Robert Littlebury, Jr.

Biography

From "The Acquisition of Books by Chetham's Library 1655-1700" by Matthew Yeo. GoogleBooks

Robert Littleberry was christened on 16 Oct 1622 at St.Botolph, Colchester, Essex, England and he was the only child of Jane & Robert Lytlebery or Littlebury [1] a fishmonger.

His father was a prosperous landowner and was able to send him to the local grammar school. [2]

He was freed into the Haberdashers' in 1647 and retained membership of the Haberdashers Company throughout his life.

He was a bookseller and first kept a shop at the "sign of the Unicorn" and then the Kings Arms in Little Britain which was the place to go for rare books. He was engaged to supply books to Chetham's Library in the mid-1650s which was quite a coup.

In a 1668 letter he mentioned his unnamed wife.

In the 1670s he produced 2 extensive catalogues in Latin and French. By 1695 he had built quite a reputation as an importer of books from the Continent and established himself as an authority on the trade.

Disputed sister

Many online family trees cite her parents as fishmonger, Robert Littlebury, Sr. and Jane Marye Littlebury ... but this cannot be since their ONLY child was a well known bookseller, Robert Littlebury, Jr. who was born on the very date that this profile has for this Elizabeth Eppes.

References

• "England Births and Christenings 1538-1975" at FamilySearch database (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JSLC-4J5 : 11 Feb 2018 citing index based upon data collected by the Genealogical Society of Utah, in Salt Lake City, UT; for Robert Lytlebery, christening: 16 Oct 1622 St.Botolph, Colchester, England.
• ” A dictionary of the printers and booksellers who were at work in England, Scotland and Ireland from 1668 to 1725” page 191. Archive.Org
• Palmer, Philip S. The Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America, vol. 109, no. 3, 2015, pp. 425–428. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/683156. Accessed 15 July 2020.
• Rostenberg, Leona. “Robert Scott, Restoration Stationer and Importer.” The Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America, vol. 48, no. 1, 1954, pp. 49–76. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/24299470. Accessed 15 July 2020.