England Directories: Difference between revisions

The publication of directories, originally alphabetical lists of the names and addresses of tradesmen, was very much a consequence of the growth of permanent shopping and trading centres in the 18th century.  

A run of directories will show changes in the name of a business, its address and activities, perhaps indicating when it was formed, the dissolution of a partnership or a bankruptcy, any of which may suggest a search in ''The London Gazette''. For many businesses, however, the directory entry will be its only surviving record. An advertisement in a directory may give more detail about the actual business carried on, sometimes even picturing the premises and examples of its products. The directory may have a separate index to these, usually in the prefatory material.  

Before the compilation of the national computerised indexes to census returns, directories were collected in order to help identify households in the returns. Directories may still be used to check the name of the occupant of a particular address, or to assess the completeness or otherwise of the census entries in a named street.  

=== London Directories  ===

In 1734 Brown and Kent's ''Directory of the Cities of London and Westminster and the Borough of Southwark'' (available as an online resource in BYU's Harold B. Lee Library) appeared, the first of an annual series by different publishers. In 1763 Mortimer's ''Universal Directory'' began to include retail shops, being addressed more to the visitor than to the tradesman. The alphabetical and consolidated list of traders known as the Commercial Directory remained, but now separate lists by individual trade, the Trade Directory, was introduced. Holden in 1799 introduced lists of the better class of private residents, later to be called the Court Directory, and Robson in 1823 first regularly listed tradesmen by street. Employees were conspicuous by their absence.  

The involvement of Post Office officials from 1800 onwards led to more accurate directories. The copyrights of one official, Critchett, were obtained by another, Frederic Kelly, in 1836, and his ''Post Office Directory of London'' (the BYU Harold B Lee Library has online access to a number of his directories as well as the 1923 edition on Microform '''CS 43 .G46x LH18781'''), printed by his brother W. Kelly that year, began a lasting series. Stopped from using the services of Post Office officials in 1847, his firm tried unsuccessfully to establish an exclusive right to the title ''Post Office Directory'', but he still called all his volumes ''Post Office Directories'' and put the Royal Arms on their red covers.  

=== Official Directory  ===

After an interval of some years William Holden, a coal merchant in Clerkenwell, who had started to publish directories of London under the title ''Triennial Directory'' in 1799, produced in 1805 a volume containing alphabetical directories for 84 towns. This went through several expanded and relatively expensive editions until 1811. His ambition was to produce a classified directory but most subscribers wanted an alphabetical list.  

It was James Pigot, the printer of a long series of Manchester directories, who took up the production of national directories in 1814, stimulated by the prospect of revived foreign trade, producing a growing series that extended into Ireland and Scotland in 1820, and to London and the south-east in 1822-23. He published directories for groups of counties, including villages as well as towns, arranging the names by trade, making fresh surveys through agents every six or seven years, but re-issuing many in the intervals with only an addenda or a changed date. After 1840, in the face of ruthless competition from Kelly's directories Pigot slowly retreated to the north, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. He died in 1843 but had been in partnership with Isaac Salter since 1839. Their company continued until 1892 when it was taken over by Kelly's Directories Ltd.  

Another firm taken over by Kelly at the end of the 19th century was that founded by William White. White had himself taken over several directories that were appearing in the north in the 1820s, including that published by the historian Edward Baines for Leeds. He then extended his activities to other counties, attaching great importance to historical and scientific information. He inconveniently arranged the parish entries according to their Hundred, but his green-bound directories were very popular. In 1854 his Norfolk directory for 1845 was pirated by a rival, Francis White, whose work is generally far less competent.  

=== How Directories were Compiled  ===

=== Collections of Directories  ===

=== Current Directories  ===

== Bibliography  ==

[[Category:England Directories]] [[Category:Wales Directories]]