William Upcott
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William Upcott (1779–1845) was an English librarian and antiquary.


Life

Born in
Oxfordshire Oxfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the north west of South East England. It is a mainly rural county, with its largest settlement being the city of Oxford. The county is a centre of research and development, primarily ...
, he was the illegitimate son of
Ozias Humphry Ozias Humphry (or Humphrey) (8 September 1742 – 9 March 1810) was a leading English painter of portrait miniatures, later oils and pastels, of the 18th century. He was elected to the Royal Academy in 1791, and in 1792 he was appointed ''P ...
by Delly Wickens, daughter of an
Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
shopkeeper, called Upcott from the
maiden name When a person (traditionally the wife in many cultures) assumes the family name of their spouse, in some countries that name replaces the person's previous surname, which in the case of the wife is called the maiden name ("birth name" is also used ...
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
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 ...
of Pall Mall, and then of John Wright of
Piccadilly Piccadilly () is a road in the City of Westminster, London, to the south of Mayfair, between Hyde Park Corner in the west and Piccadilly Circus in the east. It is part of the A4 road that connects central London to Hammersmith, Earl's Court, ...
. While at Wright's shop he attracted the attention of
John Ireland John Benjamin Ireland (January 30, 1914 – March 21, 1992) was a Canadian actor. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his performance in ''All the King's Men'' (1949), making him the first Vancouver-born actor to receive an Oscar nomin ...
,
William Gifford William Gifford (April 1756 – 31 December 1826) was an English critic, editor and poet, famous as a satirist and controversialist. Life Gifford was born in Ashburton, Devon, to Edward Gifford and Elizabeth Cain. His father, a glazier and ...
, and the writers of the '' Anti-Jacobin'' who met there, and he witnessed the scuffle there between Gifford and
John Wolcot John Wolcot (baptised 9 May 1738 – 14 January 1819) was an English satirist, who wrote under the pseudonym of "Peter Pindar". Life Wolcot was baptised at Dodbrooke, near Kingsbridge, Devon. In the parish register, his surname was spelled " ...
, helping to eject Wolcot. When
Richard Porson Richard Porson (25 December 1759 – 25 September 1808) was an English classical scholar. He was the discoverer of Porson's Law. The Greek typeface '' Porson'' was based on his handwriting. Early life Richard Porson was born at East Ruston, n ...
was made librarian of the
London Institution The London Institution was an educational institution founded in London in 1806 (not to be confused with the British Institution for Promoting the Fine Arts in the United Kingdom founded the previous year, with which it shared some founders). It ...
, Upcott was appointed as his assistant (23 April 1806), and he continued in the same position under
William Maltby William Maltby (1763–1854) was an English solicitor, librarian and bibliographer, known also as a close friend of the poet Samuel Rogers. Early life Born in London on 17 January 1763, he was youngest of the ten children of Brough Maltby, a whol ...
. On 30 May 1834 he resigned his office. Upcott spent the rest of his days at 102 Upper Street,
Islington Islington () is a district in the north of Greater London, England, and part of the London Borough of Islington. It is a mainly residential district of Inner London, extending from Islington's High Street to Highbury Fields, encompassing the ar ...
. The house in his time was called "Autograph Cottage"; among many
autograph An autograph is a person's own handwriting or signature. The word ''autograph'' comes from Ancient Greek (, ''autós'', "self" and , ''gráphō'', "write"), and can mean more specifically: Gove, Philip B. (ed.), 1981. ''Webster's Third New Inter ...
s collected by Upcott was that of
William Blake William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his life, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual art 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 (13 May 1775 – 5 February 1867) was an English lawyer, remembered as a diarist. He took part in founding London University. Life Robinson was born in Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, third and youngest son of Henry Robinson (17 ...
and
Dawson Turner Dawson Turner (18 October 1775 – 21 June 1858) was an English banker, botanist and antiquary. He specialized in the botany of cryptogams and was the father-in-law of the botanist William Jackson Hooker. Life Turner was the son of Jam ...
). In imitation of the plan adopted by
William Oldys William Oldys (14 July 1696 – 15 April 1761) was an English antiquarian and bibliographer. Life He was probably born in London, the illegitimate son of Dr William Oldys (1636–1708), chancellor of Lincoln diocese. His father had held the ...
, he fitted up a room with shelves and a hundred receptacles into which he dropped cuttings on different subjects. The
Guildhall Library The Guildhall Library is a public reference library specialising in subjects relevant to London. It is administered by the Corporation of London, the government of the City of London, which is the historical heart of London, England. The library ...
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

The walls in Upcott's rooms, whether at the London Institution or at his home in Islington, were covered with paintings, drawings, and prints, most of them by
Thomas Gainsborough Thomas Gainsborough (14 May 1727 (baptised) – 2 August 1788) was an English portrait and landscape painter, draughtsman, and printmaker. Along with his rival Sir Joshua Reynolds, he is considered one of the most important British artists of ...
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 (1803–1838) was an English engraver. 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 a ...
's ''Historical and Literary Curiosities''. Many of the autograph letters were bought for the nation, and became Add MSS 15841-15957 at the
British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...
. They are now part of 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 ...
collections.These volumes, 116 in number, comprise British Library Add MSS 15841–15854, albums mostly of foreign princes and scholars; 15856, papers of John Nicholas; 15857–15858 and 15948–15951, Browne and Evelyn papers; 15859–15864, Thomas Burton's diary (edited by J. T. Rutt); 15865, Curtius letters, 1643–7; 15866–15890, Dayrolles correspondence; 15891, letters received by Sir Christopher Hatton; 15892–15898, Hyde correspondence (edited by
Samuel Weller Singer Samuel Weller Singer (1783–1858) was an English author and scholar on the work of William Shakespeare. He is also now remembered as a pioneer historian of card games. Life Born in London, he was son of Thomas Singer, a feather and artificial- ...
); 15913, ‘The Snuff-Box,’ a poem by
William Shenstone William Shenstone (18 November 171411 February 1763) was an English poet and one of the earliest practitioners of landscape gardening through the development of his estate, '' The Leasowes''. Biography Son of Thomas Shenstone and Anne Penn, ...
; 15918–15919, catalogue raisonné of auction catalogues, 1676–1824; 15920, catalogue of his own books; 15921–15929, collections on topography of Great Britain in continuation of his printed volumes; 15930–15932, Oxfordshire collections; 15936, Worsley letters, 1714–22; 15937–15946, letters of foreign princes and English statesmen; 15947, Prior's papers while at Paris; 15952–15954, papers on the French army in Italy, 1799–1813; 15855 and 15955–15957, Anson papers.
The sketch-books of Ozias Humphry (Add MSS 15958–15969) were purchased by
Thomas Rodd Thomas Rodd (1763–1822) was an English bookseller, antiquarian and Hispanist; Rodd purchased some Greek manuscripts for the British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the ...
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 (16 August 1658 – 16 October 1725) was an antiquarian, who was born in Leeds and is widely credited with being the first historian of that city. Besides being a merchant, he was a nonconformist, fellow of the Royal Society, diar ...
(which was edited by Joseph Hunter) 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 The Bodleian Library () is the main research library of the University of Oxford, and is one of the oldest libraries in Europe. It derives its name from its founder, Sir Thomas Bodley. With over 13 million printed items, it is the second- ...
. Many of Humphry's works passed at Upcott's death to his friend, Charles Hampden Turner. In 1836 Upcott privately printed a brief catalogue of his letters, manuscripts, and state papers, in the hope that they might be bought for some public institution. One of his major finds was the original manuscript of
Thomas Chatterton Thomas Chatterton (20 November 1752 – 24 August 1770) was an English poet whose precocious talents ended in suicide at age 17. He was an influence on Romantic artists of the period such as Shelley, Keats, Wordsworth and Coleridge. Althoug ...
's extravaganza ''Amphitryon'', which he chanced upon in the shop of a city cheesemonger. It 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 The ''Diary'' of John Evelyn (31 October 1620 – 27 February 1706), a gentlemanly Royalist and ''virtuoso'' of the seventeenth century, was first published in 1818 (2nd edition, 1819) under the title ''Memoirs Illustrative of the Life and Writing ...
'', brought out by William Bray 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 ( or ; 12 August 1774 – 21 March 1843) was an English poet of the Romantic school, and Poet Laureate from 1813 until his death. Like the other Lake Poets, William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Southey began as a ra ...
was indebted to Upcott for the transcript of
Thomas Malory Sir Thomas Malory was an English writer, the author of '' Le Morte d'Arthur'', the classic English-language chronicle of the Arthurian legend, compiled and in most cases translated from French sources. The most popular version of '' Le Morte d' ...
's ''King Arthur'' (1817), and 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.


Notes

;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Upcott, William 1779 births 1845 deaths English librarians English antiquarians People from Oxfordshire (before 1974)