LATHROP, RICHARD (d. 1764), bookseller and printer at Shrewsbury .
There is no certainty that he was Welsh and his production of Welsh books, including ballads, was but small compared with that of his Shrewsbury contemporaries, Thomas Durston (q.v.) and Stafford Prys (q.v.). He began as a master printer in 1738 (see Cambriae Suspiria In Obitum … Reginae Carolinae … Authore Tho. Richards), and was admitted a freeman of the ‘Combrethren of Saddlers …’ on 22 June 1739. His wife, whom he m. on 14 Feb. 1737/8, was Mary Hesketh. Lathrop was buried on 1 Nov. 1764.
Bibliography:
- W. Rowlands, Llyfr. y Cym.;
- J. H. Davies, Bibliog. Welsh Ballads;
- Ifano Jones, Hist. of Printing and Printers in Wales;
- Llewelyn C. Lloyd, ‘The Book Trade in Shropshire,’ in Trans. Shrops. Arch., 1935, 1936.
Author:
Sir William Llewelyn Davies, M.A., LL.D., F.S.A. (1887-1952), Aberystwyth
