Samuel Harding (d. 1755)

HARDING, SAMUEL. He may have been the son, or at least the successor, of the above [John]. His career is not at all plain, but he was certainly trading at the Post House, St. Martin's Lane, in 1725 and at the Bible and Anchor, St. Martin's Lane in 1735, for in that year he published Roberti Stephani Thesaurus Linguæ Latinæ in four volumes. He died at Edgware on Jan. 18, 1755.

—Frederick T. Wood, 22 August 1931

HARDING, SAMUEL. Despite the fact that John Harding (? his father) was paying rates on the house up till 1734 (as mentioned above [John Harding]), Samuel Harding was already engaged in the bookselling trade as early as 1724. In this year his imprint "S. Harding at the Post House in St. Martin's Lane" appeared on a publication by Daniel Defoe entitled 'The Great Law of Subordination consider'd; Or the Insolence and Unsufferable Behaviour of Servants in England duly enquir'd into.' An advertisement in the Daily Post, 10 Jan., 1726, describes the position of the Post House as "on the Pavement." I have a finely engraved trade card of "Samuel Harding, bookseller and stationer at the Bible and Anchor on the Pavement in St. Martin's Lane," on which he claims to make "most excellent Black Ink, call'd Amsterdam Ink." This card would have been issued about the time that he was announcing in the Daily Advertiser (1741–2) that he was "taking in" advertisements for that paper. MacMichael, in his 'Charing Cross' (p. 171), says " This Harding seems to have been 'the author of a little book on the 'Monograms of Old Engravers,' and here he sold old prints." It was to this shop that Wilson, the Sergeant-Painter, took an etching of his own which was sold to Hudson as a genuine Rembrandt. (Smith's 'Nollekens and his Times').

—Ambrose Heal, 3 October 1931