HANSARD, LUKE (1752-1828)

This article appears in Volume V12, Page 928 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: HAN-HEG

HANSARD, LUKE (1752-1828) , English printer, was born on the 5th of July 1752 in St Mary's parish,ENorwich. He was educated at Boston grammar school, and was apprenticed to Stephen White, a Norwich printer. As soon as his apprenticeship had expired Hansard started for London with only a

guinea

GUINEA

in his pocket, and became a compositor in the office of John Hughs (1703-1771), printer to the

House

HOUSE
HOUSE (O. Eng. hiss, a word common to Teutonic languages, cf. Dut. huis, Ger. Haus; in
Gothic
- GOTHIC
it is only found in gudhiss, a temple; it may be ultimately connected with the root of " hide," conceal)

of Commons. In 1774 he was made a partner, and undertook almost the entire conduct of the business, which in 1800 came completely into his hands. On the admission of his sons the firm became 'Luke Hansard & Sons. Among those whose friendship Hansard won in the exercise of his profession were Robert Orme,

Burke

and Dr Johnson; while Porson praised him as the most accurate printer of Greek. He printed the Journals of the

House

HOUSE
HOUSE (O. Eng. hiss, a word common to Teutonic languages, cf. Dut. huis, Ger. Haus; in
Gothic
- GOTHIC
it is only found in gudhiss, a temple; it may be ultimately connected with the root of " hide," conceal)

of Commons from 1774 till his death. The promptitude and accuracy with which Hansard printed parliamentary papers were often of the greatest service to governmentnotably on one occasion when the proof-sheets of the report of the

Secret

SECRET (Lat. secretum, hidden, concealed)

Committee on the French Revolution were submitted to Pitt twenty-four hours after the draft had left his hands. On the union with Ireland in 18o1, the increase of parliamentary printing compelled Hansard to give up all private printing except when parliament was not sitting. He devised numerous expedients for reducing the expense of publishing the reports; and in 18o5, when his workmen struck at a time
9z8
of

great

GREAT

pressure, he and his sons themselves set to

work

WORK

as compositors. Luke Hansard died on the 29th of October 1828,
His son, TsoMAs CURSON HANSARD (1776-1833), established a press of his own in Paternoster Row, and began in 1803 to print the Parliamentary Debates, which were not at first independent reports, but were taken from the

newspapers

NEWSPAPERS

. After 1889 the debates were published by the Hansard Publishing Union Limited. T. C. Hansard was the author of Typographic, an Historical Sketch of the Origin and Progress of the Art of Printing (1825). The

original

ORIGINAL

business remained in the hands of his younger brothers, James and Luke

Graves

GRAVES, ALFRED PERCEVAL (1846— )

Hansard (1777-1851). The firm was prosecuted in 1837 by John Joseph Stockwell for printing by order of the House of Commons, in an official report of the inspector of prisons, statements regarded by the plaintiff as libellous. Hansard sheltered himself on the ground of privilege, but it was not until after much litigation that the security of the printers of government reports was guaranteed by statute in 1840.

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