John Timbs

Artist Info

John TimbsLondon, 1801 - 1875, London

Lc name authority rec. n50012717

LC Heading: Timbs, John, 1801-1875

Pseudonym: Horace Welby

Biography:

Timbs, John (1801–1875), author, was born on 17 August 1801 at Clerkenwell, London, and was educated at a private school at Hemel Hempstead. He was apprenticed to a printer and druggist at Dorking, and while there began to write, his first contributions appearing in the Monthly Magazine in 1820. About that year he came to London, and was for some time amanuensis to Sir Richard Phillips, publisher of the magazine. From that time he contributed to a large number of London publications, but chiefly to the Mirror of Literature, which he edited from 1827 to 1838; The Harlequin: a Journal of Drama, which appeared between 11 May and 16 July 1829, and which was stopped by the commissioners of stamps insisting that it should be stamped as a newspaper; the Literary World, which he edited during 1839 and 1840; and the Illustrated London News, of which he was sub-editor under Dr Charles Mackay from 1842 to 1858. He was also the originator and editor of the Year Book of Science and Art, begun in 1839 after he left the Mirror.

Timbs's works, which run to more than 150 volumes (some appearing under the pseudonym Horace Welby), are compilations of interesting facts gathered from every conceivable quarter, and relating to the most varied subjects. They include, on subjects of domestic interest, Family Manual (1831), Domestic Life in England (1835), and Pleasant Half-Hours for the Family Circle (1872), and, on scientific subjects, Popular Zoology (1834), Stories of Inventors and Discoverers (1859), Curiosities of Science (1860), and Wonderful Inventions: from the Mariner's Compass to the Electric Telegraph Cable (1867). He also wrote on artistic and cultural matters works such as Painting Popularly Explained (jointly with Thomas John Gulick) (1859) and Manual for Art Students and Visitors to the Exhibitions (1862). Through his connection with The Harlequin he has been identified as the likely compiler (under the pseudonym Harold Foote) of the Companion to the Theatre and Manual of British Drama (1829), which contains much valuable information on London theatres of the period. On contemporary city life his works included Curiosities of London (1855), Club Life of London with Anecdotes (1865), Romance of London: Strange Stories, Scenes, and Persons (1865), and London and Westminster, City and Suburb (1867). He also published on subjects of biographical and historical interest, including Schooldays of Eminent Men (1858), Columbus (1863), Curiosities of History (1859), Anecdote Biography (1859–60), Anecdote Lives of Wits and Humourists (1862), Ancestral Stories and Traditions of Great Families (1869), and Abbeys, Castles and Ancient Halls of England and Wales (1869). He also edited Manuals of Utility (1847), the Percy Anecdotes (1869–70), and Pepys's Memoirs (1871). In recognition of his antiquarian labours he was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1854. He died in considerable poverty in London on 6 March 1875.

J. R. MacDonald, rev. Nilanjana Banerji

Sources Allibone, Dict. · Men of the time (1862) · Ward, Men of the reign · H. R. Fox Bourne, English newspapers: chapters in the history of journalism, 2 (1887), 120 · Annual Register (1875), 138 · E. H. Yates, Edmund Yates: his recollections and experiences, 4th edn (1885), 207 · N&Q, 5th ser., 3 (1875), 220 · P. van der Merwe, ‘Horace Foote’, Theatre Notebook, 37 (1983), 85

Archives BL, corresp. with Charles Babbage, Add. MSS 37196–37197

Likenesses T. J. Gullick, miniature, c.1855, NPG

Wealth at death died in considerable poverty: DNB

J. R. MacDonald, ‘Timbs, John (1801–1875)’, rev. Nilanjana Banerji, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Oct 2006 [http://proxy.bostonathenaeum.org:2055/view/article/27460, accessed 6 Oct 2015]