---
_id: cni00054662
data:
  actDates:
    - end: 1858
      lang: eng
      start: 1819
      text: 1819-1858
  actNote:
    - intro: acti
      lang: eng
      text: bookbinder
    - end: 1832
      intro: acti
      lang: eng
      start: 1829
      text: polyartist
    - intro: acti
      lang: eng
      start: 1834
      text: polyartist and dealer in antiquities
    - end: 1836
      intro: acti
      lang: eng
      start: 1835
      text: polyartist
  extResource:
    - display: http://www.nls.uk/
      note:
        - lang: eng
          text: Scottish Book Trade Index online (list)
      url: http://www.nls.uk/catalogues/scottish-book-trade-index
  external:
    - auth: NLS-SBTI
      country: UK
      date: 20080207
  foundIn:
    - Edin Dir
    - Pigot 1820; 1825
    - EdinBurg
    - DNB
    - "Leslie Fleming. “An Octogenarian Printer's Recollections”. Edinburgh, 1893;"
  generalNote:
    - lang: eng
      text: "Born in 1788. D.N.B. says that he was shop assistant to Robert Kinnear in South Frederick Street, Edinburgh. This is likely to have been around 1810-15, and that he spent five years with Duncan Stevenson, the University Printers, where he 'effected improvements in the art of stereotyping'. Burgess as apprentice to James M'Cleish bookseller 3 September 1816. He had wide interests, he published “An Essay on the War-Galleys of the Ancients”. Edinburgh, 1826; “The life and adventures of Alexander Selkirk”. Edinburgh, 1829; “The life of Alexander Alexander”. Edinburgh, 1830; “A concise and accurate account of the accident that occurred at the sale of Lord Eldin's pictures by a sufferer”. Edinburgh, 1833. He is said to have edited “The journal of a soldier of the 71st Regiment, 1806-15”; “The life of John Nichol, the Mariner”; and to have written several of Wilson's “Tales of the Borders”. He was probably a relative of William Howell who shared a house with him at one time. Leslie Fleming described him as 'a person who seemed to know a little of everything, yet failed in most of his inventions... He at one time tried the experiment of flying, and took his start from somewhere about the foot of Ramsay Lane, finishing in the Nor' Loch. He next tried by mechanical means to walk on the water, but this was seen to be equally dangerous. He was occasionally employed in taking the features of deceased persons. He made an ingenious model of Edinburgh, now kept in Stevenson's foundry, for which he got a few shillings after he left Stevenson's employment, being in very straitened circumstances. He was employed in the foundry for a lengthened period, and while there originated a process of moulding by means of dry stucco which was a great success.' He died in 1863."
  heading:
    - part:
        - entry: Howell
        - firstname: John
      usedBy:
        - NLS-SBTI
  name:
    - end: 1828
      part:
        - entry: John Howell
        - addition: dealer in antiquities
      start: 1827
      typeOfName: varn
  place:
    - id: cnl00026636
      part:
        - name: Edinburgh
      typeOfPlace: actv
    - end: 1825
      id: cnl00026636
      part:
        - name: Edinburgh
        - address: 30 Thistle-street
      start: 1819
      typeOfPlace: actv
    - end: 1828
      id: cnl00026636
      part:
        - name: Edinburgh
        - address: 1 Howe Street
      start: 1827
      typeOfPlace: actv
    - end: 1832
      id: cnl00026636
      part:
        - name: Edinburgh
        - address: 67 Thistle Street
      start: 1829
      typeOfPlace: actv
    - id: cnl00026636
      part:
        - name: Edinburgh
        - address: 43 Hanover Street
      start: 1833
      typeOfPlace: actv
    - id: cnl00026636
      part:
        - name: Edinburgh
        - address: 22 Rose Street
      start: 1834
      typeOfPlace: actv
    - end: 1836
      id: cnl00026636
      part:
        - name: Edinburgh
        - address: 18 Frederick Street
      start: 1835
      typeOfPlace: actv
    - end: 1843
      id: cnl00026636
      part:
        - name: Edinburgh
        - address: 110 Rose Street
      start: 1837
      typeOfPlace: actv
    - end: 1846
      id: cnl00026636
      part:
        - name: Edinburgh
        - address: 22 South Frederick Street
      start: 1844
      typeOfPlace: actv
    - id: cnl00026636
      part:
        - name: Edinburgh
        - address: 22 South Frederick Street
      start: 1847
      typeOfPlace: actv
    - note:
        - lang: eng
          text: house
      part:
        - name: 110 Rose Street
      start: 1847
      typeOfPlace: resd
    - end: 1858
      id: cnl00026636
      part:
        - name: Edinburgh
        - address: 110 Rose Street
      start: 1848
      typeOfPlace: actv
  related:
    - end: 1830
      id: cni00054663
      note:
        - lang: eng
          text: '*30 Thistle-street, **Edinburgh'
      part:
        - entry: William Howell
      start: 1826
      typeOfEntity: cni
      typeOfRelationship: ex:hasRelatedEntity
  typeOfEntry: 0
meta:
  history:
    - timestamp: 2014-03-14T12:00:00Z
  remark:
    - 'SBTI original entry: HOWELL, John <bookbinder> Edinburgh'
    - 'Warning: the SBTI information was converted from unstructured format by automation. The assignment of data elements is to be regarded with caution.'
  status: n