Joseph Harding (1783 - 1843)

Born 26 Jun 1783 in St James's, Westminster, Middlesex, England

Ancestors

Husband of Sarah (Webb) Harding — married 8 Dec 1819 in Finchley St Mary, Middlesex

Descendants

Died 19 Dec 1843 at age 60 in East End, Finchley, Middlesex, England

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Joseph Harding is Notable.

Biography

Joseph Harding, of Finchley and Pall Mall, Westminster, noted print collector, publisher, printer and bookseller.

He was b. St James’s, Westminster, Middlesex, 26 Jun 1783, bapt. St James’s, 21 July; receives £2,000 under his father’s will, 1808; m. (resident at St Luke’s, Old St., Middlesex) at Finchley St Mary, 8 Dec 1819 (bond 30 Nov) Sarah Webb (b. New York, US, c. 1800; living Finchley, 1841; d. Norwood, Surrey, 13 May 1862; will resworn Principal Registry, 17 June 1862, at under £2,000 by the oath of Edward Harding, nephew, of Ryder St., St James’s, one of the executors), living with her unm. dau. Emily at Marine Parade, Brighton 1861; she was dau. of Joseph Dudley Webb, of Cross St., Islington, merchant and stockbroker (b. Maryborough, Queen’s Co., Ireland, 1 Sept 1771; d. 16 Felix Terrace, Islington, 6 Feb 1844, bur. Highgate)^[1] by his wife Harriet Caroline Hill (d. Islington, 11 Jan 1844, bur. Highgate, 18 Jan), dau. of Abel Hill, of Bray, co. Wicklow, Ireland.

Publisher and bookseller

Harding joined the firm of Lackington, Allen & Co., of Finsbury Square (‘The Temple of the Muses’), publishers and booksellers (at the time considered to operate the biggest bookshop in the world), of which he became partner 1813, and after participating in a succession of partnerships he became chief partner on the retirement of Geo. Lackington^[2] in 1826, moving to 4 Pall Mall East and trading under the name of Harding & Lepard.^[3] He gave evidence to Committee of House of Commons on the Copyright Act, Apr-May 1818. Books co-published under his imprint included Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein 1818, Lodge’s Portraits of Illustrious Personages, Wood’s Athenae Oxonienses and Dugdale’s Monasticon.^[4]

"A ‘shrewd clever man of business’, Harding ‘obtained a great fortune by successful speculations in works by subscription’, in particular Edmund Lodge’s Portraits. In 1834 Harding fell out with his partner John Lepard over Harding’s accusation that Lepard attempted to issue, without Harding’s co-operation, a cheap edition of the Portraits, a charge Lepard denied."^[5]

Print collector

Harding was a noted collector and connoisseur of prints and engravings, with many opportunities to buy at the famous auctions of the 1830s. He purchased the Roxburghe Ballads in 1812 for £477.^[6][7][8] Following the sale of part of his collection to the dealers, William & George Smith of 24 Lisle St., after his stroke in 1841, they sold 231 of his prints to the British Museum In London.^[9] There was a dispersal sale of his prints at Christie’s on 18 June 1862 after his death, when the British Museum made further purchases. Today many of his 'superb' prints, including 21 Rembrandts, are retained in the national collection.^[10][11]

Death and will

Joseph Harding retired with ‘a very handsome fortune’ in 1836.^[12] He was ‘attacked by apoplexy and paralysis’ on 1 June, 1841, and continuing ‘helpless and hopeless’,^[13] he d. East End, Finchley, Middlesex, on 19 Dec 1843, aged 60 (bur. Finchley churchyard, 27 Dec), will dated 7 July 1841 in National Archives (PCC 11/1991/241), pr. 3 Jan 1844 by Sir Henry Ellis, Rev. Dr Bliss and his nephew Benjamin Harding, executors.

"In addition to his wife, Sarah, a daughter of Joseph Webb and Harriett (Hill) Webb of Liverpool and London, and his nephew, Benjamin, Harding named as his executors Sir Henry Ellis, librarian at the British Museum, and the Revd Philip Bliss, registrar of Oxford University. He directed that money for the purchase of mourning rings be given to his partner George Lackington and to his friends the Revd Bulkeley Bandinel, librarian of the Bodleian, and Robert Gunter, MP for Yorkshire. Ellis and Bandinel edited Harding’s expensive editions of Dugdale's Monasticon and History of St Paul’s Cathedral. Harding published Bliss’s edition of Anthony Wood’s Athenae Oxonienses."^[14]

Portrait

Portrait likeness by William Derby, illustrated.

Issue

He left issue 3 sons and 2 daus:

1. Joseph Harding, b. Pall Mall, London 22 Jul 1821, bapt St James’s, Westminster, 10 Aug; drowned off Algiers on his passage from India, 23 Jan 1857 (Solicitors’ Journal; London Morning News).
2. Henry Harding, auctioneer (1851), of Lancing and of Worthing, Sussex; b. Finchley, Middlesex 19 Nov 1822, bapt St Mary, Hendon, 17 Dec 1822; Finchley St Mary, 18 Aug 1823; m. West Hackney, 13 Jan 1859 Harriet Burditt (bapt. Warkton, Northants, 23 Nov 1823; widow res. Brighton 1871 census), dau. of Thomas Austin Burditt, farmer of Warkton, late of Islington (insolvent debtor, London Gazette, 1834); d. Pimlico 27 Nov 1869 (will pr. 17 Jul 1890), having had a dau., Emily Grant Harding, b. Croydon, Surrey, Oct 1848.
3. Frances Harding, b. at Finchley, Middlesex, 8, bapt. Finchley St Mary 31, Aug 1824; m. Holy Trinity, Finchley, 8 May 1849, George Friday Neame, of Grange Lodge, Croydon, merchant (b. Harbledown, Canterbury, 24 Feb 1825; d. 18 Wetherby Gdns, Kensington 12 Apr 1913; bur. Kidmore, Oxon); she d. at Rose Hill, Caversham, Oxon, 1 July 1888 (bur. Kidmore, Oxon; will pr. PPR 20 Aug at £1,956), having had 10 children. See sub Neame.
4. Edmund Harding, accountant of Gresham St., b. 25 May 1826; bapt Finchley St Mary 19 June; witness at the marriage of his sister Frances 1849; godfather to Laurence Neame 1853; execr to his cousin George Harding; emigrated to Sandhurst, Victoria, Australia, c. 1873; m. Ripon, Yorks., 14 Apr 1858 Mary Williamson (b. Ripon, 1829; d. Brighton, Sussex, 3 Aug 1877), dau. of Thomas Williamson (b. 1792), mayor of Ripon 1842, banker and mfr., of Fryston, Yorkshire, by Hannah Poulter (b. Huntingdon, 26 Nov 1792; related to family of Oliver Cromwell); and d. Bendigo Hospital, Victoria, Australia 22 Mar 1884.
5. Emily Harding, b. 31 Oct 1829, bapt. Hendon St Mary, 23 Nov; witness at the marriage of her sister Frances; godmother to Alice Harding Neame 1851; unm. resident in Paddington, 1871; res. in Brighton, 1881; d. unmarried, Brighton, 9 Mar 1887 (will pr. 28 Jan following by Alice Harding Neame, niece, of Rose Hill, Caversham, Oxon, and Jas Glegg).

Cited from Nicholas Mander, Borromean Rings, op. cit.

Sources

1. ↑ see 'Webb of Caheragh House', Burke’s Landed Gentry, 1852 for this family
2. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Lackington
3. ↑ https://www.frankensteindiaries.com/2018/01/publisher-of-frankenstein-first-edition-lackington/
4. ↑ See his obituary in Gentleman’s Magazine, 1844, p. 101
5. ↑ Lodge's Portraits of Illustrious Personages, vol. 1, 1834 ed., p. 15
6. ↑ Reliquiae Herniae: The Remains of Thos Hearne, 1869
7. ↑ [1]
8. ↑ https://www.bl.uk/collection-guides/ballads#
9. ↑ Landmarks in Print Collecting, p.294, Appendix J
10. ↑ https://research.britishmuseum.org/research/search_the_collection_database/term_details.aspx?bioId=484
11. ↑ Antony Griffiths, Landmarks in Print Collecting: connoisseurs and donors at the British Museum, BM, 1996
12. ↑ Obituary in Gentleman’s Magazine, 1844, p. 101
13. ↑ George Bish Webb, ‘A Family Record’, 1850, with continuations by George Webb, 1870
14. ↑ Lodge's Portraits of Illustrious Personages, vol. 1, 1834 ed., p. 15

• Nicholas Mander, Borromean Rings: The Genealogy of the Mander Family, 2011

• Obituary in Gentleman’s Magazine, 1844, p. 101; purchased Roxburghe Ballads in 1812 for £477 (Reliquiae Herniae: The Remains of Thos Hearne, 1869)

• Antony Griffiths, Landmarks in Print Collecting: connoisseurs and donors at the British Museum, BM, 1996

• Nicholas Stogdon on the website [retrieved Apr 2011] of the British Museum. https://research.britishmuseum.org/research/search_the_collection_database/term_details.aspx?bioId=484

• George Bish Webb, ‘A Family Record’, 1850, with continuations by George Webb, 1870. Unpublished family record.

• Guildhall Library, Sun Fire Office MS 11936/521/1080463 26 September 1828: ‘Insured: Joseph Harding 4 Pall Mall East bookseller: Other property or occupiers: 26 Suffolk Street (Messrs Harding and Lepard, booksellers)’.

• ‘Will of George Lackington of Marylebone, Middlesex’, 12 April 1844 PROB 11/1997.

• ‘Will of John Lepard of Saint Matthew Bethnal Green, Middlesex’, 30 December 1826 PROB 11/1719.

• ‘Will of Joseph Harding of Finchley, Middlesex’, 3 January 1844 PROB 11/1991.

• ‘Bliss, Philip (1787–1857)’, ODNB.

• ‘Lackington, George (1777–1844)’, ODNB.

• E. Lodge, Portraits of Illustrious Personages of Great Britain 5 vols (Harding, Mavor, and Lepard, 1834 edn).

• Burke’s Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry (1847), vol. 2, p. 1543.