John Bagford (1650/51,

Fetter Lane Fetter Lane is a street in the ward of Farringdon Without in the City of London, England. It forms part of the A4 road (England), A4 road and runs between Fleet Street at its southern end and Holborn. History The street was originally called F ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

– 5 May 1716,

Islington Islington ( ) is an inner-city area of north London, England, within the wider London Borough of Islington. It is a mainly residential district of Inner London, extending from Islington's #Islington High Street, High Street to Highbury Fields ...

) was an English

antiquarian An antiquarian or antiquary () is an aficionado or student of antiquities or things of the past. More specifically, the term is used for those who study history with particular attention to ancient artefacts, archaeological and historic si ...

, writer,

bibliographer Bibliography (from and ), as a discipline, is traditionally the academic study of books as physical, cultural objects; in this sense, it is also known as bibliology (from ). English author and bibliographer John Carter describes ''bibliograph ...

ballad A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and song of Great Britain and Ireland from the Late Middle Ages until the 19th century. They were widely used across Eur ...

-collector, bookseller, and biblioclast.

Life

Originally a

shoemaker Shoemaking is the process of making footwear. Originally, shoes were made one at a time by hand, often by groups of shoemakers, or '' cordwainers'' (sometimes misidentified as cobblers, who repair shoes rather than make them). In the 18th cen ...

by trade, his premises were in the

Great Turnstile Great Turnstile, Little Turnstile and New Turnstile are alleys between High Holborn and Lincoln's Inn Fields in London. They originally had turnstiles to prevent cattle from straying. They later became busy lanes and were built up with s ...

. That business was not successful so he became active in the book-trading market in

Holborn Holborn ( or ), an area in central London, covers the south-eastern part of the London Borough of Camden and a part (St Andrew Holborn (parish), St Andrew Holborn Below the Bars) of the Wards of the City of London, Ward of Farringdon Without i ...

from 1680, travelling to

Haarlem Haarlem (; predecessor of ''Harlem'' in English language, English) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the Provinces of the Nether ...

Leiden Leiden ( ; ; in English language, English and Archaism, archaic Dutch language, Dutch also Leyden) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Nethe ...

, and

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

on this business and aiding such collectors as John Moore,

Robert The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of ''Hrōþ, Hruod'' () "fame, glory, honour, prais ...

and Edward Harley, Sir

Hans Sloane Sir Hans Sloane, 1st Baronet, (16 April 1660 – 11 January 1753), was an Irish physician, naturalist, and collector. He had a collection of 71,000 items which he bequeathed to the British nation, thus providing the foundation of the British ...

Samuel Pepys Samuel Pepys ( ; 23 February 1633 – 26 May 1703) was an English writer and Tories (British political party), Tory politician. He served as an official in the Navy Board and Member of Parliament (England), Member of Parliament, but is most r ...

and

John Woodward John Woodward or ''variant'', may refer to: Sports *John Woodward (English footballer) (born 1947), former footballer *John Woodward (Scottish footballer) (born 1949), former footballer *Johnny Woodward (1924–2002), English footballer *John D ...

. Becoming friends with fellow antiquarians such as Thomas Hearne,

Humfrey Wanley Humfrey Wanley (21 March 1672 – 6 July 1726) was an English librarian, palaeographer and scholar of Old English, employed by manuscript collectors such as Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer, Robert and Edward Harley, 2nd Earl ...

and Thomas Baker, he published antiquarian tracts, contributed to others, and edited an edition of

Geoffrey Chaucer Geoffrey Chaucer ( ; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for ''The Canterbury Tales''. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He w ...

published by John Urry. Bagford, together with Humfrey Wanley and

John Talman John Talman (July 1677, King's Street, Westminster – 3 November 1726, London) was a British antiquary and art collector. He was the eldest son of William Talman (architect), William Talman and his wife Hannah. From 1709 to 1717 he toured in ...

, was one of three founder members of the reconstituted Society of Antiquaries, which first met at the Bear Tavern on the

Strand Strand or The Strand may refer to: Topography *The flat area of land bordering a body of water, a: ** Beach ** Shoreline * Strand swamp, a type of swamp habitat in Florida Places Africa * Strand, Western Cape, a seaside town in South Africa * ...

on 5 December 1707. Bagford's collection contained many fragments of books such as title-pages and this gave him a reputation as a

biblioclast Book burning is the deliberate destruction by fire of books or other written materials, usually carried out in a public context. The burning of books represents an element of censorship and usually proceeds from a cultural, religious, or politic ...

for which he was excoriated in

William Blades William Blades (5 December 182427 April 1890), English printer and bibliographer, was born at Clapham, London. Career In 1840 he was apprenticed to his father's printing business in London, being subsequently taken into partnership. The ...

' ''

The Enemies of Books ''The Enemies of Books'' is a book on biblioclasm and book preservation by the 19th-century bibliophile and book collector William Blades. The book was first published in 1880 and has been republished in different editions in 1881, 1888, 1896, ...

''. Likewise, a twentieth-century commentator has said how Bagford is mostly remembered today for "his ability to mangle any book he laid his hands on". Bagford's bound volumes of ballads, type face examples and other work, which he curated for his own use, form the British Library Bagford Collection, part of the

Harleian Library The Harleian Library, Harley Collection, Harleian Collection and other variants () is one of the main "closed" collections (namely, historic collections to which new material is no longer added) of the British Library in London, formerly the libra ...

. Bagford also collected material for Robert Harley, and found ballads on request for other customers including

. The ballards were published in 1878 by Joseph Woodfall Ebsworth.

The Gray's Inn elephant tooth and stone tool

In 1715 Bagford wrote about the

Gray's Inn Lane hand axe The Gray's Inn Lane Hand Axe is a pointed flint hand axe, found buried in gravel under Gray's Inn Lane, London, England, by pioneering archaeologist John Conyers in 1679, and now in the British Museum. The hand axe is a fine example from about ...

and the elephant tooth which had been found together by

John Conyers John James Conyers Jr. (May 16, 1929October 27, 2019) was an American politician of the Democratic Party who served as a U.S. representative from Michigan from 1965 to 2017. Conyers was the sixth-longest serving member of Congress and the lo ...

opposite "Black Mary's". He asserted that the elephant was probably introduced by

Claudius Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus ( ; ; 1 August 10 BC – 13 October AD 54), or Claudius, was a Roman emperor, ruling from AD 41 to 54. A member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, Claudius was born to Nero Claudius Drusus, Drusus and Ant ...

but that the tool had been made by human workmanship.Archaeology – The Lower Palaeolithic Age , A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 1 (pp. 11–21)
British-history.ac.uk (22 June 2003). Retrieved on 3 June 2012. He described this as a "British weapon" and as such he was one of the first to suggest that stone age tools were human-made, rather than produced by other causes (such as lightning).

References

External links

John Bagford
in the

Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...

(requires subscription)
Portraits of Bagford
at the

National Portrait Gallery National Portrait Gallery may refer to: * National Portrait Gallery (Australia), in Canberra * National Portrait Gallery (Sweden), in Mariefred *National Portrait Gallery (United States), in Washington, D.C. *National Portrait Gallery, London ...

, London
Article on Bagford
(giving an erroneous birth year) *Milton McC. Gatch, ‘John Bagford, Bookseller and Antiquary’, ''British Library'' ''Journal'' 12 (1986), pp. 150–17

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bagford, John 1650s births 1716 deaths Antiquarians from London British bibliographers English booksellers English book and manuscript collectors English song collectors Collectors from London

Life

The Gray's Inn elephant tooth and stone tool

See also

References

External links