University of Virginia Library

John Nichols, Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century (1812-1815), 3:716.

H. R. Plomer, A Dictionary of the Printers and Booksellers Who Were at Work in England Scotland and Ireland from 1726 to 1775 (1932), 14; Nichols, Literary Anecdotes, 3: 716-17.

For example, D. F. Foxon thinks that the Baldwin in William Diaper's Brent a Poem (Sarum: Printed for William Collins, and sold by T. Astley and R. Baldwin [1732?]) is "probably Richard senior." He is right; in fact Foxon is right in each of his Baldwin attributions as his work is based on careful examination of the imprints. But additional evidence dispels the need for conjecture (D. F. Foxon, English Verse 1701-1751: A Catalogue of Separately Printed Poems with Notes on Contemporary Collected Editions [1975], 2:153; Diaper's poem is Foxon D291). J. P. Feather lists Richard junior and his cousin Robert together under Richard Baldwin in his indexes to booksellers' prospectuses (J. P. Feather, comp., Book Prospectuses before 1801 in the John Johnson Collection [1976] and Book Prospectuses before 1801 in the Gough Collection [1980]).

His part in the London Magazine has been acknowledged though (D. F. McKenzie and J. C. Ross, A Ledger of Charles Ackers, Printer of The London Magazine [1968], 10-11).

216,980 entries, with over 1,000 libraries contributing as of May 1988. M. J. Crump of the ESTC/BL has provided invaluable assistance.

Searches of the database for imprints 1720-1759 were conducted in January 1987, for the 1760s in February 1987. It should be noted that ESTC does not include addresses in

the publishers subfield (except when the address is the only means of establishing the place of publication), and congers of more than seven proprietors usually include only the names of the first five; some Baldwin imprints may therefore be lost, particularly in early years when Richard did not have seniority in the Stationers' Company.

Roderick Cave thinks that the Baldwins printing in Jamaica in the 1720s and 1730s are related. I agree, but have been unsuccessful in finding them a place on the London/Berkshire family tree. (See Cave's "The First Printers in Jamaica," Amphora no. 27 [1977].) My search has not been expanded to include the lives of the seventeenth-century Richard Baldwin and his wife Abigail, or details of the lives of the cousins Henry and Robert Baldwin. (For authoritative discussion of the Baldwins as trade publishers see Michael Treadwell, "London Trade Publishers 1675-1750," The Library, 6th ser., 4 [1982]: 99-134; see also Leona Rostenberg, "Richard and Anne [sic] Baldwin, Whig Patriot Publishers," Publications of the Bibliographical Society of America 47 [1953]: 1-42; Stanley Morison describes Richard Baldwin's newspaper enterprises in The English Newspaper: Some Account of the Physical Development of Journals Printed in London between 1622 & the Present Day [1932], 57-64. For Henry Baldwin, see below, n. 37.)

In a holograph draft of his will, dated 28 July 1769, Richard Baldwin junior specifies that the interest from £150 be used "to Purchase five Great Coats, for five Poor Liverymen of the said [Stationers'] Company, every Year, who shall be actually above the Age of Sixty, and be given them on the 27th of November Old Stile, which is now the 8th of Decr. . . ." The date obviously had significance for Baldwin and the proximity to the anniversary of his christening suggests a birth day—unless of course he was commemorating St. Budoc's day? (Public Record Office [PRO], PROB 31/558/245, Exhibit A).

(Guildhall Library, London, MS 10,214). Dates of birth as well as christening are noted for most infants in the registers for St. Martin Ludgate at this time, but this additional information is lacking for the Richard Baldwin entry. An interval of about two weeks between birth and baptism—at least for healthy babies—was common.

Richard Baldwin senior's term of apprenticeship was from 2 August 1708 to 7 May 1716. He was not admitted to the Livery until 5 September 1732 (D. F. McKenzie, ed., Stationers' Company Apprentices 1701-1800 [1978], 374, 425).

(McKenzie, Apprentices 1701-1800, 17). Whiffen was turned over to Baldwin by William Green, bookbinder of Scalding Alley. Baldwin's address was still Creed Lane.

The first record of Richard Baldwin in this location is early 1725 when land tax for 1724 was collected. In this instance he paid 16s. as landlord, but nothing on personal property (Guildhall Library, MS 11,316/76).

The third and fourth editions of The Posthumous Works of Mr Samuel Butler (London: Printed for and sold by Richard Baldwin) and Diaper's Brent a Poem. The latter is only tentatively dated 1732.

While Richard Baldwin was listed as a taxpayer in St. Martin Ludgate from 1725 to 1731 he does not appear in the tax books in St. Paul's Churchyard (that is, in the parish of St. Faith under St. Paul's). This suggests a tenancy or a partnership.

Robert Baldwin was born 18 October and christened 3 November 1717 in the parish of St. Martin Ludgate (Guildhall Library, MS 10,213). He served his apprenticeship from 1 August 1732 to 7 August 1739 (McKenzie, Apprentices 1701-1800, 17).

Only six imprints that can be assigned to Richard Baldwin senior from 1732 to 1744 were listed in the ESTC database.

Richard Baldwin junior was Collins's apprentice from 16 September 1740; a premium of £25 was paid (PRO, IR I/50/133. See Christabel Dale, Wiltshire Apprentices and Their Masters 1710-1760 [1961], no. 93, and Ian Maxted, The British Book Trades, 1710-1777 [1983], no. 0365).

Benjamin Collins was christened 14 October 1715; Robert Baldwin 29 June 1737; and Henry Baldwin 27 December 1734 (Faringdon Parish Registers, Berkshire Record Office [BRO], D/P53/1/2).

William was christened 1 September 1705. William and Margaret Collins had earlier had another son William baptized 9 February 1701/02, who apparently died at five months.

The burial of this William Collins is recorded 22 July 1702 (Faringdon Parish Registers, BRO, D/P53/1/1).

Besides Diaper's poem in 1732, Collins is listed with Astley—as well as E. Easton and J. Knapton—in the imprint of A Dissertation in Vindication of the Antiquity of Stone Henge (1730), a pseudonymous work by Stamford Wallis; and, with Astley and five others, in the first two editions of Samuel Fancourt, The Nature and Expediency of the Gospel Revelation (1734).

Mrs. Herbert Richardson, "Wiltshire Newspapers—Past and Present. Part III. (Continued.) The Newspapers of South Wilts," Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine 41 (1919): 53-56.

I have discovered only eleven William Collins imprints, most of them pamphlets.

William Collins apparently died between 5 August 1740 when his name last appears in the Salisbury Journal colophon and the following week when Benjamin's name appears. Benjamin Collins has no published comment on his brother's disappearance.

Thomas Geare is found in Yeovil selling Squire's Genuine Grand Elixir in 1737 (Advertisement Salisbury Journal 19 December 1737). He makes his first appearance in the colophon as "Mr. Tho. Gear, Bookseller, and Distributor of this Paper in the Isle of Wight" 8 April 1740.

It is unlikely that the R. Baldwin at Newport in the Isle of Wight and so closely connected with Benjamin Collins was Richard Baldwin senior, who would have been about fifty years old in 1743. He was apparently still in business at this time, but almost certainly only in London. Richard Baldwin junior frequently omitted "junior" from his name, often signing "R Baldwin" with the initials distinctively intertwined. In addition, the start of Richard junior's London career coincides exactly with R. Baldwin's departure from the Isle of Wight.

(Guildhall Library, MS 11,316/130 and 133). Robert's wife was called Elizabeth and it is tempting to speculate that she is the same Elizabeth Jefferies—possibly the daughter of the bookseller Francis Jefferies (d. 1738/39)—near Stationers' Hall. Their first child, Samuel, was born 24 July 1743 and buried 15 August 1743; Francis Jefferies Baldwin was born 26 June 1744 and died January 1745/46. Two other children are recorded in the parish registers, Avis (b. 4 May 1746) and Elizabeth, who was born 20 March 1747/48, a little over a month after her father's death (Guildhall Library, MS 10,214).

ESTC records thirteen books that can be assigned to Robert on the basis of his address and/or associates.

Widow Baldwin is listed in the tax books of 1748/49 and 1749/50. Paul Stephens appears in the same location in 1750/51 (Guildhall Library, MS 11,316/148, 151, and 154).

For discussion of the London Magazine see McKenzie and Ross, Ledger of Charles Ackers, 4-15.

Again it is tempting to marry off one bookseller to the daughter of another. Thomas and Susanna Astley had a daughter Elizabeth born 29 October 1731 and Richard junior married a woman named Elizabeth, probably around 1750. Two of Richard and Elizabeth Baldwin's children were christened Thomas (b. 1753) and Susanna (b. 1759). Their other children were Elizabeth (b. 1751), Samuel Birt (b. 1755), and Henrietta (23 October-December 1764) (St. Faith under St. Paul's Parish Registers, Guildhall Library, MS 8885). It is possible that Joanna Baldwin, born in Faringdon, Berkshire in 1762 was another daughter (BRO, D/P53/1/2). Such marriages were common in the eighteenth century and in the Baldwin family. Two of Richard and Robert's sisters married booksellers: Anne (b. 20 July 1726) married one Pearson, Catherine (b. 6 February 1726) married Samuel Aris (b. 21 June 1724). Details of the marriage of Richard and Elizabeth (whatever her surname) have not been discovered.

These moves are recorded in the tax books for the wards of Cornhill and Faringdon Within (Guildhall Library MS 11,316/145 and 148). The fire is described as "one of the most terrible, before it was extinguished, that has happen'd since the Fire of London in 1666." Accompanying the account is a detailed map of the area (London Magazine [March 1748], 139-140). This seems to have been a serious setback for Astley.

One which might have been assigned on the basis of the ESTC search to the long-lived

Richard senior (he outlived both his sons and died in his mid-eighties) is The Best and Easiest Method of Preserving Uninterrupted Health to Extreme Old Age—unfortunately, an examination of the imprint shows that it was sold at the Rose in Paternoster, premises occupied by his son.

In 1754 the father would have been at least sixty years old. Nichols writes that Baldwin "had long retired from business" at his death in 1777 (Literary Anecdotes 3:716). He describes himself as "Citizen and Stationer of London but now of Birmingham" when he writes his will in 1771 (PRO, PROB 11/1027/6). Two of his daughters had moved to Birmingham by this time.

Robert also entered the September 1769 number. Richard Baldwin junior and partners—including Robert and/or Henry?—had entered the London Magazine in the register 1 December 1759 (the October and November numbers), 20 August 1759 (May, June, July), and 24 January 1760 (December, plus the 1759 Supplement). More evidence of the cousins' partnership may be found in Robert James's The Pocket Companion (1760?), "printed for R. & R. Baldwin No. 47 Pater Noster Row."

Richard Baldwin junior's apprentices, in chronological order, were John Staples of Salisbury (3 July 1750-2 August 1757), [Robert Baldwin, 1752-1759?], Moses Staples (4 March 1755-6 April 1762), John Bew (6 March 1759-8 April 1766), William Woodfall (7 April 1761-5 July 1768), John Hempstead (bound to Thomas Pote 1 July 1760, turned over to Baldwin 2 April 1765, freed 7 February 1769), and John Cooke (3 June 1766, turned over to Henry Baldwin 4 December 1770, freed 6 July 1773) (McKenzie, Apprentices 1701-1800, 37).

Henry was apprenticed to Edward Say 5 September 1749 to 7 December 1756, and was clothed the same day he obtained freedom (McKenzie, Apprentices 1701-1800, 308, 427). His will is at the PRO, PROB 11/1542/116. Robert Baldwin's is at PROB 11/1510/180.

Henry Baldwin merits study in his own right. There is brief discussion of his career in Nichols, Literary Anecdotes, 3:716; 8:478, and in McKenzie and Ross, Ledgers of Charles Ackers, 21, 23, 26-27.

It was normal practice in eighteenth-century imprints to list shareholders in their order of seniority within the Stationers' Company. It is easy to imagine situations in which this practice might break down—a compositor would not delay book production just because he did not know the precise ranking of names in the imprint, for example. In general, though, the idea works and provides additional support for Richard Baldwin junior. Terry Belanger discusses the practice in chapter three of his unpublished Columbia University dissertation "Booksellers' Sales of Copyright; Aspects of the London Book Trade; 1718-1768" (1970), 48-78 (UMI 71-17466).

For example, Elisha's Pottage at Gilgal, Spoiled by Symbolical Cookery at Oxford is "printed for the sons of the prophets" and sold by R. Baldwin; and Philip Miller's Gardeners Kalendar is printed for the author, and sold by John Rivington, C. Hitch and L. Hawes, R. Baldwin, and others—who look suspiciously like a copyholding conger. Miller's Gardeners Dictionary is registered to a similar group 30 March 1759.

A conger was a group of booksellers buying copies in partnership and as such was a means of sharing both the risks of uncertain, expensive titles and the profits of solid, steady-selling titles.

The tax books and sewer rate books make it clear that Robert succeeded Richard and that the Rose and number 47 were one and the same place. The tax collector making his rounds early 1770 had expected to find Richard Baldwin next door to Charles Lowth and Company in the Row. Instead, their names are crossed off, Lowth replaced by James Pitt, Richard by Robert (Guildhall Library, MS 10,316/211). The sewer rates began in 1771 and conclusively link the Rose with number 47. Robert bought more property nearby (Guildhall Library, MS 2137/3). Some of Richard's shares were sold after his death by Robert, apparently at a trade sale 5 February 1771. A catalogue of the sale itself is not extant, but a receipt for fifteen shares bought by Thomas Lowndes is in the Upcott Papers at the British Library (Add. MSS 38730, f. 12).

There is a discrepancy between the family tree outlined here and a draft of Richard Baldwin junior's will that should be noted. Richard Baldwin junior made a memorandum of a will in his own hand dated 28 July 1769. In August he gave this to his attorney, Basil

Herne of Paternoster Row, who drafted another version of the will, leaving several blanks for Richard to complete with names of trustees. Soon after, Richard took this draft to his home in Beaconsfield for his wife Elizabeth's approval, and returned it with proposed alterations, which Herne made in his hand. At some point, the attorney made several interlinear additions, some of them I believe inaccurate. For example, he wrongly places John Woodward, a trustee, in Faringdon, crosses that off, and replaces Faringdon with Leatherhead. More important, Herne adds that Benjamin, Henry, and Robert are Richard's brothers. In fact they were his cousins. Richard Baldwin junior does not describe them as brothers in his draft of the will, and the evidence of parish registers, other Baldwin wills, and John Nichols shows that the relationship was that of cousins. Richard Baldwin junior died after "a tedious indisposition" 15 March 1770, before he could approve a final version of his will (PRO, PROB 31/558/245).