1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Timbs, John

TIMBS, JOHN (1801–1875), English antiquary, was born in Clerkenwell, London, on the 17th of August 1801. He was educated at a private school at Hemel Hempstead, and in his sixteenth year apprenticed to a druggist and printer at Dorking. He had early shown literary capacity, and when nineteen began to write for the Monthly Magazine. A year later he became secretary to Sir Richard Phillips, its proprietor, and permanently adopted literature as a profession. He was successively editor of the Mirror of Literature, the Harlequin, the Literary World, and sub-editor of the Illustrated London News. He was also founder and first editor of Year-Book of Science and Art. His published works amounted to more than one hundred and fifty volumes. In 1834 he was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. He died in London on the 6th of March 1875.