Author: Meyler, William
Biography:
MEYLER, William (1755-1821: ancestry.com)
No birth record has been located but he cannot have been the child of this name baptised at St. David’s, Pembrokeshire, in 1757; that child died in Wales in 1816. This author was born in Wales but lived most of his life in Bath, Somerset. According to a recent biographer (who relied on a friend’s memoir of 1821), Meyler was born “into a respectable family” on 13 Dec. 1755 in Newburg (Niwbwrch), Anglesey, and spoke mostly Welsh in his early years, but at the age of nine was sent to Marlborough in Wiltshire to be educated at the Free Grammar School of which his uncle, Rev. Thomas Meyler (c. 1717-86), was master. From Marlborough he went to Bath to be apprenticed to a bookseller. He contributed to the gatherings of Anne Miller (q.v.) at Batheaston, where he met David Garrick, William Mason, Christopher Anstey (qq.v.), and others. Once out of his indentures he went into partnership to acquire a circulating library and bookshop in 1776. From this foundation his empire grew. He became sole owner in 1781 and on 1 Mar. that year married Elizabeth Salway at Bath Abbey, but she died in Jan. 1786. On 13 or 30 July 1786 he married Alice Hyatt at Minchinhampton, Gloucestershire; the couple had at least two children. Meyler became an indispensable member of the community, with his shop—moved eventually to premises next to the Pump Room—a hub for lotteries, a tontine, charity subscriptions, and public announcements. He founded a newspaper in 1792, the Bath Herald and General Advertiser, and stayed with it through a merger in 1793. By acquiring the printworks for the paper, he was able to turn publisher as well. His popularity and social influence are reflected in the societies he belonged to and the offices he held, notably his election as a councillor by Bath Corporation in 1801; two terms as Constable and then Bailiff; and election as JP in 1818. He died on 10 Mar. 1821 and was buried at Bath Abbey, where there is a memorial plaque. (ancestry.com 2 June 2023; findmypast.com 2 June 2023; Alumni Oxonienses; CCEd 2 June 2023; Kevin Grieves, “A Literary Entrepreneur: William Meyler of Bath,” Bath History 12 [2011], 81-93)