Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hansard, Luke

953087Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 24 — Hansard, Luke1890Henry Richard Tedder

HANSARD, LUKE (1752–1828), printer, was born in the parish of St. Mary, Norwich, 5 July 1752. His father, Thomas Hansard (1727-1769),was a manufacturer in that city. Young Hansard was educated at Boston grammar school, Lincolnshire, and was apprenticed to Stephen White, printer, Cockey Lane, Norwich. He entered as compositor the printing office of John Hughs (1703-1771), Great Turnstile, Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, printer to the House of Commons, and became acting manager and partner in 1774. Hughs did most of the printing for the Dodsleys, and Dr. Johnson was always glad that Hansard should attend to his requirements. Among the important publications with which Hansard was connected may be mentioned Orme's 'History of India,' Burke's 'Essay on the Sublime and Beautiful' and 'Essay on the French Revolution,' and Harris's 'Hermes.' He printed the 'Journals of the House of Commons' from 1774 to his death in 1828. Porson praised him as the most accurate of Greek printers. In 1800 he succeeded as the sole proprietor of the business. He subsequently took his sons into partnership, trading as Luke Hansard & Sons. The increasing parliamentary work and great accumulation of stock demanding more accommodation, they erected a new building in Parker Street, Drury Lane.

Among the technical improvements introduced by Hansard was one connected with printing in red and black from the same forme (T. C. Hansard, Typographia, 1825, p. 603). he was a man of unusual industry, and highly esteemed by the parliamentary officials. A portrait of him by S. Lane was exhibited at the South Kensington Museum in 1867. It was engraved by F. C. Lewis and prefixed to the 'Biographical Memoir,' London, 1829, 4to. He died 29 Oct. 1828 in his 77th year, and was buried in the parish church of St. Giles-in-the-Fields. He left three sons, Thomas Curson [q. v.], James, and Luke Graves (1777-1851), and two daughters. His widow died 18 May 1834. The two younger sons succeeded the father as printers to the House of Commons, and were succeeded by their respective sons. In 1837 the firm were the defendants in the famous action Stockdale v. Hansard, in which they were charged with libel for printing, by order of the House of Commons, a report of the inspectors of prisons [see Stockdale, John Joseph]. After 1847 Henry, son of Luke Graves Hansard, continued the business.

[Memoir by John Rickman, a chief clerk of the House of Commons, appeared in Gent. Mag. December 1828, pp. 559-66, reprinted for private circulation (with a portrait and some family letters), 1829, 4to; T. C. Hansard's Typographia, 1825, pp. 329-30; Nichols's Illustr. viii. 462, 502; Timperley's Encyclopædia, p. 905; Bigmore and Wyman's Bibliography of Printing, 1880, i. 299-301.]

H. R. T.