In their excellent Dictionaries of the British book trade from 1668 to
1775 H. R. Plomer and G. H. Bushnell have provided reliable reference
books for all students. Such sturdy foundations can be built upon, however,
by the use of sources of information not previously examined or considered
relevant. This was abundantly proved by John Alden in his article 'Pills and
Publishing: Some Notes on the English Book Trade, 1660-1715'.[1] The new sources of information
which he
used were the advertisements for medicines and nostrums which once
formed an important part of booksellers' wares.
The present article provides information about Scottish
printers and booksellers from 1668 to 1775, supplemental to that in the
Dictionaries. Four sources of new material were utilised: the business
papers of a prominent Edinburgh bookseller; an account-book of a
University library; the local collection formed by a 19th-century bibliophile,
and the much read books of a public library of a small Scottish town. Any
synthesis into a single list of information derived from such diverse sources
obviously requires some preliminary account of their nature and
scope.
The first source was the papers of Thomas Ruddiman (1674-1757),
printer, controversialist and Keeper of the Advocates' Library.[2] One volume (MS 762) contains a
number
of inventories of the wealth and possessions of Ruddiman. Amongst the
assets are lists of debts owing to Ruddiman which contain the names of a
large number of booksellers who bought books from him —
alongside customers who were not engaged in the trade. We quote one of these lists
as a specimen:
List of Debts owing to Mr Thomas Ruddiman Keeper of the
Advocates
Library contain'd in his Leger for Books sold by him preceeding 1 Janry
1736. (MS 762 p. 7)
| 1. |
John Learmont Schoolmaster at Borrowstounness |
2 |
4 |
-- |
| 2. |
John Mair Mert. in Aberdeen |
3 |
9 |
10 |
| 3. |
Andrew Martin Bookseller in Edr |
2 |
14 |
-- |
| 4. |
Alexr Beck Bookseller in Perth |
1 |
19 |
-- |
| 5. |
Arthur Armstrong Bookseller in Kelso |
2 |
17 |
4 |
| 6. |
John Aitken Bookseller in Edr |
4 |
-- |
-- |
| 7. |
William Gray Bookbinder there |
4 |
17 |
6 |
| 8. |
Mr Alexr Walker Schoolmaster at Abdr |
3 |
8 |
6 |
| 9. |
John Finlayson Mert. in Stirling |
-- |
16 |
1 |
| 10. |
Gideon Crawford Bookr in Edinr |
1 |
6 |
7 |
| 11. |
Mr George Reid Schoolmaster in Bamff |
2 |
19 |
9 |
| 12. |
James Watson in Kinross |
-- |
3 |
10 |
| 13. |
George Paton in Linlithgow |
-- |
3 |
10 |
| 14. |
Mr James Robertson Minister in Edr |
4 |
5 |
6 |
| 15. |
James Brown Bookseller in Glasgow |
-- |
14 |
-- |
| 16. |
John Stedman Bookbinder in Kirkcaldy, to be onposted |
2 |
-- |
-- |
| 17. |
Alexr Mitchel Mert. in Perth |
2 |
12 |
3 |
| 18. |
Mr James McEwan Minister at Moffat |
5 |
10 |
2 |
| 19. |
David Randie Bookseller in Edinr about |
8 |
-- |
-- |
| 20. |
Alexr Mc Ulloch Archbedel of St. Andrews |
1 |
5 |
-- |
| 21. |
John Lidel in Falkirk |
-- |
8 |
3 |
| 22. |
Andrew Stalker Bookseller in Glasgow |
-- |
11 |
1 |
| 23. |
Mistris Maclean in Glasgow |
1 |
16 |
10 |
| 24. |
Baillie Gavin Hamilton Bookseller in Edinr |
9 |
13 |
8 |
| 25. |
Mr William Monro Bookseller there |
1 |
3 |
6 |
|
|
---------- |
|
|
69 |
-- |
6 |
|
But supposing that the 4.5.13.18 & 22 Articles will be lost,
which amount in all to |
7 |
19 |
10 |
|
|
---------- |
|
There will remain of Debt that may be good |
61 |
-- |
8 |
|
Thos Ruddiman |
The volume contains other lists dated 1736 and 1739 similar to that above.
After 1739 Ruddiman ceased to list debts for books as these were marked
in his ledger (note on MS p. 21). The Inventories continue down to 1750,
however, and there are one or two further references to booksellers in
connection with bonds, and 'bills and tickets'.
A second Ruddiman volume (MS 763) has provided less information
for the present study, but would be of very considerable interest to a
student of Ruddiman as a printer. It is a ledger book containing,
on the left-hand pages, weekly lists of printing expenses and other
disbursements from 1712 onwards. These detail the printing tasks on which
Ruddiman was engaged. In the case of large works, the signatures of the
sections printed in the week in question are usually given. The right-hand
pages contain notes of receipts but many are blank. One such page is filled
with 'Debts for Books sold by Thomas Ruddiman this 19 May 1736'. This
duplicates in the main the list already given but there are some
discrepancies.
[3] Also in this volume
are statements of agreements between Thomas Ruddiman, his brother
Walter and Robert Fleming in 1723, (fol. 132) and between Thomas
Ruddiman and Robert Freebairn in 1736 (fol. 72). They reveal that
Ruddiman's business associations were more complex than has hitherto been
recorded.
The General Book of Disbursements of Edinburgh
University Library was the second source used. It was started in 1693 but
unfortunately continues only until 1719. A MS of 43 pages, it contains
detailed statements of accounts paid for books and MSS for binding, for
freight, for postage and for shelving, along with some miscellaneous
purchases of pictures and other objects. Such items as drink-money for
servants and the cost of new scales and weights to guard against light
money are all faithfully recorded as having been disbursed. Perhaps the
most mysterious entry of all is one in the year 1696 where fourpence was
expended 'for carying over a Greenland Boat' (MS p. 7). In the first three
or four years the Disbursements book was also used as a receipt book and
booksellers appended their signatures to paid accounts. But this practice is
not continued. An example of a set of more typical entries follows: (MS p.
21).
- 13 July 1703 pd then to Mr David freebairn Bookseller for Lamy
his concordantia del harmonia Evangelica 4to.Tit. 15
00- 0
- to Geo. Mosman for Kennets lives of ye greek poets 8vo
03-00 -0
- to John Vallange for Tillotsons posthumous sermons
9. 10. 11. 12 14-00 -0
The Disbursement book reveals that the library bought books from private
individuals as well as from the booksellers and that various people were
commissioned to buy books on its behalf at auctions. There are also records
of purchases from London and from Holland.
This valuable record was not restarted until 1762 and in the later lists no
booksellers' names are given.
[4]
The third source is of a different nature altogether. It deals
specifically with the printing and publishing activities of Dundee, the
Scottish seaport city, and consists both of books and of secondary MS
material. A. C. Lamb, a Dundee bibliophile, gifted his large collection of
books of local interest to the city library. The collection was used by a
Dundee journalist, T. Y. Miller, in his investigations of Dundee printers
and booksellers and he in turn gave to the library his MS papers dealing
with the subject. Two points should be noticed about the Lamb collection
and the T. Y. Miller MSS. They carry our knowledge of Dundee publishing
up to the end of the 19th Century and thus the bulk of the material they
contain is untouched here. Secondly, Miller published two short journalistic
accounts of Dundee printing and bookselling.[5] Neither of these is comparable to
his MS
papers either for completeness or accuracy.
The writers of this paper felt that it would be valuable if the material
derived from the above three sources could be supplemented — and
in
some cases corroborated—from the imprints and colophons of actual
copies of books published within their period. They decided to examine a
small collection from this point of view. It seemed unwise to comb the
collections of a big University Library, for it would be almost inevitable
that much of the work would merely repeat Plomer and Bushnell.
Accordingly the fourth source of information chosen was the collection of
books formerly belonging to the now defunct McIntosh Public Library of
Dunkeld in Perthshire.[6] Its
inaccessibility made it unlikely that it had ever been systematically
examined by any historian of the book trade. The books numbered roughly
2000 and belonged to the period 1680 to 1830. A large proportion of them,
including a rather impressive collection of early 18th Century pamphlets
printed in London, lay outside the scope of this investigation. But the
residue was significant and it is noteworthy that although the MS sources
used were of very considerable interest they provided
much less material than the McIntosh collection. The McIntosh Library had
its origin in a collection of books donated in 1811 by the Rev. Donald
McIntosh, a priest of the Scottish Episcopal Church and one of the last of
the non-jurant clergymen.
[7]
The third and fourth of these sources were by far the easier to handle
and presented no great problems of interpretation. But the two primary
manuscript sources had to be used with considerable care in view of the
aims of the investigation, which were :-
1. To record the names, place of business and limits of activity of
booksellers and printers NOT previously recorded by Bushnell and Plomer.
Such additional entries followed the pattern of a normal Dictionary entry.
Forty new names were found and listed.[8]
2. To supplement existing entries in the Dictionaries and to correct
any errors noted. Such supplementation was confined to detail normally
found in a Dictionary entry, and can be summarised as follows. (a)
Extension of known dates of activity. (b) Extension of previous knowledge
of type of activity. If, for example, a man was previously known as a
bookseller, evidence that he was also a bookbinder was noted. (c)
Addresses and places of business previously unrecorded. (d) Evidence of
partnerships and contracts with other booksellers and publishers.
Where new names are included from the two primary MS sources it has
been done only where the person concerned is described as
a
bookseller, stationer etc. Occasionally there is confirmation from another
source that a person not so described was in fact a bookseller.
For example, George Paton of Linlithgow appears in Ruddiman's lists
without any indication of his profession, but we know he was, from the
imprint of an examined book. It would be tempting in many cases to
assume that a person who owed Ruddiman money or who sold books to
Edinburgh University Library was a professional bookseller, but never safe
to do so. "Alexdr Mc Ulloch, Archbedel of St. Andrews", in the Ruddiman
list quoted is a case in point. One of his successors in the post of
Archbeadle to the University, Patrick Bower, is known to have also been
bookseller to the University.[9] And
we know there was a Wm McCulloch, Archbeadle of St. Andrews, who
acted in 1738 as the
agent appointed by the University to receive on their behalf the
copyright books to which it was entitled from the Keeper of Stationers
Hall.
[10] Ruddiman himself was a
University agent for the receipt of copyright books. But the evidence is not
conclusive. The University disbursement book material has the added
difficulty that the city in which the bookseller operated is not given.
Edinburgh would be the natural place and this can be confirmed for many
of the names. But in the case of one or two it has been assumed. The
assumption is indicated in the lists. Some additional material from other
sources has been added and in these cases the locus of the book or MS
examined has been given in the actual entry. There are 70 entries supplying
supplementary material which added to the 40 new entries give a total of
110.
