Fondo BAS - The Baskett and Durnford Papers

9 document boxes

The papers were originally catalogued by Charles Rivington, Honorary Librarian of the Stationers' Company, and were marked up accordingly. Rivington divided the documents into sections dealing with the different families concerned (I to X) with a final section (XI) for miscellaneous documents; but these overlap to some extent, owing to the intermarriages or business relationship (e.g. there are references to Mount and Page in both Section I and Section V). Rivington also provided manuscript copies, summaries or abstracts of most of the documents (excepting those marked in his catalogue with an asterisk). Rivington's original catalogue has been archived and scanned, and his original numbers retained in the alternative reference number field. This catalogue has not yet been put online - please contact us if you want to know more about this collection.

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Draft

Online catalogue pending

The Baskett family held the Office of King's Printers during the greater part of the eighteenth century. John Baskett was Master of the Company in 1714 and 1715.

Others in the printing or allied trades mentioned in the documents are the Cornish, Mount, Herbert and Wynde families and there are also references to other individuals including John Barber, Samuel Richardson and 'Mr. Walter' (possibly John Walter, founder of the Times).

Nearly all of these families are connected to the Durnford family, by marriage, business or ownership of property. The Durnfords carried on the business of Pinmakers in premises on Old London Bridge until the houses on the Bridge were taken down; many of them were members of the now defunt Pinmakers or Pinners' Company. In 1729, Thomas Durnford married Deborah, daughter of John Wynde, Citizen and Stationer, whilst Thomas's sister Susanna Durnford married William Herbert, stationer and paper-maker, who also had a house on London Bridge and later moved to Monument Yard, Gracechurch Street. There his sons Robert and William carried on his business; William was at one time in partnership with James Durnford, who had been apprenticed to Robert.

Another Susanna Durnford married Mark Baskett in 1762. In 1801, the Rev. Richard Durnford married Louisa Mount, daughter of William Mount of the firm of Mount and Page, stationers of Tower Hill. Louisa's grandfather William Mount and great grandfather Richard Mount were both Masters of the Sationers' Company.

31/03/2026

Stationers' Company Archive