The History of the Catnach Press: at Berwick-Upon-Tweed, Alnwick and Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, in Northumberland, and Seven Dials, LondonHindley, Charles
History
The History of the Catnach Press: at Berwick-Upon-Tweed, Alnwick and Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, in Northumberland, and Seven Dials, London
Hindley, Charles
Ballads -- Publishing -- England -- History -- 19th century; Ballads, English -- England -- Bibliography; Catnach, James, 1792-1841; Chapbooks -- Publishing -- England -- History -- 19th century; Children's literature -- Publishing -- England -- History -- 19th century; England -- Imprints; Printing
SIR,--Your townsman, Mr. George Skelly, in the concluding chapter of
his excellent article of "John and James Catnach," makes mention of my
name as being engaged in preparing for publication "The Life and Times
of James Catnach, formerly of Seven Dials, printer of ballads, &c."
Such being the fact, I shall therefore be glad if you would allow me
sufficient space in the _Alnwick Journal_, to ask your readers and
correspondents who possess any additional facts, sayings, doings, or
letters of the two Catnachs--John and James--to supply me with the
same, when I shall have much pleasure in assigning to any such
contributions a proper chronological place in my work, and of
acknowledging the source of the same, while all documents or books
will be faithfully returned by yours, &c., &c.,
CHARLES HINDLEY.
* * * * *
JOHN AND JAMES CATNACH.--It will be seen by a correspondence in
another page that Mr. Charles Hindley, of Brighton, is preparing for
publication the "Life and Times of James Catnach," and he respectfully
solicits from our readers any facts and scraps they may be possessed
of, also the loan of any letters or books suitable for the extention
of the life of the celebrated and withal eccentric printer, who,
although a native of Alnwick, settled in London, and occupied a
peculiar position for upwards of a quarter of a century in the Seven
Dials district. We trust that our correspondent may be enabled to add
to his all ready large stock of material in hand a few more items, by
the publication of his letter in our columns. Mr. Hindley's work,
will, it is expected, be published by Messrs. Reeves and Turner, of
the Strand, London, during the coming autumn.
The above letter to the _Alnwick Journal_ was the means of obtaining
another valuable correspondent--Mr. George H. Thompson, also of Alnwick,
who volunteered his services to aid and assist, to the best of his time
and ability, in supplying all the information he possessed or could glean
from his friends and acquaintances in the good old borough of Alnwick, or
the county at large. And _inter alia_ copied out _verbatim_ from the
Parish Register of Baptisms in St. Michael's Church all the entries in
connection with the family of John and Mary Catnach and which will be
found _in extenso_ at pages 2-3 of this work.
Mr. George Skelly and Mr. G. H. Thompson are fortunate by their residence
in Alnwick in having had the acquaintance and friendship of the late Mr.
Mark Smith--James Catnach's fellow apprentice, Mr. Thomas Robertson, Mr.
Tate, the local historian, and several other _Alnwick-folk_. And they have
made the best possible use of the circumstance to supply us with
information on the subject of our enquiry.
Recently Mr. Geo. Skelly has forwarded to us an original trade invoice of
John Catnach of which we here append a _fac-simile_ copy:--
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