Thomas Payne (c. 1718 – 1799) was an important bookseller and publisher in 18th-century London.

Life

Payne was born in

Brackley Brackley is a market town and civil parish in the West Northamptonshire unitary authority area of Northamptonshire, England. It is on the borders with Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire, east-southeast of Banbury, north-northeast of Oxford, and ...

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire ( ; abbreviated Northants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Leicestershire, Rutland and Lincolnshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshi ...

. From 1750 he ran a shop at Mews Gate in Castle Street near Leicester Fields (the site is now occupied by the

National Gallery The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of more than 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current di ...

). The premises were notoriously small, but popular with the literati of that period. Referred to as the "Literary Coffee House", the shop became a sort of club during the day for discussions on all subjects. Patrons included

George Steevens George Steevens (10 May 1736 – 22 January 1800) was an English writer and Shakespearean scholar. He was best known for collaborating with Samuel Johnson and Isaac Reed to produce '' The Plays of Shakespeare with the Corrections and Illustrati ...

Thomas Crofts The Reverend and Learned Thomas Crofts FRS FSA (1722 – 8 November 1781) was a British bibliophile, Anglican priest, Fellow of the Royal Society and European traveller. Early life Crofts was born in Monmouth, Wales and was the son of John Cr ...

John Hoole John Hoole (December 1727 – 2 August 1803) was an English translator, the son of Samuel Hoole (born 1692), a mechanic, and Sarah Drury (c. 1700 – c. 1793), the daughter of a Clerkenwell clockmaker. He became a personal friend of Samuel Johnso ...

and

Thomas Tyrwhitt Thomas Tyrwhitt (; 27 March 173015 August 1786) was an English writer, classical scholar, and critic. He was best known for his edition of The Canterbury Tales in which he modernized the language and provided extensive notes as well as a glossa ...

. Payne issued sale catalogues on a regular basis, as did many of his contemporaries, and these are now good sources of information about prices, popular books, bookbinding, and other aspects of 18th-century book history. Payne's daughter Sarah married James Burney, a naval officer and brother of novelist

Frances Burney Frances Burney (13 June 1752 – 6 January 1840), also known as Fanny Burney and later Madame d'Arblay, was an English satirical novelist, diarist and playwright. In 1786–1790 she held the post of "Keeper of the Robes" to Charlotte of Meckle ...

, some of whose work Payne had published. He retired to

Finchley Finchley () is a large district of north London, England, in the London Borough of Barnet. north of Charing Cross, nearby districts include: Golders Green, Muswell Hill, Friern Barnet, Whetstone, London, Whetstone, Mill Hill and Hendon. It is ...

in 1790 leaving the business in the hands of his son, also Thomas Payne (1752–1831). He is buried at St. Mary’s church in

, north London.

References

*Stoker, David. ‘Payne, Thomas (1716x18 –1799)’, ''

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

'', Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004. *

Victoria County History The Victoria History of the Counties of England, commonly known as the Victoria County History (VCH), is an English history project which began in 1899 with the aim of creating an encyclopaedic history of each of the historic counties of Englan ...

Middlesex Vol VI Finchley 1710s births 1799 deaths 18th-century English businesspeople Bookshops in London English booksellers People from Brackley {{England-bio-stub