John Osborn (3) (d. 1734; fl. 1711–1734)

OSBORN, or OSBORNE (JOHN), bookseller in London, (i) Oxford Arms in Lombard Street; (2) Paternoster Row. 1711–39. First met with in partnership with T. Varnam, who succeeded to the business of Thomas Guy [T.C. in. 667], and in 1725 he is found publishing with his son-in-law, T. Longman, at the Ship in Paternoster Row. Nichols says that he became Master of the Company of Stationers in 1735 and died on March 13th, 1739. [Lit. Anecd., in. 601.]

OSBORNE, JOHN. First entered into the bookselling trade in 1711, when he was a partner with T. Varnam. By 1720 he was working independently at the Oxford Arms in Lombard Street, though by 1725 he had taken his son-in-law, Thomas Longman, as a partner, and they set up a joint business at the Ship in Paternoster Row. In 1730 he advertises from premises "Near the Dock Head in Southwark," but this must have been a branch shop, for it is evident that he was still trading also at his old establishment in Paternoster Row. Osborne was Warden of the Stationers' Company in 1734, and Master in 1735, and during his term of office in 1734 he gave the fraternity a gift of £20. He died on March 13, 1739, and seems to have been succeeded by a son John, for in 1741 a J. Osborne, Junr., was advertising from Paternoster Row. This may have been the John Osbome whose death Nichols records in 1775.

—Frederick T. Wood, 26 September 1931

OSBORNE, JOHN. There were probably four John Osborns, or Osbornes, within our period. I think DR. WOOD has merged the records of two of them (Nos. 1 and 3) and omitted one entirely. The identities of these four have not been completely disentangled, but some correspondence between Mr. C. J. Longman and Mr. G. Morey Miller, on "The Publisher of 'Pamela'," which appeared in The Times Lit. Sup., 31 July and 28 Aug., 1930, brought certain information to light and Mr. Longman has kindly supplemented this by private correspondence. So far as I have been able to identify these John Osborns they appear to be:—

(1) Of St. Saviour's Dockhead, and later of Paternoster Row.
(2) Of Paternoster Row, (?) son of above.
(3) Of Lombard Street, and later of Paternoster Row.
(4) Son of No. 3.

...

No. 3. This John Osborn, having been apprenticed to Thomas Guy, was in partnership with Thomas Varnam (nephew and successor of Thomas Guy) at the Oxford Arms in Lombard Street in 1711. In 1724 Thomas Longman (q.v.) married Osborn's daughter, and the following year Osborn and Longman were partners at the Ship in Paternoster Row. This John Osborn died 13 March, 1734 (Gentleman's Magazine, 1734, p. 164), so it was not he who was Master of the Stationers' Company in 1735, as stated by Nichols and Timperley, and repeated by Plomer and Dr. WOOD. (I am informed that the Master in that year was William Mount).

—Ambrose Heal, 14 November 1931