William Innys (d. 1756)

Identifiers

Occupations

  • Bookseller
  • Publisher

Names

  • William Innys
  • William Innes

William Innys, bookseller and publisher; at the Prince's Arms at the west end of St. Paul's Churchyard (1710–32); corner of Ludgate Street / west end of St. Paul's Churchyard; 26 Paternoster Row (1744–56).

A Dictionary of the Printers and Booksellers who were at Work in England, Scotland and Ireland from 1668 to 1725, by Henry Plomer (1922)

INNYS (WILLIAM), bookseller in London, Prince's Arms, St. Paul's Churchyard, 1711–32. One of the leading booksellers in London in the first quarter of the eighteenth century. Succeeded B. Walford at this house. He made his first entry in the Term Catalogues in Easter 1711. [T.C. III. 659.] In 1713 he subscribed five guineas to the Bowyer fund. He was afterwards joined by John Innys. In 1720 they issued an eight-page miscellaneous catalogue of books printed for them, including Clarendon's History of the Rebellion, 6 vols.; Strype's Life of Archbishop Whitgift; and Le Neve's Monumenia Anglicana, 5 vols. In 1722 they were among the booksellers receiving subscriptions for a folio edition of Sir Henry Spelman's Works. [Nichols, Lit. Anecd., I. 240.] They were also the publishers of many of Sir Isaac Newton's
works. They were still at work in 1732. [Roberts, Cambridge Press, p. 91.]

Notes & Queries "London Booksellers Series" (1931–2)

INNYS, W. He was for some years in partnership with his brother, John, at the Prince's Arms, at the West End of St. Paul's Churchyard. From this address they published in 1710, "Practical Observations upon the Miracles of Our Saviour, By Francis Bragge, B.D., Vicar of Hitchin." (See the Daily Courant, March 16, 1710). In 1720, when it took over the publication of the 'Bibliotheca Biblica,' from Taylor and Clements, the firm was still conducted under the two names but the partnership seems to have been dissolved soon after, and henceforth to have been run under the sole direction of William. In 1733 or 1734 he appears to have entered into an agreement with Curll and Pemberton, and the three published several works conjointly. (See the list given in the Daily Journal, 8 Jan., 1734). He was still publishing in 1750, by this date in Paternoster Row.

—Frederick T. Wood, 29 August, 1931

 

INNYS, W. He was in partnership with R. Manby at the Prince's Arms, in St. Paul's Churchyard, c. 1740.

INNYS, WILLIAM. The stock of William Innys deceased was sold by auction 17 Feb., 1757.

—Ambrose Heal, 31 October 1931

 

INNYS, WILLIAM and JOHN (clxi. 154, 316). We can extend the partnership of these two brothers up to the year 1728.

—Ambrose Heal, 13 February 1932