Author: Bolland, William
Biography:
BOLLAND, William (1772-1840: ODNB)
He was born on 21 Aug. and baptised on 13 Sept. 1772 at St. Olave’s, Southwark, London. His parents were James Bolland and his wife Mary Tunstall who had married at All Hallows, Barking, on 1 Nov. 1771. He was educated under Richard Valpy at Reading School and began writing verse for dramatic performances at the school. He was admitted to Trinity College, Cambridge, on 26 Sept. 1789 (matric. 1791, scholar 1792, BA 1794, MA 1797). He won the Seatonian prize in 1797, 1798, and 1799. Admitted to the Middle Temple in Jan. 1792, he was called to the bar in 1801 and became a highly successful barrister; the recorder of Reading, Berkshire, in 1817; and a Baron of the Exchequer in 1829. On 1 Aug. 1810 he married a cousin, Elizabeth Joanna Bolland; they had three sons and two daughters. He collected early books and the Roxburgh Club, of which he was a founding member, was established during a dinner at his house in 1812. As a collector he features in T. F. Dibdin’s (q.v.) Bibliomania. He suffered from illness in his final years and died at his home in Hyde Park Terrace on 14 May 1840. His will was proved on 30 May. His valuable books, pictures, and coins were all auctioned after his death. Of the works listed in this bibliography, his satire The Campaign (1800) was printed for circulation only among his friends; it was not publicly sold. (ODNB 30 June 2023; ancestry.co.uk 30 June 2023; ACAD; GM 14 [1840], 433-34) SR