Charles Harper (fl. 1670–1709)

HARPER (CHARLES), bookseller in London, The Flower de Luce, Fleet Street, 1670–1709. His name first appears in the Term Catalogues in Easter 1670, [T.C. I. 40,] He was a prolific publisher of divinity. A list of books printed for him in 1684 will be found at the end of The Laws of Jamaica, 1684. Dunton [p. 210] thus describes him: "I believe him an honest man and a warm votary for High Church. He printed Mr. Wesley's 'Life of Christ', and makes a considerable figure in the Stationers Company." Harper was Junior Warden of the Company in 1699–1700. The Flower de Luce was an old building standing at the corner of Fetter Lane and Fleet Street, and in the first quarter of the seventeenth century was occupied by John Hodgets the bookseller. [See Dictionary, 1557–1640.]

HARPER, CHARLES. Was joint publisher with Motte, in 1693, of Samuel Wesley's 'Life of Christ.' At this date his premises were situated at the Flower de Luce"against St. Dunstan's Church, in Fleet Street. Dunton gives him a good character, and designates him "a pillar of the Stationers' Company." He was still living and in business in 1712, when he contributed to the relief fund for Bowyer.

—Frederick T. Wood, 22 August 1931

HARPER, CHARLES. A slight slip in transcribing Charles Harper's address would make him appear, to have lived on the north side of Fleet Street, whereas he was on the south. His shop was at the Flower de Luce over against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleet Street—not against St. Dunstan's Church. This house was at the corner of Mitre Court and was afterwards numbered 44 in Fleet Street. According to W. G. B. Page's 'Booksellers' Signs in Fleet Street,' Charles Harper also had a shop at the Crown, near Serjeants' Inn, in Chancery Lane. His trade-card is to be seen in the Bagford Bills.

—Ambrose Heal, 3 October 1931