James Granger

Life

The son of William Granger, by Elizabeth Tutt, daughter of Tracy Tutt, he was born of poor parents at Shaston, Dorset. On 26 April 1743 he matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford, but left the university without taking a degree.

Having entered into holy orders, he was presented to the vicarage of Shiplake, Oxfordshire, living a quiet life there. His political views gave rise to Samuel Johnson's remark: ‘The dog is a whig. I do not like much to see a whig in any dress, but I hate to see a whig in a parson's gown.’ Preparation of the materials for his Biographical History brought him into correspondence with many collectors of engraved portraits and students of English biography.

In 1773 or 1774 he accompanied Lord Mountstuart on a tour to Holland, where his companion made an extensive collection of portraits. Some time before his death he tried unsuccessfully to obtain a living within a moderate distance of Shiplake. On Sunday, 14 April 1776, he performed divine service apparently in his usual health, but, while in the act of administering the sacrament, was seized with an apoplectic fit, and died next morning.

A portrait of him was in the possession of his brother, John Granger, who died at Basingstoke on 21 March 1810, aged 82. His collection of upwards of 14,000 engraved portraits was dispersed by Greenwood in 1778.

Before the publication of the first edition of Granger's work in 1769 five shillings was considered a good price by collectors for any English portrait. After the appearance of the Biographical History, books, ornamented with engraved portraits, rose in price to five times their original value, and few could be found unmutilated. In 1856, Joseph Lilly and Joseph Willis, booksellers, each offered for sale an illustrated copy of Granger's work. Lilly's copy, which included Noble's ‘Continuation,’ was illustrated by more than thirteen hundred portraits, bound in 27 vols., price £42. The price of Willis's copy, which contained more than three thousand portraits, bound in 19 vols., was £38 10s. It had cost the former owner nearly £200.

The following collections have been published in illustration of Granger's work: (a) ‘Portraits illustrating Granger's Biographical History of England’ (known under the name of ‘Richardson's Collection’), 6 pts. Lond. 1792–1812; (b) Samuel Woodburn's ‘Gallery of [over two hundred] Portraits … illustrative of Granger's Biographical History of England, &c.,’ Lond. 1816; (c) ‘A Collection of Portraits to illustrate Granger's Biographical History of England and Noble's continuation to Granger, forming a Supplement to Richardson's Copies of rare Granger Portraits,’ 2 vols. Lond. 1820–2.

Extra-Illustration

Extra-illustration, the process by which drawings, prints and other visual materials were interleaved with a printed text -- often the history of a town, county or notable individual -- is frequently called "Grangerising" or "Grangerisation." These terms, however, only came into use from the 1880s, more than a century after Granger's death. Ironically for the process of book customization that carries his name, Granger never "grangerized" a book. There are many examples of extra-illustration, especially Granger's Biographical History. The most important and first extra-illustrated Granger was prepared by Richard Bull (MP). Now in the Huntington Library, California, it contains over 14,000 prints across 36 volumes. Another was prepared by the Bristol antiquarian George Weare Braikenridge, who "grangerized" his copy of the Biographical History with nearly 4,000 portraits. His main interest, however, was in extra-illustrating his copy of William Barrett's History and Antiquities of the City of Bristol.

Works

His works are: