George Thomason

George Thomason (d. April 1666) was an English book collector. He is famous for assembling a collection of more than 22,000 books and pamphlets published during the time of the English Civil War and the interregnum. His collection was formerly known as the "King's Pamphlets" after King George III, but is now called the Thomason Collection of Civil War Tracts.

During the years just before the outbreak of war a great number of writings covering every phase of the questions in dispute between king and people were issued, and in 1641 Thomason began to collect these. Working diligently at his task for about twenty years, he possessed nearly 23,000 separate publications in 1662, and having arranged these in chronological order he had them bound in 1983 volumes. [1911|article=THOMASON GEORGE] Thomason was concerned in a royalist plot in 1651.

Prior to his death in 1666, Thomason entrusted the collection to the care of Thomas Barlow, provost of The Queen's College at the University of Oxford and a future Bishop of Lincoln. Barlow and his agents attempted to sell the tracts to the university, the British government, and private collectors, but found that none were willing to meet their price. Finally, in 1762, John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute purchased the collection on behalf of King George III and that same year donated it to the British Museum. In 1973, the museum transferred the Thomason Collection to the British Library. [ [http://www.bl.uk/collections/early/thomason.html Thomason Collection of Civil War Tracts] , British Library]

References

Persondata
NAME = Thomason, George
ALTERNATIVE NAMES = Thomson, George; Thompson, George; Tompson, George
SHORT DESCRIPTION = Book collector
DATE OF BIRTH = ca. 1602
PLACE OF BIRTH = Sudlow, Cheshire or Westham, Sussex
DATE OF DEATH = 1666
PLACE OF DEATH = Mickleham, Surrey