Richard Baldwin Sr. (1694?–1777; fl. 1746–1757)

Identifiers

  • Grubstreet: 9650

Occupations

  • Bookseller

Dates

  • Freedom: 1716
  • Clothed: 1733

Richard Baldwin, Sr., bookbinder, in Creed Lane 1726–1731; bookseller, at the Blue Bible in St. Paul's Churchyard, 1732–1757. Father of Robert Baldwin and Richard Baldwin Jr., also booksellers.

Richard Baldwin senior, ... served a number of years in the trade, first as apprentice to bookbinder Robert Whitledge. He became free of the Stationers' Company in 1716 and may have continued with Whitledge in Creed Lane as journeyman bookbinder. Stationers' Company registers record Baldwin's first apprentice, John Whiffen, in February 1726 and a second, Robert Stephen, in April of the same year. By this time he was paying taxes on a modest property in St. Martin Ludgate. In 1732, more than sixteen years after his freedom, he accepted a call to the Livery; his name first appeared in that year as bookseller, possibly copyholder, in several imprints; he moved to the Blue Bible in St. Paul's Churchyard; and he took on his eldest son Robert as one of his apprentices. In spite of all this activity from bookbinder to bookseller, there is little evidence in the following years of Richard Baldwin senior having a flourishing bookselling business.—C.Y. Ferdinand, "Richard Baldwin Junior, Bookseller," Studies in Bibliography 42 (1989): 255

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

Baldwin, Richard I . On Sunday last [5 Jan] died at Birmingham, in the 86th year of his age, Mr Richard Baldwin, formerly a bookseller in St. Paul's Churchyard, from when he had retired near twenty years. (Daily Advertiser 8 Jan 1777). Died January 4, 1777, at Birmingham in his 86th year, Mr. Richard Baldwin, formerly a bookseller in St. Paul's Churchyard, from whence he had retired near twenty years (LM 1777, 51)Timperley gives his death date as 4 June 1777.