Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 24.djvu/322

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Hanover
308
Hansard

of this white man by so unusual a route. Dreading some scheme of conquest, orders were given to seize Hannington whenever he should appear. On 21 Oct. 1885 the command was executed, and after eight days' confinement, during which he suffered terribly from sickness and privation, he and almost all his attendants were brutally murdered.

Hannington married Blanche, daughter of Captain James Michael Hankin-Turvin, by whom he had several children.

[James Hannington, first Bishop of Eastern Equatorial Africa, by E. C. Dawson, M.A., 1887.]

T. H.

HANOVER, King of. [See Ernest Augustus, 1771–1851.]

HANSARD, LUKE (1752–1828), printer, was born in the parish of St. Mary, Norwich, 5 July 1752. His father, Thomas Hansard (1727-1769),was a manufacturer in that city. Young Hansard was educated at Boston grammar school, Lincolnshire, and was apprenticed to Stephen White, printer, Cockey Lane, Norwich. He entered as compositor the printing office of John Hughs (1703-1771), Great Turnstile, Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, printer to the House of Commons, and became acting manager and partner in 1774. Hughs did most of the printing for the Dodsleys, and Dr. Johnson was always glad that Hansard should attend to his requirements. Among the important publications with which Hansard was connected may be mentioned Orme's 'History of India,' Burke's 'Essay on the Sublime and Beautiful' and 'Essay on the French Revolution,' and Harris's 'Hermes.' He printed the 'Journals of the House of Commons' from 1774 to his death in 1828. Porson praised him as the most accurate of Greek printers. In 1800 he succeeded as the sole proprietor of the business. He subsequently took his sons into partnership, trading as Luke Hansard & Sons. The increasing parliamentary work and great accumulation of stock demanding more accommodation, they erected a new building in Parker Street, Drury Lane.

Among the technical improvements introduced by Hansard was one connected with printing in red and black from the same forme (T. C. Hansard, Typographia, 1825, p. 603). he was a man of unusual industry, and highly esteemed by the parliamentary officials. A portrait of him by S. Lane was exhibited at the South Kensington Museum in 1867. It was engraved by F. C. Lewis and prefixed to the 'Biographical Memoir,' London, 1829, 4to. He died 29 Oct. 1828 in his 77th year, and was buried in the parish church of St. Giles-in-the-Fields. He left three sons, Thomas Curson [q. v.], James, and Luke Graves (1777-1851), and two daughters. His widow died 18 May 1834. The two younger sons succeeded the father as printers to the House of Commons, and were succeeded by their respective sons. In 1837 the firm were the defendants in the famous action Stockdale v. Hansard, in which they were charged with libel for printing, by order of the House of Commons, a report of the inspectors of prisons [see Stockdale, John Joseph]. After 1847 Henry, son of Luke Graves Hansard, continued the business.

[Memoir by John Rickman, a chief clerk of the House of Commons, appeared in Gent. Mag. December 1828, pp. 559-66, reprinted for private circulation (with a portrait and some family letters), 1829, 4to; T. C. Hansard's Typographia, 1825, pp. 329-30; Nichols's Illustr. viii. 462, 502; Timperley's Encyclopædia, p. 905; Bigmore and Wyman's Bibliography of Printing, 1880, i. 299-301.]

H. R. T.

HANSARD, THOMAS CURSON (1776–1833), printer, eldest son of Luke Hansard [q. v.], was born in London 6 Nov. 1776. For some years he was in his father's office, and in 1805 took over the business of Mr. Rickaby in Peterborough Court in the city of London. He moved to new premises in 1823, and established the Paternoster Row Press. His name has become famous from the 'Parliamentary Debates,' which he began to print in 1803. Since 1889 the 'Debates' have been produced by the Hansard Publishing Union, Limited. Hansard suffered imprisonment, 9 July 1810, as printer of the famous libel dealing with military flogging in Cobbett's 'Political Register.' He wrote 'Typographia, an Historical Sketch of the Origin and Progress of the Art of Printing; with Practical Directions for conducting every department in an Office, with a description of Stereotype and Lithography,' London, 1825, 8vo, with a woodcut portrait of the author. The practical portion of the book was re-edited in 1869 by G. Challoner. Hansard took out a patent for the improvement of the handpress. At one time he was a member of the common council of the city of London. Hedied in Chatham Place, Blackfriars, 14 May 1833, leaving several children. His eldest son, Thomas Curson Hansard, barrister, has written some books on the history of printing, sometimes attributed to the father.

[Gent. Mag. June 1833, p. 569; Ann. Reg. 1833; Timperley's Encyclopædia, pp. 839, 857, 928; Bigmore and Wyman's Bibliography of Printing, i. 301-5.]

H. R. T.