Edward Midwinter

MIDWINTER (EDWARD), bookseller and printer in London, Star, Pye Corner, 1710–25. His first known publication is The Northamptonshire Wonder, "printed and sold by Edward Midwinter", 1710. [Haz. II. 710.] When Thomas Gent first came to London, and again about 1722, he was employed by Midwinter. Midwinter was a printer and publisher of ballads and chapbooks, amongst which may be mentioned an abridgement of Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, 1722 [Gent] and in 1724 [Esdaile, p. 208; Haz. II. 362, 710]; but his circumstances were so poor that Gent records that on one occasion, apparently in 1723, he was obliged to remove himself and family to a place called the Mint, a district in Southwark which was then a sanctuary for insolvent debtors. [Davies, York Press, p. 158.] Midwinter is mentioned in Negus's list of printers as a "high-flyer". [Nichols, Lit. Anecd. I. 311.] He married as his second wife, about 1720, Elizabeth daughter (or perhaps daughter-in-law) of Thomas Norris (q. v.). [Gent, Life, passim, and sources quoted.]

MIDWINTER, EDWARD. The name of this printer and bookseller should be added. He was at "the Star in Pye-Corner near West Smithfield" but such imprints as I have noted of his at this address have been without date. Plomer places him here 1710–1725 and records that he published 'The Northamptonshire Wonder' in 1710. He was principally a printer and publisher of broadsides and chap-books. By about 1723 he had got into very low water and with his family, sought refuge in the Mint, a district in Southwark which harboured insolvent debtors and lawless persons. In the 'Life of Thomas Gent' (p. 113) it is stated that this Edward Midwinter married the daughter (or perhaps daughter-in-law) of Thomas Norris, (q.v.) the wealthy bookseller of the Looking Glass on London Bridge, in about 1720. Gent had been in the employment of Midwinter at Pie Corner, so his testimony on this point may be accepted. The records in Plomer's 'Dictionary' do not extend beyond 1725 but they tell us that Norris retired from business about that year and Syer Cuming, in his paper on 'Traders' Signs on London Bridge,' says that Edward Midwinter succeeded Norris (q.v.) about 1725, at the Looking Glass.¹ An advertisement in Fog's Weekly Journal (1 Aug., 1730) announces that E. Midwinter had removed from the Looking Glass on London Bridge to the Three Crowns and Looking Glass in St. Paul's Churchyard. In 1732 he published 'New Remarks of London,' collected by the Company of Parish Clerks, from the sign of the Looking Glass and Three Crowns in St. Paul's Churchyard. This addition of the Three Crowns to the old sign links him up with the Daniel Midwinter (q.v.) who traded under it at St. Paul's Churchyard.

¹ This Looking Glass was not the one by St. Magnus' Church, but was situated in the centre of London Bridge. (See under T. Norris).

—Ambrose Heal, 14 November 1931