John Bagford
John Bagford | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1650/51 Fetter Lane, London, England |
| Died | 1716-05-05 Islington, London, England |
| Occupation(s) | Antiquarian, bibliographer, writer, collector of ballads, bookseller, biblioclast |
| Known for | Collection of ballads and book fragments; early recognition of man-made stone tools |
John Bagford (born 1650/51 in Fetter Lane, London – died 5 May 1716, Islington) was a notable English antiquarian, bibliographer, writer, collector of ballads, bookseller, and biblioclast.
Life
Initially working as a shoemaker with a shop in the Great Turnstile, Bagford transitioned into the book trade around 1680 in Holborn after his first enterprise did not succeed. He made journeys to cities such as Haarlem, Leiden, and Amsterdam to assist prominent collectors including John Moore, the Harley Earls of Oxford, Sir Hans Sloane, Samuel Pepys, and John Woodward. Bagford partnered with distinguished antiquarians like Thomas Hearne, Humfrey Wanley, and Thomas Baker, contributing to the publication of antiquarian literature and editing an edition of Geoffrey Chaucer prepared by John Urry.
He played a foundational role in the revived Society of Antiquaries, which convened initially at the Bear Tavern on the Strand on 5 December 1707, alongside Wanley and John Talman.
Bagford’s assemblage featured numerous book fragments, such as title-pages, which led to his reputation as a contentious biblioclast. He faced criticism in William Blades' The Enemies of Books and is frequently remembered for causing damage to books he handled.
His carefully compiled collections of ballads, typeface specimens, and various other materials are preserved as the British Library Bagford Collection within the Harleian Library. He also gathered items for Robert Harley and procured ballads for clients like Pepys. These ballads were eventually published in 1878 by Joseph Woodfall Ebsworth.
The Gray's Inn elephant tooth and stone tool
In 1715, Bagford recorded details about the discovery of the Gray's Inn Lane hand axe alongside an elephant tooth by apothecary John Conyers near "Black Mary's." He suggested that the elephant remains might have been introduced during Claudius’s reign but stressed that the stone tool was man-made, referring to it as a "British weapon." Bagford was among the earliest to assert that stone age implements were intentionally crafted by humans rather than being natural formations.
See also
External links
- John Bagford entry in the Dictionary of National Biography (subscription required)
- Portraits of Bagford at the National Portrait Gallery, London
- Article on Bagford (note: birth year inaccurately stated)
- Milton McC. Gatch, ‘John Bagford, Bookseller and Antiquary’, British Library Journal 12 (1986), pp. 150–171 [1]