Archibald Constable
HeadingArchibald Constable [NLS-SBTI]
Dates of Activity1794-1831
Activity Notebookseller, stationer and publisher
General NoteBorn at Carnbee in Fife 24 February 1774. Apprenticed to Peter Hill bookseller, Edinburgh for six years 2 February 1788 - January 1794. Agreed to remain with Peter Hill as shopman for one year more. Married Mary Willison, daughter of David Willison, printer in Edinburgh, 16 January 1795. Member of the Edinburgh Bookseller's Society 4 April 1796. In 1804 he took Alexander Gibson Hunter into partnership and the firm became Archibald Constable & Co. Gibson Hunter retired from the partnership in 1811 to manage his estate which he had inherited on the death of his father in the previous year. Constable then entered into partnership with Robert Cathcart. At Cathcart's request his brother-in-law Robert Cadell was included in the partnership, which was to last for ten years. Robert Cathcart however died 18 November 1812. Constable's wife died 28 October 1814. Robert Cadell married Constable's eldest daughter on 14 October 1817. She died on 16 July 1818. Cadell remained with the firm until the crash of 1826. On the 12 February 1818, Constable remarried: his wife being Charlotte, daughter of the late John Neale. As a direct result of the bankruptcy of Constable's London agents Hurst, Robinson, and a long-term effect of the system of discounted bills set up in 1814 to prevent the immediate bankruptcy of Ballantyne & Co the firm of Archibald Constable & Co stopped payment on 19 January 1826. Archibald Constablr and Robert Cadell went their separate ways, Scott choosing to stay with Cadell. The company went into receivership, but Constable had the comfort of seeing his Miscellany published and a great success. Constable died on 21 July 1827. The National Library of Scotland has sale catalogues of 1799, 1801 and 1808 and that of the sequestrated estate. Archibald Fyfe of Constable & Co 1820; H.S.Constable of Constable & Co 1830. Archibald Constable died 21 July 1827. Archibald Constable's correspondence and that of the firm is in the National Library of Scotland (MSS 319-334; 668-684; 789-92 etc.). Sequestration in SRO 1827
1799-1804: Edinburgh: Opposite the Cross Well, North Side. CERL Thesaurus
See Also Archibald Constable & Co., (1804-1810)
*Opposite the Cross Well, North Side, **Edinburgh
SourceNLS Impr Ind
Last Edit2016-11-16 12:00:00