John Exshaw

Printer to the City:

John Exshaw, Lord Mayor of Dublin, 1789-90

John Exshaw, twice Lord Mayor of Dublin, came from a prominent family of booksellers. He was a successful businessman and was active in municipal politics from an early age. Members of the book trade were represented by the Guild of St Luke the Evangelist, the guild of cutlers, painter-stainers and stationers, founded in 1670. Officers of the guild were important in municipal politics as the master and wardens were part of the Common Council, the precursor of Dublin Corporation. John held a number of important posts in the city: an alderman from 1782, he held the positions of sheriff, high sheriff, coroner, police magistrate, and lord mayor. He was admitted free ‘by birth’ in 1779 and was elected warden of the Guild of St Luke in 1782. In 1789 he was presented with the freedom of the Trinity Guild of Merchants, became warden of that guild in 1799, junior, then senior, master in 1801 and 1802 respectively. As a printer and bookseller he held a privileged place in the commercial life of the city. Part of the merchant sector, booksellers also held a special position due to the particular skills required to practice their trade. While John was a major player in municipal politics, his ambitions were not fulfilled at parliamentary level.

The eighteenth century was a golden age for printers and booksellers in Dublin. The absence of a copyright act before the Act of Union of 1800 gave them great freedom to reprint bestsellers first published in London. This resulted in a loss of revenue for London booksellers as no fees were paid and, more importantly, the loss of the valuable Irish market for their sales. By the eighteenth century literacy in the English language had increased and the printed word was visible around the city on notices and posters. The disposable wealth of the aristocracy and gentry was spent on luxury items and the principal streets of Dublin were given over to the most opulent shops. Dame Street was home to bookshops, map and print sellers, music sellers and instrument makers, hatters and milliners, goldsmiths, jewellers and watchmakers, cloth, lace and silk merchants, mercers, woollen and linen drapers, hosiers and tailors, apothecaries, perfumers, grocers and tea merchants, and lottery offices in 1790.1 Bookshops were situated on Cork Hill, Skinner Row and Dame Street in the early years of the eighteenth century, moving towards fashionable Grafton and Sackville Streets in the last decades of the century.2 Books, newspapers, pamphlets and magazines were widely available, and their prices, while high, were within the range of the middle classes.

Family:

John Exshaw, grandfather of the Lord Mayor, was a merchant in Dublin.3 He may be identified with John Exshaw, laceman, who had his shop in Golden Lane from the early 1720s, but John was a common family name, so he may have been a cousin. He had at least three sons: Edward, John, father of the Lord Mayor, both booksellers; and James, who was listed as a teaman from 1761, and subsequently as a lace and tea merchant in Dame Street.4 Charles Exshaw, painter and engraver, was possibly another son.5 Edward Exshaw was the first of the family to work as a bookseller, he was apprenticed to George Ewing, a prominent Dublin printer, bookseller and bookbinder. Edward did well in business, was active in the guild and became warden in 1747. John, Edward’s brother, was apprenticed to him, and they became partners in business about 1745, when both names appeared on the imprint of Exshaw’s London Magazine. John was admitted free of the guild in 1749, and was elected master in 1766.6 At Edward’s death in December 1748 he was succeeded in his portion of the business by his widow, Sarah (née Ward).7 John and Sarah worked in partnership until about 1757. Succession by women was common practice in the book trade in Ireland, Great Britain and on the continent. Women, (widows, mothers, sisters, daughters), were able to step in and take over the business. It was never disputed by the guild, although women could only become quarter brothers.8 Women were always master printers or booksellers, they could not become apprentices, and therefore were heavily dependent on the skill of their workforce. It is likely that women played an important role in the business of bookselling, performing such tasks as press correcting and proof reading, accounting and selling. Some exceptional women, such as Constantia Grierson, wife of the King’s Printer, George Grierson, played a central role in editing classical texts, but this was rare.

John senior married Faith Walker in 1748, they had at least two sons, Thomas, the elder son, and John, the second son who was born in 1751. Thomas married Susannah Nairac in 1779.9 Faith Exshaw died in 1764 and John senior married again in 1769, a Miss Swiney of Caple Street, but she died the following August.10 John was married for the third time in 1772, to Mrs Dorcas Wilkinson, a widow.11 John senior died on 9 March 1776.12 John the younger was apprenticed to his father, and he took over the thriving family business on the death John senior. John married in May 1776: ‘John Exshaw, an eminent bookseller to Miss Wilkinson, a most amiable young lady with a considerable fortune’.13 John’s wife, Angel Wilkinson, was likely to have been a relative of his father’s third wife, Dorcas. In October 1787 John’s wife, the amiable Miss Angel Wilkinson, died aged 32 years.14 John married again15 and from his second marriage he had at least two children: John born about 1796 and Charlotte who married John Anderson in 1822. John married for the third time in 1805, possibly to Hannah Lagrovere.16 The birth of a son was announced in March 1806 and Mrs Exshaw died at her home in Roebuck in June of that year.17 John’s career was long and distinguished, he remained in business in Dame Street and later in Grafton Street until 1822. He died on 6 January 1827, at his seat in Roebuck, aged 76 years, and is buried at St John’s Cemetery, Clondalkin, with his first wife Angel and her two daughters.18 The Gentleman’s Magazine printed an obituary in which his career was outlined and praise lavished on him for his command of the Stephen’s Green yeomanry ‘during the disturbances of 1797 and 1798’.19 John was not succeeded in business by any of his family, his son John entered Trinity College in 1811 aged 15, took a B.A. in 1817 and an M.A. in 1839.20 The Exshaw family bookselling business, which began in 1732 ended with John’s retirement about 1822.

A surviving portrait of John’s nephew, John (1782-1847), founder of the Exshaw brandy firm in Bordeaux shortly after 1800, was donated to Dublin City Council by Kathleen van Loosen in 1989 and it is now held in Dublin City Archives.21 John was the son of Thomas Exshaw and Susannah Nairac, his mother a member of the Dublin branch of the Nairac family who were important merchants in Bordeaux.22

Business:

John Exshaw took over the family business on the death of his father in 1776. From 1774 he was advertising patent medicines, such as Dr James’s Powder, which he imported from London. He placed an advertisement in The Hibernian Journal and The Freeman’s Journal in April 1776 informing the public that, as his father’s successor, he intended to continue in business as printer, bookseller and stationer at 86 Dame Street, corner of Crampton Court.23 John inherited an extensive business. His uncle, Edward, had been an innovative bookseller, with his bookshop at the Bible on Cork Hill. Edward made his money selling schoolbooks and prayer books, a lucrative trade as demand was countrywide and print-runs could amount to several thousand copies. Edward also published books in French and in translation from French. In 1743 he joined Alice Reilly in the publication of the Dublin News-Letter. He imported the monthly London Magazine from the mid 1730s, but in 1741 he began to issue an Irish edition. Like some of our Sunday newspapers this involved reprinting most of the original content of the magazine, but including some material of Irish interest such as news items, notice of new Irish books, and births, marriages, deaths and promotions. Edward set the pattern for the Exshaw’s business which was successfully carried on and expanded by his successors.

John senior joined Edward in business in 1745, and when Edward died in December 1748, John remained in partnership with Edward’s widow, Sarah, until about 1757. John and Sarah continued to publish Exshaw’s London Magazine, and from 1755 the title was changed to Exshaw’s Gentleman’s and London Magazine as material from the Gentleman’s Magazine began to be included in the reprint. From 1749 John and Sarah began to publish the annual English Registry, a list of English members of parliament, officers of the army and navy, of the law and trade, which was issued to accompany Watson’s Almanack, this project was initiated by Edward and John just before Edward’s death. Exshaw’s English Registry later became part of The Triple Almanack with Watson’s Almanack and Wilson’s Dublin Directory, each with a different publisher but intended to be bound together and issued with a common title page. John also embarked on the bookbinding business and records show that he was responsible for a major rebinding project of Trinity College’s manuscripts.24 John moved his bookshop to 86 Dame Street, at the corner of Crampton Court in 1754. Schoolbooks, devotional and prayer books formed a substantial part of John’s business.

When John junior took over in 1776 he had a well-run, solid enterprise, with many regular publications such as Exshaw’s Gentleman’s and London Magazine and Exshaw’s English Registry bringing in a regular income. He was printer and stationer to several official bodies, he printed schoolbooks, college texts, trials, speeches and plays, and he sold a variety of patent medicines. John remained at the corner of Crampton Court until April 1782 when he announced the removal of his bookshop to the new buildings, Grafton Street, near Suffolk Street.25 He stayed at 98 Grafton Street until 1809, when he changed to 103 Grafton Street.

Like his father and uncle he also printed books in French, one of his titles was Les avantures de Gil Blas, a picaresque novel that was used in schools as a reader. This was published by John senior in 1763 and it remained a steady seller for John junior, who reprinted it in 1784 and 1796. The production of text books for schools and for Trinity College was very lucrative as print-runs amounted to several thousands and there was a steady market. In 1788 Trinity College ordered 950 sets of Tacitus Opera in 4 volumes.26 School books were in demand throughout the country and the Exshaws had contacts in all the major Irish towns for the sale of Exshaw’s London Magazine and Exshaw’s English Registry.27 Other large sellers were reports of trials and texts of plays that were performed in the Dublin and London theatres. Cheap to produce these texts sold in large numbers and would have been very profitable.

Becoming official printer or stationer to a municipal, government or religious body was a lucrative appointment as it ensured a guaranteed amount of work and income in the course of a year. John was named as stationer to the Lottery Commissioners in 1780, printer and stationer to the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge in 1787, printer to the University Press in 1787-1788, and stationer to the Post Office and the Police in 1792.28 He carried out printing work for Dublin City from 1804, becoming official printer to the city from 1818 to 1820.

Political Career:

John’s political career was focussed on the municipal stage, although he had higher ambitions, running for a parliamentary seat in 1790. He stood for election in opposition to Henry Grattan and L. Henry Fitzgerald in 1790 but he was unsuccessful in his bid. John’s position within the Guild of St Luke was strong from the beginning, coming from a family of active members and having a substantial business behind him, his rise within its ranks was swift. After his freedom was granted in 1779 his first post was that of sheriff, he was elected for the year 1779/80.29 He became an alderman in 1782 and in October of the same year was sworn warden of the guild.30 He was elected coroner for the city in 1784.31 Exshaw was divisional justice of police for two years, handing in his resignation in 1788. The Dublin Chronicle considered that he served ‘with judgement, temper, perspicuity and candor’.32 He later took up this position again after the Dublin Police Magistrates Act of 1808,33 and remained a magistrate until his death in 1827. He published Hue and cry, the police gazette.

John Sutton was chosen to be lord mayor of Dublin for 1789/90, but he asked to be excused due to ill health. Alderman John Exshaw was elected on 8 May 1789 and he took up his position after the Michaelmas assembly on 16 October. He had as his sheriffs Charles Thorp and James Vance.34 His second term as lord mayor came in 1800 when on 24 February he was elected in mid-term on the death of the sitting lord mayor, John Sutton. He held office for the remainder of the year, until Michaelmas when the new lord mayor, Charles Thorp, was sworn in.35 John’s second term in office was marked by a very bad economic phase with high inflation and scarcity of provisions. In April 1800 Exshaw, as lord mayor, with the board of aldermen, drafted a petition to the King, arguing against the proposed legislative union on the basis of the ‘destructive consequences that must arise to the trade and manufactures of this kingdom’. A deputation was sent to present the address to the King.36

Conclusion:

John came from a substantial and successful family of merchants in Dublin city. His father’s bookselling business in Dame Street and his first wife’s considerable fortune set him up financially early in life. This enabled him to expand his business and gave him the opportunity to serve the city with distinction in several different roles. He lived and worked through turbulent times, he was captain of the First Regiment of Royal Dublin Volunteers in 1797, and he commanded the 1,000 strong Stephen’s Green yeomanry in 1797 and 1798.37 He was a strong supporter of government in all matters, but he was vehemently against the union as he considered it would be harmful to trade. After the 1798 rebellion and the act of union many radical Dublin booksellers, such as John Chambers, Patrick Byrne and Matthew Carey emigrated to America where their careers blossomed in New York and Philadelphia.38 John Exshaw remained in Dublin after the union and continued to prosper until his retirement from business in 1822.

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1. Wilson’s Dublin Directory 1790 (Dublin, 1790).

2. Máire Kennedy, ‘Politicks, coffee and news’: the Dublin book trade in the eighteenth century, Dublin Historical Record LVIII, no.1, Spring 2005, pp.76-85.

3. M. Pollard, A dictionary of members of the Dublin book trade 1550-1800, London, Bibliographical Society, 2000.

4. Wilson’s Dublin Directory 1761. James’s wife died in 1769 and he himself died in 1771. Freeman’s Journal 25-29 April 1769; 14-17 September 1771.

5. Strickland.

6. Freeman’s Journal 23-26 August 1766.

7. Edward Exshaw and Sarah Ward were married in 1739, Public Records in Ireland, Reports of the Deputy Keeper, Appendix to the 26 th report, Dublin, 1895, addenda, p.991.

8. Vincent Kinane, ‘A galley of pie: women in the Irish book trades’, Irish Booklore, Linen Hall Review, December 1991, pp.10-13.

9. Public Records in Ireland, Reports of the Deputy Keeper, Appendix to the 26 th report, Dublin, 1895, p.287.

10. Freeman’s Journal 7-11 February 1764; 28-30 December 1769; 19-21 August 1770.

11. Public Records in Ireland, Reports of the Deputy Keeper, Appendix to the 26 th report, p.287.

12. Hibernian Magazine VI, 1776, p.216.

13. Finn’s Leinster Journal 22-25 May 1776.

14. Dublin Chronicle 25 October 1787.

15. John’s daughter, Charlotte, married John Anderson of Larch Hill, King’s County, at Rathfarnham Church in 1822, the Rev. John Exshaw officiating. She is not likely to have been the daughter of Mrs Exshaw (née Wilkinson) who died in 1787. Cork Morning Intelligence 16 July 1822.

16. Public Records in Ireland, Reports of the Deputy Keeper, Appendix to the 30 th report, Dublin, 1899, p.336.

17. Hibernian Magazine XXXVI, 1806, pp.190, 384.

18. Michael J.S. Egan, Memorials of the dead, Dublin city and county, volume 8, Dublin, MJSE Ltd., 1995.

19. Gentleman’s Magazine January 1827, p.94.

20. Alumni Dublinenses: a register of the students, graduates, professors and provosts of Trinity College in the University of Dublin (1593-1860), edited by George Dames Burtchaell and Thomas Ulick Sadleir, Dublin, Alex. Thom and Co., 1935.

21. Portrait of John Exshaw (1782-1847), oil on canvas. Dublin City Archives: DCPC 4/3.

22. L.M. Cullen, The Irish brandy houses of eighteenth-century France, Dublin, The Lilliput Press, 2000, pp. 29, 198.

23. Hibernian Journal 15-17 April 1776.

24. W. O’Sullivan, ‘The eighteenth century rebinding of the manuscripts’, Long Room, no.1 (1970), pp.19-28.

25. Freeman’s Journal 2-4 April 1782.

26. Pollard, Dictionary.

27. Exshaw’s Magazine was taken by booksellers in Cork, Belfast, Limerick, Waterford, Kilkenny, Newry, Armagh and Coleraine in 1755.

28. Pollard, Dictionary. Dublin Chronicle 22 March 1792.

29. CARD XIII, pp.52, 64-5.

30. CARD XIII, p.235.

31. 15 October 1784, CARD, XIII, 523.

32. Dublin Chronicle 26 May 1789.

33. 48 Geo.3.c.140 Dublin Police Magistrates Act, 1808.

34. CARD XIV, pp.113, 121.

35. Calendar of Ancient Records XV, p.140.

36. CARD, XV, pp. 143-144, 156.

37. Gentleman’s Magazine, part I, London, 1827, p.94.

38. Richard Cargill Cole, Irish booksellers and English writers, 1740-1800, London, Mansell, 1986.