James Crossley FSA (31 March 1800 – 1 August 1883) was an English lawyer, author, bibliophile and literary scholar who was President of the

Chetham Society The Chetham Society "for the publication of remains historic and literary connected with the Palatine Counties of Lancaster and Chester" is a text publication society and registered charity (No. 700047) established on 23 March 1843. History The ...

from 1847 to 1883 and President of the

Record Society of Lancashire and Cheshire A record, recording or records may refer to: An item or collection of data Computing * Record (computer science), a data structure ** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity ** Boot sector or boot record, ...

from 1878 to 1883.

Life

James Crossley was born in Halifax on 31 March 1800, and moved to

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

in 1816. Some of his early essays were published in the ''

Retrospective Review The ''Retrospective Review'' was an English periodical published from 1820 to 1828. It was founded by Henry Southern, who edited it to 1826, as well as contributing. From 1827 to 1828 Nicholas Harris Nicolas was co-editor with Southern. It conce ...

''. He perpetrated a literary fraud, the forging of ''Fragment on Mummies'', supposedly by

Sir Thomas Browne Sir Thomas Browne ( "brown"; 19 October 160519 October 1682) was an English polymath and author of varied works which reveal his wide learning in diverse fields including science and medicine, religion and the esoteric. His writings display a d ...

, that was a highly successful hoax. The bogus nature of the ''Fragment'', given by Crossley to

Simon Wilkin Simon Wilkin (27 July 1790, in Costessey − 1862, in London) was an England, English publisher, literary scholar and naturalist whose main interest was entomology. Life He was the second of the three children of William Wilkin Wilkin (1762–1799 ...

to publish, is now regarded as highly probable, but Crossley never precisely confessed to it. He set up the

in 1843, with Thomas Corser,

Francis Robert Raines Francis Robert Raines (22 February 1805 – 17 October 1878) was the Anglican vicar of Milnrow, Lancashire, known as an antiquary. He edited 23 volumes for the Chetham Society publications. He also transcribed 44 volumes of manuscripts. E ...

and others: it was named after

Humphrey Chetham Humphrey Chetham (10 July 1580 – 20 September 1653) was an English textile merchant, financier and philanthropist, responsible for the creation of Chetham's Hospital and Chetham's Library, the oldest public library in the English-speaking ...

and its purpose was to edit and publish historical works relating to Lancashire and Cheshire. In the following years he personally edited many of its publications: including the ''Autobiographical tracts'' of

John Dee John Dee (13 July 1527 – 1608 or 1609) was an English mathematician, astronomer, teacher, astrologer, occultist, and alchemist. He was the court astronomer for, and advisor to, Elizabeth I, and spent much of his time on alchemy, divination, ...

(1851), and the Diary of John Worthington. He served as President from 1847 until 1883. He was Vice-President of the

Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society The Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society, popularly known as the Lit. & Phil., is one of the oldest learned societies in the United Kingdom and second oldest provincial learned society (after the Spalding Gentlemen's Society). Promi ...

during the late 1850s. He is said to have collected 100,000 books at his residence in

Chorlton on Medlock Chorlton-on-Medlock is an inner city area of Manchester, England. Historically in Lancashire, Chorlton-on-Medlock is bordered to the north by the River Medlock, which runs immediately south of Manchester city centre. Its other borders roughly ...

and later Stocks House,

Cheetham Cheetham may refer to: People * Cheetham (surname) Places * Cheetham and Altona Important Bird Area, Melbourne, Australia * Cheetham Close, a megalith and scheduled ancient monument located in Lancashire, very close to the boundary with Greater ...

. He supplied the novelist William Ainsworth with historical material and ideas; he was in business with Ainsworth's father Thomas, and their friendship was lifelong.

References

*''Dictionary of National Biography'' (ed. L. Stephen); Crossley, James

External links

* *
Chetham Society
{{DEFAULTSORT:Crossley, James 1800 births 1883 deaths 19th-century English writers Writers from Halifax, West Yorkshire English book and manuscript collectors English male writers Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society Record Society of Lancashire and Cheshire Chetham Society Lawyers from Manchester Fellows_of_the_Society_of_Antiquaries_of_London

Life

References

Further reading

External links