Featherstone & Co. 

William Charleton Featherstone was born circa 1794-95 in Plymouth and died 3rd February 1858 in Exeter. He married Jane (born 1808) from Stepney in Middlesex and they had one son, Samuel. It was Jane who registered William’s death and it was probably she who announced the sale of her late husband’s business to John Pollard in the Exeter Flying Post of 18th March of the same year. William worked from a large number of addresses and William is listed at 67 Fore Street in Pigot’s 1822 directory. Between September 1832 and April 1833 18 issues of The Western Spy were published but only the first two under Featherstone; the others were published by W C Pollard. He also published the Western Times for a while but severed connection with the paper to start up Featherstone’s Exeter Times in 1836 which was not successful and ran for only four months.

Featherstone seems to have published very little in his career. However, he did print and sell D McNee Stirling‘s The Beauties of Shute (1834) which was probably published by the author. George Oliver‘s Ecclesiastical Antiquities in Devon, a very popular work, was published by Featherstone in 1840-42. A year later Charles Medyett Goodridge‘s Narrative of a Voyage to the South Seas Fifth Edition appeared (1843) and William Shortt‘s Greek notes in Latin and English is believed to have been published by Featherstone (1850).
In the 1850s Featherstone produced and published two maps of Exeter. The first is clearly drawn and printed by the company but the second only has the Featherstone business address. The first may well have been a folding map for tourists while the second seems to be an advertising leaflet: the title has not only the address but there is an inset plan of the High Street with the location of the Feathersone printing office just off the High Street and his circulating library a few yards away in Bedford Street.


Featherstone 1

Size: 445 x 592 mm. Scale (100 Links + 20 = 75 mm) CHAINS.

MAP OF THE CITY OF EXETER, EMBRACING ALL THE Alterations and Improvements to the Present Period. (Ba) together with imprint: DRAWN, PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY FEATHERSTONE & CO. LITHOGRAPHERS AND PRINTERS. 246, High Street, Exeter. Second imprint: FEATHERSTONE & CO. LITHOGRAPHERS & PRINTERS, NO 246, HIGH ST. EXETER (CeOS). Plain 5 line border, north point (Ca), a panel on either side showing the ‘Street List’, Scale bar (Dd), City Arms (Da) with a note POPULATION 1851, CITY OF EXETER, including ST THOMAS &c. 38,886., three panels at the bottom listing parishes, churches, public buildings. The Bristol & Exeter Railway line and station are shown and the South Devon line.

1.1852 Loose sheet (DevA).


Featherstone 2

Size: 180 x 233 mm.  SCALE OF FEET (1000 = 40 mm). 

MAP OF EXETER. (CaOS). Imprint in panel: FEATHERSTONE, Lithographer, 246 HIGH STREET, Exeter. CIRCULATING LIBRARY, BEDFORD STREET. See below (Aa). Plain two line border; scale bar (Ce); north point (De); two reference panels - Churches (Ea) - Chapels (Ed); enlarged plan showing the printing office and the library (Ae).

A simple block plan. Shows the ‘intended Exeter & Yeovil Railway’ line. Only main roads are named.

1. 1855 Loose sheet (DevA).




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Image
  John Bartholomew –  Imperial Map 2 W H Smith was   founded c.1820 by Henry Edward   and his brother William Henry (who actually ran   the company). But it was not until Henry’s son, also William Henry (1825-1891), became a partner in 1846 that the firm became the well-known booksellers and stationers. In 1848 he started a newsagent shop at Euston with a concession from the L&NW Railway. This was soon to be converted into a virtual railway book-stall monopoly. The firm soon became the largest newsagent in the country and expanded further into circulating libraries.   William Henry later entered Parliament and became the First Lord of the Admiralty in 1877 (Gilbert & Sullivan’s HMS Pinafore was supposedly based on him). [1] W H Smith used to have an estate in Rewe in east Devon where he had a stable built opposite St Mary the Virgin church for the use of the parishioners so that they could tie up their horses. [2] At the same time as the maps ...
Read more
Image
 John Bartholomew 8 -  for Charles Pearson   Charles Arthur   Pearson produced a number of Gossipy Guides   at the beginning of the 20th century. Styled along the lines of the Ward and Lock series of guides they were full of photographic material in a handy pocket size. The two guides relating to Devon were the Guide to Ilfracombe and District (cover title; number 4 in the series)   and Guide to South Devon (number 8 in the series).   Both British Library volumes have accession dates of 1901. It is interesting that Pearson took maps from different sources to include in his two Devon guides. The map of South Devon included in the South Devon Guide was a transfer of Bartholomew’s map: however, the map of North Devon is taken from the plates prepared by Ravenstein for George Philip & Son   in 1899. The scale reveals that this is a Philip’s map (see Pearson 1 ) .   Bartholomew Imperial Map 8 (Pearson)   Size: 257 x 385 mm. ...
Read more
Image
 John Bartholomew 3 -  for Houlston & Wright / Houlston & Sons   Houlston and Wright , and later Houlston & Sons , were supplied by John Bartholomew with maps for their series of Tourists’ Maps . The output was impressive with maps covering most of England and Wales’ tourist areas but the maps seem to have been all produced between 1865-1875. Houlston and Wright advertised 27 maps on their map of Plymouth and Dartmoor (3c) but Houlston and Sons were advertising 50 maps only a few years later (on cover to 3d) but not Torquay. Although the British Library holds a copy of Sophie Veitch ‘s A Lonely Life   dated 1870 most of the early Houlston & Sons imprints are dated 1872. In the following year Houlston & Sons published a volume of N T Carrington’s poems (Noel Thomas Carrington   1777-1830) in conjunction with William Wood of Devonport. Dartmoor and The Banks of the Tamar were published as one volume, probably to exploit the fact that th...
Read more