Richard Ware I (d. 1756; fl. 1716–1756)

Identifiers

Occupations

  • Bookseller
  • Publisher
  • Book Binder
  • Stationer

Richard Ware, bookseller, publisher, bookbinder, stationer (1716–56); at the Bible and Sun in Warwick Lane at Amen Corner; at the Bible and Sun, Ludgate Hill.

Richard Ware signed a marriage allegation confirming his intent to marry Catherine Game, aged 21 years, both of Christchurch Parish, 29 June 1731. The couple was married by licence 3 July 1731 at St. James, Clerkenwell, in Islington. Catherine would take over his business after his death. She partnered with their son Richard Ware II when he was freed from his apprenticeship in 1759.

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

WARE, RICHARD. The earliest date that I have been able to assign to this bookseller is March, 1741, when he published Basil Kennet's ' Thoughts on Religion.' At this time he was at the Bible and Sun at Amen Corner. In 1750 he gives his address as Ludgate Hill. He died on Aug. 11, 1756, and according to Timperley he was then trading from London Bridge.

—Frederick T. Wood, 24 October 1931

 

WARE, RICHARD. We can trace this bookseller back to a date considerably before 1741. I have an advertisement of his in the London Journal, dated 1721, from the Bible and Sun in Amen Corner, Warwick Lane, and Hilton Price in his 'Signs of Ludgate Hill,' gives him at this address in 1725. He remained there up till 1750 when he published the 53rd edition of 'Cocker's Arithmetick.' He probably removed to the Bible and Sun on Ludgate Hill during this year as Hilton Price and Dr. Wood both give him there at that date. He continued to publish 'Cocker's Arithmetick' from his new address; the 54th and 55th editions (1753 and 1758) both bear the Ludgate Hill imprint. He probably died within the next year or tivo; for in 1761 appears the imprint of Catherine and Richard Ware whom I take to be his widow and his son. I fail to see what grounds Dr. Wood has for assuming that the Richard Ware, of London Bridge (recorded by Timperley as having died in 1756) was the same man as Richard Ware of Ludgate Hill. (cf. ante p. 291).

A Dictionary of the Printers and Booksellers who were at work in England, Scotland and Ireland from 1726 to 1775, by Henry Plomer et al. (1932)

WARE (RICHARD), bookseller and publisher in London, Bible and Sun, Warwick Lane at Amen Corner (the end of Paternoster Row), 1724–56. Dealer in Bibles, Common Prayers, and Testaments. One of his illustrated publications was called The Historical Part of the Holy Bible ... Described in ... Two Hundred Historys, Curiously engraved by J. Cole, and was published about 1724. Timperley speaks of him as a bookseller on London Bridge, but this was a mistake. He died in August 1756 at Harefield in Middlesex. [Read's Weekly Journal, August 21st, 1756.]

Ian Maxted, Exeter Working Papers in Book History (2005–present)

Ware, Richard I. November 30 will be published ... the stationer's almanack for the year 1750 ... Sold by Mess. R.Ware ... and by the Printer Edward Ryland, on Ludgate Hill, where copperplates are printed in the best manner ... (London Gazette 14 Nov 1749). On Saturday night last [14 Aug] died at Harefield in Middlesex, Mr. Richard Ware, bookseller and stationer on Ludgate-hill, who acquired a handsome fortune with integrity and reputation: he has left behind him a disconsolate widow, four sons and three daughters (Daily Advertiser 16 Aug 1756—Timperley says 11 Aug). Richard Ware, bookseller and stationer on Ludgate-hill, being deceased, his widow takes this method to inform his friends that she is advised to carry on the trade in all its branches, in the wholesale way, till her sons are of age. Continuance of the customers favours in town and country will be deemed a great obligation, and will always be gratefully acknowledged, by the whole family and Your obliged humble servants Catherine Ware, Richard Ware (Daily Advertiser 16 Aug 1756)

—The London Book trades of the later 18th Century (CC BY-NC 4.0)