Thomas Tegg

Born at Wimbledon in 1776 and orphaned at five, Tegg was apprenticed to a bookseller at Dalkeith before running away and working his way through Berwick and Newcastle.¹ He reached London in 1796, worked for the Minerva Library and for the Quaker booksellers John and Arthur Arch, then opened his own shop in Clerkenwell in 1800 — losing money there before rebuilding his stock by buying up duplicates from private libraries.¹ He returned to London in 1805 and opened at 111 Cheapside, moving to his final address at 73 Cheapside in 1824; his reputation rested chiefly on cheap reprints and abridgments of standard works, though he also issued original titles including, in 1825, the twenty-two-volume London Encyclopaedia.¹ Several of his sons carried the trade onward, including William, who succeeded him at Cheapside.¹