine and Literary Miscellany (The Scots Magazine, New Series), vol 9, p 752
*"Register - Deaths" (1822) 12 Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine 803
*Cyril Francis James Hankinson. My Forty Years with Debrett. Robert Hale Limited. London. 1963. Pages 11 to 14
Google Books*Committee of Council on Education. First Proofs of the Universal Catalogue of Books on Art. Chapman and Hall. London. 1870. Volume 1
Page 390
*Paul Hubert Smith. "Charles Thomson to John Debrett" in ''Letters of Delegates to Congress, 1774- 1789''. Library of Congress. 1994. Volume 21. Page 204
Google Books*Wilmarth Sheldon Lewis (ed). The Yale Edition of Horace Walpole's Correspondence with William Mason. Yale University Press. 1955. Volume 29. Page 213
Google Books
{{DEFAULTSORT:Debrett, John
1753 births
1822 deaths
English publishers (people)