Life
1699-1775; 'The Prince of Dublin Printers', b. Dublin, opened printing and bookselling shop in 1726; started
Dublin Journal (1725-1825) [err. 1728]; first ed. Swift’s
works, supervised by Swift; 1735. Reprimanded by Lords for reflecting
on the honour of their house, 1733; committed to Newgate for printing
Hort’s pamphlet against Serjeant Bettesworth, 1736; his employee Killingbeck
(by his own acc.) employed on copying from the sheets of novels pirated
from London printing-houses; successfully pirated Pamela (31 Jan.
1741); acknowledged by Lord Chesterfield, Viceroy in 1745-46, as his adviser;
withdrew from publication of Sir Charles Grandison on finding another
Dublin publisher had obtained advance sheets, 1753, that novel actually
appearing in Dublin before it did in London; satirised by Foote, 1762;
published second edition of his friend Charles O’Conor’s Dissertations,
1766; Alderman, 1770; Ancient Universal History (1774); published
his friend Swift’s works, with notes (1772) [DNB, &c.; var. 1768];
had bust of Swift by Patrick Cunningham placed outside his shop, later
installed in St Patrick’s Cathedral; attempted to form link between Charles O’Conor of Belangare and Dr. Samuel Johnson, the former and his associates offering fifty guineas to the latter for a pamphlet in the Irish Catholic interest; the Dublin Journal was perpetuated
by Faulkner’s nephew; d. 30 Aug. 1775. RR DNB DIB OCIL
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Works
Publications (I) Faulkner’s Dublin Journal (1725-1825); first edition of Swift’s
Works printed by George Faulkner, 1735; Henry Brooke, Jack the
Gyant Queller (Dublin: Faulkner 1749); Edmund Burke, Thoughts,
&c. (G. Faulkner 1770), 8o; John Lawson, Lectures Concerning
Oratory (Faulkner 1758); Thomas Sheridan, An Humble Appeal to the
Publick Together with some Considerations of the Present Critical and
Dangerous State of the Stage in Ireland (George Faulkner in Essex
Street, 1758); Frances Sheridan, Memoirs of Miss Sidney Bidulph,
2 vols. (Dublin: G. Faulkner 1761); Mr. Sheridan’s Speech Addressed
to a Number of Gentlemen assembled with a View of considering the best
Means to establish one good Theatre in this City (Dublin: George Faulkner
in Parliament St. MDCCLXXII [1772]).
Publications (II): Rollins, Method of Teaching and Studying the Belles-Arts; Bolingbroke’s Dissertations on Parties, Political Tracts; Oldcastle’s Remarks on the History of England, and Letters on the Spirit of Patriotism [given in Sir John Gilbert, Appendix to the Eight Report (London: Royal Comm. on Hist. MSS 1881); Dublin edn. of Lord Lytton’s History of the Life of Henry II and the Age in which He Lived (1767); 18 vol. Dublin edn. of The Universal History [authored by George Sale, A. Bower, J. Campbell, and J. Sweaton (Dublin Feb. 1744). [All cited incidentally in Ward and Ward, eds., Letters of Charles O’Conor, 1988, p.57; n.1, as being printed at the back of his An Humble Address to the Nobility, Gentry, and Free Holders of the Kingdom of Ireland (1751).]
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Criticism
Sir John Gilbert, ‘Prince of Dublin Printers’, in History
of the City of Dublin (1867).
Charles O'Conor Don, SJ, ‘George Faulkner and the Irish Catholics’, Studies Vol. 28 (1939).
Robert E. Ward, Prince of Printers, The Letters of George Faulkner (Lexington: Kentucky UP 1972).
R. E. Ward & C. Ward, ‘Literary Piracy in the Eighteenth Century Book Trade: The Cases of George Faulkner and Alexander Donaldson’, in Factotum, 17 (1983), pp.213-18
R. C. Cole, Irish Booksellers and English Writers, 1740-1800 (London: Mansell Pub.; NJ: Atlantic Heights 1986).
Maureen Wall, Catholic Ireland in the 18th c., ed. Gerard O’Brien (1989).
Sir John Gilbert, History of Dublin (1854 &c.), ‘The Prince of Dublin Printers’.
Justin McCarthy, ed., Irish Literature, Washington, 1904).
J. Fitzgerald Molloy, Romance of Irish Stage (1897), Vol. II, 156ff.
Maurice Craig, Dublin Bookbinding [Ireland Heritage Series]. See also Dublin 1660-1800.
Robert E. Ward, ed. and intro. The Prince of Dublin Printers, Letters of George Faulkner (Lexington: Kentucky UP 1972), x, 141pp.
Joseph Th. Leerssen, Mere Irish & Fior-Ghael: Studies in the Idea of Irish Nationality, Its Development and Literary Expression Prior To The Nineteenth Century (Amsterdam: John Benjamins Pub. Co. 1986).
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Notes
Richard Ryan, in Biographia Hibernica (1821), has no biography of Faulkner but mentions him sympathetically under Thomas Sheridan, the Younger, relating a story of his waiving creditor notes held by him, ‘This was a man whom Mr Foote held up to ridicule [as Peter Paragraph]’ (Vol. 2, p.519-20).
Dictionary of National Biography [adds], Bishop of Kilmore, Dr. Josias Hort, never assisted Faulkner when in prison for some days; letter of extreme indignation from Swift, 1736; accident in London requiring amputation, though Faulkner’s love of reputation for gallantry led him to ascribe it to an affair involving a jealous husband; Chesterfield called himself the only lieutenant who obeyed him; refused offered knighthood; satires recounted by Gilbert [History of Dublin]; converted to Catholicism [ERR], 1758; involved in printing of Richardson’s novels in Dublin; bibl, Richardson’s ‘Address to the Public’ (1754), gives account of his treatment by Dublin publishers; elected high sherrif, July 1767; caricatured as Peter Paragraph in The Orators (1762); sued; see Foote’s ‘Poetic Address to the Public After Prosecution for Libel’, in Gentleman’s Magazine (1763, p.39); satire on Faulkner, imitating his manner of literary composition, Epistle to Gorges Edmund Howard Esq, with Notes Explanatory, Critical and Historical. By George Faulkner Esq and Alderman (1771; 6th ed. 1762; 9 eds.), actually by Robert Jephson against him, after quarrel with solicitor and friend Howard; became conspicuous patriot; fined for not serving in Sherriff’s office; elected alderman, 1770; d. 30 Aug. First editor of Swift’s works in 1735, which Swift affected to regret; defended him against imputations of English publishers; used Swift’s marginal corrects for Gulliver; printed Swift’s Directions to Servants in 1742[5?]); Letters of Lord Chesterfield to Faulkner, Dr Madden, &c (1770), as Supplement, now vols. iii and iv of Stanhope ed.; PORT in Miscellaneous Works of Lord Chesterfield (Dublin 1777).
Charles A. Read, ed., A Cabinet of Irish Literature, 3 vols., 1876-78), and Do. [rev. edn. with add. vol.], ed. T. P. O’Connor (London & Glasgow: Blackie & Co. 1880) gives a practical joke as the means by which Foote lost his foot, and supplies the details about The Minor, which was first produced at Dublin (1760) and was a failure there, though successful in London in an enlarged form. Foote acted in his co-lessee Murphy’s plays at Drury Lane, and played Peter Paragraph in his own Orators; awarded patent for a theatre at Westminster from Duke of York in compensation for loss of leg, &c.; much broken by litigation with William Jackson, the “Dr Viper” of Capuchins.
Ernest Reginald McClintock Dix, with Plumer and Bushell, in A Dictionary of Printers and Booksellers who were Working in England, Scotland, and Ireland from 1726 to 1775 (Bibl. Soc. 1968); Ireland, pp.376-428. George Faulkner, printer 1724-75; apprenticed to Thomas Hume or Humes; est. Essex St., 1730, later Parliament St., 1765; called Swift’s Printer; pubished dublin Journal; Alderman; will proved, 1775; output from his press considerable [see DNB]; his mongraph, G.F.; his compnay continued by a nephew, Thomas Todd Faulkner, from 1776. Also listed by this author, James Hoey, father and son; and Faulkner and Hoey, of short duration.
Michael Arnott, English Theatrical Literature (1979): The Minor, first played at Crow St. on Jan 28 1760, and later at Haymarket, 28 June. Also, An apology for the Minor, in a letter to the Rev. Bain (Edinburgh).
Henry Boylan, Dictionary of Irish Biography (Dublin: Gill & MacMillan 1988) states that he converted to Catholicism and opposed the Penal Laws [prob. error; see De Burca, infra.]
De Burca Books (Cat. 32) lists [anon.], Some Considerations on the Laws which Incapacitate Papists from Purchasing Lands, from Taking long or beneficial Leases, and from Lending Money on Real Securities (Dublin: Faulkner 1739), first pages, 39pp [a study of financial implications of the Penal Laws against Roman Catholics, Kress 4471]
Faulkner published in the Dublin Journal for June 1767 a vocal complaint at the pirating of books to the jeopardy of booksellers’ and their families welfare, ‘Mr Faulkner doth hereby call on all the Trade, to know if he ever offended one of them, or if he ever pyrated a Book, Play, Pamphlet, or even a single Page or Line upon any of them. If he did not, why should they rob him?’ (See Ward & Ward, eds., Letters of Charles O’Conor, 1988, p.197, n.1.)
John Giffard [1745-1819] ed., Faulkner’s Dublin Weekly, the Govt. paper, and offered a libel on William Drennan, following his treason trial of 1792, which Drennan distained to prosecute; A savage attack on John Keogh appeared in Faulkner’s Dublin Journal, 29 March 1792.
Chesterfield Connection: Philip Dormer, 4th Earl of Chesterfield (1694-1773), Hague embassy, 1728; intimate with Mlle du Bochet, mother of his natural son; begotiated marrige of Prince of Orange with Anne, princess royal of England; lord Stewart, 1730; signed treaty with Spain and Holland aagreeing pragmatic sanction; retired embassy, 1732; dismissed stewardship; witty speech against licencing of theatres, 1737 (printed 1749); visited Voltaire, 1741; denounced plan to hire Hanoverian troops; attacked new ministers as Geffrey Broadboattom, 1743; bequest from Lady Marlborough for political conduct; entered Pelham min. in retirement of Carteret; as Viceroy of Ireland, 1745-46, kept country quiet by tolerant policy and encouraged national industry; ... the prospectus of Dr Johnson’s Dictionary addressed to him, 1747; eulogised Dictionary in the World, 1754; satirised as Sir John Chester in Barnaby Rudge; his prophecy of French Revolution, 1753; letters to natural son published by son’s widow, Eugenia Stanhope, 1774; Supplement, 1787;, Fr. version, 1775, German, 1774-76; Misc. Works,. incl. Memoirs of his Life, prepared by Maty, and seuppl. letter, with Chars. of Eminent Personages, 1777; Misc. Works, collected 1779; Letters relative to education of his godson publ., 1817; collected editions of letters and lit. works, ed. Lord Mahon, 1845-53; John Bradshaw, 1892; extracts from unpubl. letters, in Ernst’s Life of Chesterfield, 1893. NOTE that William Stanhope, 1st Earl of Harrington (?1690-1756), succeeded Carteret as secretary of state, 1744; resigned after George II’s vain attempt to detach him from the Pelhams, 1746, but exchanged seals in Oct. for LL of Ireland; his vice-royalty, 1746-51, marked by beginning of Irish parl. opposition; was friendly with Lord Chesterfield, but met antagonism of ‘patriot party’, cited by Gilbert, during the succeeding Vice-royalty of Harrington, another Stanhope.
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)