Mr. James Bindley was the second son of Mr. John Bindley, distiller, of St. John's Street, Smithfield. He was born in London on the 16th of January 1737, and was educated at the Charterhouse, from whence he proceeded to Peterhouse, Cambridge, taking the degree of B.A. in 1759, and that of M.A. in 1762. Later he became a Fellow of his College. In 1765, through the interest of his elder brother John, he was appointed one of the Commissioners of the Stamp Duties, and in 1781 rose to be the Senior Commissioner, a post he held until his death, which occurred at his apartments in Somerset House on the 11th of September 1818. He was a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries for upwards of fifty-three years. A handsome monument to his memory was erected in the church of St. Mary-le-Strand. Bindley formed a very large and valuable collection of rare books, engravings, and medals, which he commenced at a very early age, and to which he devoted all his spare time and money. When only fifteen years of age he constantly frequented the book-shops, where he bought everything which he considered rare or curious. He was a man of very regular and retired habits, and it is said of him, that during the long period he held the appointment of Commissioner of the Stamp Duties, 'he never once failed in his daily attendance at the Board, or once slept out of his own apartments since he left his house at Finchley to reside in Somerset House.'[83] Bindley published in 1775 A Collection of the Statutes now in force relating to the Stamp Duties; and he read all the proof-sheets of Nichols's Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century, which are dedicated to him, and also of the early volumes of The Illustrations of the Literary History of the Eighteenth Century, by the same author. He performed the same work for the Memoirs of John Evelyn, edited by William Bray in 1818.
Bindley's library was a remarkably fine one, and few collections have contained a larger number of works of early English literature, especially of those of the time of Elizabeth and James I. Many of these books were excessively rare, and some of them unique. Among them were the Venus and Adonis of Shakespeare, printed in 1602; his Poems printed in 1640, and several of the first editions of his separate plays in quarto. The library also comprised a large portion of the extraordinary collection of poetical sheets, consisting of ballads, satires, elegies, etc., formed by Narcissus Luttrell, who, Sir Walter Scott says, 'seems to have bought every poetical tract, of whatever merit, which was hawked about the streets in his time, marking carefully the price and date of the purchase.'
After Bindley's death his books were sent to Evans of Pall Mall for sale. They were disposed of in five portions. The first sale took place in December 1818, and the fifth, which consisted of omissions, in January 1821. There were nine thousand three hundred and eighty-three lots in the five sales, which occupied forty-six days, and realised upwards of seventeen thousand five hundred pounds. The following are a few of the more notable books, and the prices they fetched in the sales:—The Temple of Glasse, printed by Berthelet, forty-six pounds, four shillings; Chute's Beawtie Dishonoured (London, 1529)—Steevens's copy, thirty-four pounds; Lewicke's Titus and Gisippus (London, 1562), twenty-four pounds, thirteen shillings and sixpence; Parker, De Antiquitate BritannicÆ EcclesiÆ (London, 1572), forty-five pounds, three shillings; Nicolas Breton's Floorish upon Fancie (London, 1577), forty-two pounds; Hunnis's Hyve full of Hunnye (London, 1578), eighteen guineas; The Forrest of Fancy (London, 1579), thirty-eight pounds, six shillings and sixpence; Markham's Tragedie of Sir Richard Grinvile (London, 1595), forty pounds, nineteen shillings; Robert Fletcher's Nine English Worthies (London, 1606), thirty-seven pounds, sixteen shillings; Dolarny's Primerose (London, 1606), twenty-six pounds, ten shillings; and Purchas's Pilgrimes, five volumes (London, 1625), thirty-four pounds, thirteen shillings. The first edition of Othello sold for fifty-six pounds, fourteen shillings; of Love's Labour Lost for forty pounds, ten shillings; and the Venus and Adonis of 1602 for forty-two pounds. Seven hundred and eighty-one pounds, one shilling were obtained for the Luttrell collection of poetical sheets; and fifty-two pounds, ten shillings for a little Manual of Devotions, one inch and seven-eighths long, and one inch and three-eighths broad, written on vellum, and bound in gold, said to have been given by Anne Boleyn on the scaffold to her Maid of Honour, Mistress Wyatt.
Bindley's portraits, prints, drawings, and medals were sold by Leigh and Sotheby in 1819, and realised seven thousand six hundred and ninety-two pounds.
