Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 17.djvu/126

Edwards p. 492), and on being nominated one of the commissioners of the high court of justice attended each day of the trial, and signed the death-warrant. During the Commonwealth he served on the committee of revenue, and was appointed a commissioner of South Wales 25 June 1651 (Cal State Papers, Dom. 1651, p. 266). He hankered after the chief ushership of the exchequer, then held by Clement Walker, and, after vainly soliciting the committee of sequestrations to sequester Walker during his incarceration in the Tower, persuaded the committee of revenue to confer the office on him 'untill the parliament declare their pleasure therein, by an order dated 1 Feb. 1649–50. On the following 21 March, though the order had not been ratified by parliament, he took forcible possession of Walker's official residence (The Case between C. Walker and H. Edwards, s. sh. fol. 1650; The Case of Mrs. Mary Walker, s. sh. fol. 1650). Edwards died in 1658, and was buried at Richmond on 2 Aug (parish reg.) In the letters of administration granted in P. C. C. to his sister. Lady Lucy Ottley, on 26 Oct. 1658, he is described as 'late of Richmond in the county of Surrey, a batchelor' (Administration Act Book, P. C. C. 1658, f. 270). Although he had died before the Restoration he was excepted out of the bill of pardon and oblivion, so that his property might be confiscated (Commons' Journals, viii. 61, 286). In this way a parcel of the manor of West Ham which had been acquired by him was restored to the possession of the queen (ib. viii. 73).

 EDWARDS, JAMES (1757–1816), bookseller and bibliographer, born in 1757, was the eldest son of William Edwards (1720–1808) of Halifax, who in 1784 set up James and a younger son, John, as the firm of Edwards & Sons in Pall Mall, London. John died soon afterwards, and the business was continued by James with great success. A third son, Thomas (d. 1834), was a bookseller in Halifax. Richard, another son, at one time held a government appointment in Minorca. Messrs. Edwards & Sons sold many valuable libraries. One sale in 1784 was formed principally from the libraries of N. Wilson of Pontefract and H. Bradshaw of Maple Hall, Cheshire. Among others dispersed in 1787 was the library of Dr. Peter Mainwaring. James accompanied in 1788 his fellow-bookseller, James Robson, to Venice, in order to examine the famous Pinelli library, which they purchased and sold by auction the following year in Conduit Street, London. In 1790 Edwards disposed of the libraries of Salichetti of Rome and Zanetti of Venice, and in 1791 that of Paris de Meyzieu. He had purchased at the Duchess of Portland's sale in 1786 the famous Bedford Missal, now in the British Museum, described by Richard Gough in 'An Account of a Rich Illuminated Missal executed for John, duke of Bedford, Regent of France under Henry VI, 1794, 4to. This description was dedicated by the author to Edwards, 'who, with the spirit to purchase [the missal], unites the taste to possess it.' 'Let me recommend the youthful bibliomaniac to get possession of Mr. Edwards's catalogues, and especially that of 1794,' says Dibdin (Bibliomania, i. 123). He made frequent visits to the continent, where many of his most advantageous purchases were made. About 1804, having acquired a considerable fortune, he resolved to retire from trade, and with the Bedford Missal and other literary and artistic treasures he went to live at a country seat in the neighbourhood of Old Verulam. He was succeeded by Robert Harding Evans [q. v.] On 10 Sept. 1805 he married Katharine, the only daughter of the Rev. Edward Bromhead, rector of Reepham, Norfolk, and about the same period bought the manor-house at Harrow, where some of the archbishops of Canterbury had once lived. The house is finely situated among gardens, in which was an alcove mentioned by Dibdin, some of whose imaginary bibliomaniacal dialogues are supposed to be carried on in the surrounding grounds. Edwards was hospitable and fond of literary society. Some of his books were sold by Christie, 25–28 April 1804. The remainder, a choice collection of 830 articles, fetched the large sum of 8,467l. 10s. when it was sold by Evans 5–10 April 1815 (Gent, Mag, lxxxv. pt. i. pp. 135, 254, 349; and, Bibliographical Decameron, 1817, iii. 111–27). He died at Harrow 2 Jan. 1816, at the age of fifty-nine, leaving five children and a widow, who afterwards married the Rev. Thomas Butt of Kinnersley, Shropshire. His last instructions were that his coffin should be made out of library shelves. A monument to his memory is in Harrow Church.

Edwards was Dibdin's 'Rinaldo, the wealthy, the fortunate, and the heroic... no man ever did such wonderful things towards the acquisition of rare, beautiful, and truly classical productions... he was probably born a bibliographical bookseller, and had always a nice feeling and accurate perception of what was tasteful and classical' (ib. iii. 14–16).