Machell Stace
Contributions
- The sentiments of a member of the Jacobins, in France, upon the religion of reason and nature, carefully translated from the original manuscript, communicated by the author translation has paratext publisher
Knows
- John Bew bookseller journalist publisher
Notes
Machell Stace was baptised on 30th November 1764 in Wendover, Buckinghamshire. In 1779 he began an apprenticeship under Robert Faulder, a Merchant Taylor in London.
He lived at 5 Middle Scotland Yard, issuing various tracts and dealing in portraits; most notably, he sourced an alleged portrait of Shakespeare. He also made up sets of The Gentleman's Magazine and was a 'good deal frequented for the literature of the good old times, supplied many of the discontented spirits of our own with the republican doctrines and fanatical religion of the rebellion' (Boaden).
As well as publishing the 'The sentiments of a member of the Jacobins' - a speech probably made by Anacharsis Cloots at the Jacobin Club that was anonymously transcribed/translated and brought back to London - Stace also wrote 'Cromwelliana: a chronological detail of events in which Oliver Cromwell was engaged, from the year 1642 to his death 1658, with a continuation of other transactions to the Restoration', which he published in partnership with George Smeeton in 1810.
He sold his business in 1814 to make his fortune in the West Indies; Sotheby sold his remaining stock later that year. However, he returned to London years later and produced 'The British Historical Intelligencer: Containing a Catalogue of English, Scottish, Irish & Welsh Historians', published by Whitmore and Fenn in 1829.
Sotheby sold his library again in 1835.
Stace was reported to have died at Charter House London on the 5th of December 1842, and was buried four days later.
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Information and sources taken from wikitree https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Stace-259#_ref-2:
'England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975', database: FamilySearch https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:N5JS-M4B
Britain, Country Apprentices 1710-1808 (findmypast.com), Apprentice: Machell Stace, Master: Robert Faulder, Master's occupation: Merchant Taylor, Master's place: City of London, Registration year: 1779 [via wikitree]
Marlborough Rare Books, November, 2015, Catalogue 56 http://www.marlboroughbooks.com/catalogues/pdfs/MRB_Catalogue_56.pdf
James Boaden, 'An inquiry into the authenticity of various pictures and prints' (London: Robert Triphook, 1824).
Francis Collins, ed., 'Registers and Monumental Inscriptions of Charterhouse Chapel' (London: Harleian Society, 1892), p. 78.