James Roberts (1671?–1754; fl. 1706–1754)

Identifiers

Occupations

  • Printer
  • Bookseller
  • Publisher
  • Stationer

Dates

  • Freedom: 1692
  • Clothed: 1695

James Roberts, printer and bookseller; near Stationers' Hall (1706); near the Oxford Arms in Warwick Lane (1714–29); Warwick Lane (1723–54).

James Roberts, son of Robert Roberts, printer, was admitted by patrimony to the freedom of the Company 7 Nov. 1692 (Freemen's register) and clothed 1 July 1695 (Court book, 1683–97, f. 227). He was chosen Under Warden 1723 and 1724, Upper Warden 1727, and Master 1729, 1730, 1731, and 1732 (Court book, 1717–33, pp. 150, 179, 271, 335, 376, 427, and 454). He published first editions for Addison (The Old Whig. On the State of the Peerage, 1719); Congreve (An Impossible Thing, 1720); Defoe (Journal of the Plague Year, 1722); Mandeville (Fable of the Bees, 1714); Pope (Court Poems, 1716); Prior (Second Collection of Poems, 1716); Steele (Romish Ecclesiastical History, 1714); and Young (Universal Passion. Satire I, 1725).

A Dictionary of the Printers and Booksellers who were at Work in England, Scotland and Ireland from 1668 to 1725, by Henry Plomer (1922)

ROBERTS (JAMES), printer and bookseller in London, (i) near Stationers' Hall, 1706; (2) Warwick Lane, 1713–54. 1706–54. In 1706 J. Gilbert's Reflections on Dr. Fleetwood's Essay upon Miracles was printed for J. Roberts near Stationers' Hall. [T.C. III. 508, 521.] It is not clear whether he was identical with the printer James Roberts, of Warwick Lane, who was able to subscribe five guineas to the Bowyer Fund in 1713, was classed by Negus as " well-affected", was Master of the Stationers' Company in 1729, 1730, and 1731, and died, aged 85, on November 2nd, 1754, and whom Nichols, in giving these facts [Lit. Anecd,, III. 737] calls "a printer of great eminence". He also published books.

Notes & Queries "London Booksellers Series" (1931–2)

ROBERTS, JAMES. Though chiefly a printer, he was also engaged in bookselling. He appears to have set up his business first near Stationers' Hall, in 1706, and then to have moved to the Oxford Arms Passage in Warwick Lane. He was certainly at this latter address by 1713, and remained there until he died on Nov. 2, 1754, at the advanced age of eighty-five. In 1730 he was printing the Daily Courant, and in January of the same year published, in conjunction with Leake of Bath, 'A New Survey of England,' by N. Salmon. He was three times Master of the Stationers' Company, in 1729, 1730, and 1731. Amongst the noted books which came from his shop may be mentioned Collins' 'Persian Eclogues' (1742). In 1722 he extended his business by purchasing the shop and the stock of William Chetwood, who had given up his premises at Cato's Head, Great Russell Street, to enter the theatrical world. I am not sure that the Roberts described by Dunton is the same man, as Timperley seems to imply, (pp. 576, 692).

—Frederick T. Wood, 10 October 1931