John Timbs English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 antiquary, was born in Clerkenwell

Clerkenwell

Clerkenwell is an area of central London in the London Borough of Islington. From 1900 to 1965 it was part of the Metropolitan Borough of Finsbury. The well after which it was named was rediscovered in 1924. The watchmaking and watch repairing trades were once of great importance...

, London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

.

He was educated at a private school at Hemel Hempstead

Hemel Hempstead

Hemel Hempstead is a town in Hertfordshire in the East of England, to the north west of London and part of the Greater London Urban Area. The population at the 2001 Census was 81,143 ....

, and in his sixteenth year apprenticed to a druggist and printer at Dorking

Dorking

Dorking is a historic market town at the foot of the North Downs approximately south of London, in Surrey, England.- History and development :...

. He had early shown literary capacity, and when nineteen began to write for the Monthly Magazine. A year later he became secretary to Sir Richard Phillips

Sir Richard Phillips

Sir Richard Phillips was an English schoolteacher, author and publisher.Phillips was born in London. Following some political difficulties in Leicester where he was a schoolteacher and bookseller, he returned to London, established premises in Paternoster Row, St. Paul's Churchyard, and founded...

, its proprietor, and permanently adopted literature as a profession.

He was successively editor of the Mirror of Literature, the Harlequin, The Literary World, and sub-editor of the Illustrated London News. He was also founder and first editor of Year-Book of Science and Art. His published works amounted to more than one hundred and fifty volumes. In 1834 he was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London

Society of Antiquaries of London

The Society of Antiquaries of London is a learned society "charged by its Royal Charter of 1751 with 'the encouragement, advancement and furtherance of the study and knowledge of the antiquities and history of this and other countries'." It is based at Burlington House, Piccadilly, London , and is...

.

Works

Some of these were published under the pseudonym, Horace Welby. As can be seen, his work continued to be re-edited and republished well after his death.

• Signs before death, and authenticated apparitions: in one hundred narratives, collected by Horace Welby. 1825
• Arcana of science and art: or, An annual register of useful inventions and improvements, discoveries and new facts, in mechanics, chemistry, natural history, and social economy; 1828
• Harlequin. A journal of the drama. 1829
• Laconics; 1829
• Literary world: a journal of popular information and entertainment. 1839
• Table-wit, and after-dinner anecdote. 1840
• Things not generally known, familiarly explained. A book for old and young. 1856
• Curiosities of history; 1857
• School-days of eminent men. I. Sketches of the progress of education in England, from the reign of King Alfred to that of Queen Victoria. II. Early lives of celebrated British authors, philosophers and poets, inventors and discoverers, divines, heroes, statesmen &c\. 1858
• Curiosities of science, 1859
• Stories of inventors and discoverers in science and the useful arts. 1860
• Popular errors explained and illustrated. 1862
• Century of anecdote from 1760 to 1860. 1864
• Romance of London. Supernatural stories, sights and shows, strange adventures, and remarkable persons. 1865
• Something for everybody; and a garland for the year. 1866
• Club life of London, 1866
• English Eccentrics and Eccentricities
  English Eccentrics and Eccentricities
  English Eccentrics and Eccentricities was written by John Timbs and published first in two volumes by Richard Bentley in New Burlington Street, London, in 1866...
  
  . 1866, in two volumes
• Mysteries of life, death, and futurity: 1868
• Mountain adventures in the various countries of the world. 1869
• Wonderful inventions: from the mariner's compass to the electric telegraph cable. 1870
• Abbeys, castles, and ancient halls of England and Wales; 1872
• Thoughts for times and seasons. 1872
• Doctors and patients; 1873

One of his major works is Curiosities of London: exhibiting the most rare and remarkable objects of interest in the metropolis; with nearly Fifty Years' Personal Recollections (London, David Bogue, 1855, 800 pages).

External links

• Curiosities of London full text downloadable in PDF and TXT online at Internet Archive
• English eccentrics and eccentricities (1898) full text online at Internet Archive
• School-days of eminent men (1860) full text online at Internet Archive
• Curiosities of science, past and present. A book for old and young. (1859) full text online at Internet Archive
• The Romance of London v.I (1865) full text online at Internet Archive
• The Romance of London v.II (1865) full text online at Internet Archive
• Wellingtoniana; anecdotes, maxims, and characteristics, of the Duke of Wellington (1852) full text online at Internet Archive
• Year Book of Facts 1861 full text online at Internet Archive
• Club Life of London (1866) full text online at Internet Archive
• Ancestral stories and traditions of great families illustrative of English history (1869) full text online at Internet Archive
• A century of anecdote from 1760 to 1860 (1864)