Francis Coggan (fl. 1699–1707)

Identifiers

  • Grubstreet: 23389

Occupations

  • Bookseller

Names

  • Francis Coggan
  • Francis Cogan

Francis Coggan, bookseller in Inner Temple Lane / the Inner Temple, 1699–1707. Coggan and his wife Margaret had four children, Francis, William, Elizabeth, and Margaret. Coggan's will, proved 13 February 1707, instructed:

I give and bequeath all my houshold goods wearing apparell and and plate to my dear wife Margarett  Coggan to have and enjoy the same during the term of her naturall life without giving any security for the same and after her decease she to dispose of them to such of my children as shall prove the most dutifull to her. ... My will and mind is that my store of bound books be sold by Auction (except my said wife thinks fitt to continue on the trade which I would advise her to doo for some time. But my books in quires by Auction or otherwise as my said Wife shall be advised and that see(?) such of the money arising by the sale thereof and by sale of other part of my personal Estate as amounts to the equal third parts thereof intended for and given to my children as aforesaid shall be paid to my said brother William Coggan to be by him put out to interest on good Security (which security I desire may be applyed for and towards the duration and maintenance of my said children during their Minority."

Coggan also left to his "honoured Friend and Master [the bookseller] Mr. Daniell Brown a ring of the value of one guinea to whom I doo acknowledge my self to be more indebted (next to God Almighty) for that little I have." Coggan's son Francis would have been around four years of age when his father died.

The Life and Errors of John Dunton, by John Dunton (1705)

Mr. Coggan, in the Inner-Temple—He is so cautious and wise, that he is noted for it through the whole Trade, and is often propos'd as an Example to Persons of Hot and Imprudent Tempers—He has a piercing Wit, a quick Apprehension, and is as well a Judge, as a Seller, of Books.—

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

COGGAN (FRANCIS), bookseller in London, Inner-Temple-Lane, 1699–1707. First mentioned in the Term Catalogues in June 1699, as a publisher of law books. [T.C. HI. 137.] Dunton [p. 226] says of him, "He is so cautious and wise that he is noted for it ... and is as well a judge as a seller of books." In 1707 Bernard Lintot bought of him one half of Love and a Bottle, for £2 3s. He was also the publisher of the second part of V. Bowater's Antiquities of Middlesex [Harl. 5961, 128]. He died some time in 1707, and was succeeded by his widow Margaret Coggan. Her name appears in the Term Catalogues for the last time in 1709. [T.C. in. 644.]

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

COGAN, FRANCIS. He was established in Inner Temple Lane as early as 1699. He was still at the same address in 1707, when he published a de luxe edition of the Spanish Prayer Book; but by 1729 he had moved to a new shop at the Middle Temple Gate in Fleet Street, where he remained till well past the middle of the century. Exactly when he retired from business is not certain, but he was still advertising in May, 1750. "He has" Dunton delcared of him (i. 226) "a piercing wit, a quick apprehension, and is as well a judge as a seller of books."

—Frederick T. Wood, 1 August 1931

COGAN, FRANCIS. In Arber's 'Term Catalogues' his name is invariably spelt COGGAN. Plomer says he died in 1707, so the bookseller referred to as being at the Middle Temple Gate from 1729 till 1750 was probably a relative of this man. He may well have been the Francis Cogan (sic) whose bankrupt stock was sold by auction 10 July, 1746.

—Ambrose Heal, 5 September 1931