Andrew Spottiswoode
Andrew Spottiswoode | |
|---|---|
_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg) Portrait of Spottiswoode, by Sir Henry Raeburn, between 1807 and 1823 | |
| Member of Parliament for Colchester | |
| In office 1830–1831 Serving with Daniel Whittle Harvey | |
| Preceded by | Daniel Whittle Harvey Richard Sanderson |
| Succeeded by | Daniel Whittle Harvey William Mayhew |
| Member of Parliament for Saltash | |
| In office 1826–1830 Serving with Henry Monteith, Colin Macaulay | |
| Preceded by | William Russell John Fleming |
| Succeeded by | The Earl of Darlington John Gregson |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 19 February 1787 London, England |
| Died | 20 February 1866 (aged 79) London, England |
| Spouse |
Mary Longman
(m. 1819; died 1866) |
| Relations | William Strahan (grandfather) Andrew Strahan (uncle) |
| Children | 5, including William |
| Parent(s) | John Spottiswoode Margaret Penelope Strahan |
| Education | Edinburgh High School |
| Occupation | Printer, publisher, politician |
Andrew Spottiswoode (19 February 1787 – 20 February 1866) was a Scottish printer, publisher and politician, MP for Saltash from 1826 to 1830, and Colchester from 1830 to 1831.[1]
Life
Spottiswoode was born in London on 19 February 1787. He was the fourth, but third surviving, son of John Spottiswoode (d. 1805) of Spottiswoode, Berwick, and Margaret Penelope Strahan. Among his siblings was brother, Robert Spottiswoode. On their father's death in 1805, his eldest brother, John Spottiswoode, inherited their father's Scottish estate and property in Tobago.[2]
His paternal grandparents were John Spottiswoode, an eminent advocate and legal author, and Mary (née Thomson) Spottiswoode of Fife.[2] The family descended from John Spottiswoode (1565–1639), Archbishop of St. Andrews and Lord Chancellor of Scotland.[1] His maternal grandparents were the former Margaret Penelope Elphinstone (a daughter of William Elphinstone, an Episcopal clergyman in Edinburgh) and William Strahan, an MP and publisher who was good friends with Benjamin Franklin.[3]
He was educated at Edinburgh High School.[1]
Career
In 1819 Andrew and his brother Robert assumed the management of the printing business of their uncle Andrew Strahan. They brought in steam-powered printing presses. They were also publishers, of works by Henry Fuseli and William Henry Pyne among others, including Anna Eliza Bray's memoir of her husband Charles Alfred Stothard.[4][5]
King's Printer
In 1830, Strahan was granted a renewed 30-year patent as King's Printer.[6] It resulted in a successful petition against Spottiswoode's election in Colchester, on the grounds that he was a government contractor.[7] The monopoly it conferred was also contested by Joseph Hume, a Radical colleague of Daniel Whittle Harvey to whom Spottiswoode had come second in Colchester (which elected two members). Hume made allegations about the patent, beginning a period in which the status of the monopoly was brought into play.[1]
Spottiswoode gave evidence on Bible printing costs to a parliamentary committee in 1832, as did David Hunter Blair who had the Scottish patent as King's Printer.[8] A criticism of him by the Baptist minister Thomas Curtis, due to allegations of inaccurate printing, was published in 1833.[9][10]
Political career
Spottiswoode was returned unopposed on the Russell interest as a Member of Parliament for Saltash, serving from 1826 to 1830.[1]
At the 1830 general election, he was a candidate for the open borough of Colchester, standing on the Blue interest. Spottiswoode finished second in the poll to Daniel Whittle Harvey, the radical sitting Member, but far ahead of the reformer William Mayhew. After Harvey raised issue with Spottiswoode's role as the King's Printer, Mayhew petitioned against his return, "alleging malpractice by the returning officer and bribery by Spottiswoode, but crucially arguing that his patent as king’s printer disqualified him, as a government contractor."[1] On petition, Spottiswoode's election to Colchester was declared void and a by-election was held where he was succeeded by Mayhew.[1]
Personal life
On 16 March 1819 Spottiswoode was married to Mary Longman (1801–1870), daughter of Thomas Norton Longman, the printer. In London they lived at 9 Bedford Square, and in Surrey, they owned Broome Hall.[1] Together, they had two sons and three daughters, including:[1][11]
- Rosa Spottiswoode (1821–1898), who lived at Drydown and never married.[12]
- Augusta Spottiswoode (1823–1912), a prominent suffragist.[12]
- William Spottiswoode (1825–1883), the mathematician and physicist; he married Elisa "Lise" Taylor Arbuthnot, a daughter of William Urquhart Arbuthnot (son of Sir William Arbuthnot, 1st Baronet), in 1861.[13]
- George Andrew Spottiswoode (1827–1899), who married Grace Frances Hammick, eldest daughter of the Rev. Sir St Vincent Hammick, 2nd Baronet.[14][15]
Spottiswoode died at his London home at 12 James Street, Buckingham Gate on 20 February 1866. Following his death, both Rosa and Augusta inherited equal shares in his four Life Assurance policies and thirteen shares each in the London Gas Light Company.[12]
Descendants
Through his son William, he was a grandfather of William Hugh Spottiswoode (1864–1915)[16][17] and Cyril Andrew Spottiswoode (1867–1915).[18]
Through his son George, he was posthumously a grandfather of Capt. John Spottiswoode (1874–1914) of the 6th Battalion, King's Royal Rifle Corps, who was killed in action at Gheluvelt during World War I; he had married married Sybil Gwendolen Ginsbury in 1907. His sister, Mabel Spottiswoode, married Robert Stansfield Herries (elder brother of Sir William Herries, both nephews of William Wickham, MP, and grandsons of Henry Lewis Wickham, Receiver General of Gibraltar).
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i "SPOTTISWOODE, Andrew (1787-1866), of 9 Bedford Square, Mdx. and Broome Hall, Dorking, Surr. - History of Parliament Online". www.historyofparliamentonline.org. Retrieved 11 August 2018.
- ^ a b "Summary of Individual | John Spottiswoode". wwwdepts-live.ucl.ac.uk. Legacies of British Slavery. Retrieved 30 July 2025.
- ^ Namier, Sir Lewis. "STRAHAN, William (1715-85), of Little New St., London". www.historyofparliamentonline.org. History of Parliament Online. Retrieved 30 July 2025.
- ^ "Spottiswoode and Co - Graces Guide". www.gracesguide.co.uk.
- ^ "A. and R. Spottiswoode (London), Royal Academy of Arts". www.royalacademy.org.uk.
- ^ Eyre and Spottiswoode, gracesguide.co.uk. Retrieved 18 November 2018.
- ^ "Colchester 1820–1832, History of Parliament Online". www.histparl.ac.uk.
- ^ Howsam, Leslie (8 August 2002). Cheap Bibles: Nineteenth-Century Publishing and the British and Foreign Bible Society. Cambridge University Press. pp. 112–113. ISBN 978-0-521-52212-0.
- ^ Curtis, Thomas (1833). The Existing Monopoly, an Inadequate Protection of the Authorised Version of Scripture. Four Letters to the Right Hon. and Right Rev. the Lord Bishop of London; with Specimens of the International, and Other Departures from the Authorised Standard. To which is Added, a Postscript, Containing the "complaints" of a London Committee of Ministers on the Subject; the Reply of the Universities; and a Report on the Importance of the Alterations Made. Effingham Wilson.
- ^ Campbell, Gordon (28 October 2010). Bible: The Story of the King James Version 1611-2011. Oxford University Press. p. 149. ISBN 978-0-19-955759-2.
- ^ Brake, Laurel; Demoor, Marysa (2009). Dictionary of Nineteenth-century Journalism in Great Britain and Ireland. Academia Press. p. 377. ISBN 978-90-382-1340-8.
- ^ a b c "Augusta Spottiswoode (?1824-1912)". www.exploringsurreyspast.org. Retrieved 30 July 2025.
- ^ "Spottiswoode biography". www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk. Retrieved 11 August 2018.
- ^ College, Winchester (1923). Winchester College, 1867-1920. P. and G. Wells. p. 183. Retrieved 30 July 2025.
- ^ Debrett's Illustrated Peerage and Baronetage, Titles of Courtesy and the Knightage. Kelly's Directories. 1918. p. 310. Retrieved 30 July 2025.
- ^ Who's Who. An Annual Biographical Dictionary. Editors → (i) 1849–1850: Henry Robert Addison (1805–1876); (ii) 1851–1864: Charles Henry Oakes (1810–1864); (iii) 1865–1896: William John Lawson; (iv) 1897–1899: Douglas Brooke Wheelton (1856–1947); (v) 1900–19??: Anonymous. London: Adam and Charles Black. New York: The Macmillan Company.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link) Retrieved 13 March 2014. LCCN 04-16933; ISSN 0083-937X; OCLC 1171380274 (all editions), OCLC 56431030 (all editions) - ^ "William Hugh Spottiswoode". p. 108 – via Google Books (Cal Berkeley).
- ^ Letters (1877). CLIF (collection): "Papers of W.K. Clifford, 1860s–1970s" A1 (section): "Letters to Family Members". Clifford Collection → Spottiswoode, Cyril Andrew (1867–1915), son of William Spottiswoode. Cambridge: Trinity College.