Joseph Heath (senior)
 Bookseller, of Nottingham.

Born: 1700 and died 1 Jan1757.
Son of: Not known.
Brother of: Not known.
Joseph married: Hannah.
Joseph and Hannah had issue:
1. George Heath (1724-1773), bookbinder who married Mrs Mary Jacob.
2. Joseph Heath (junior, ?-1789), bookseller, of Nottingham, who married Mary.
3. William Heath (1725-1786), hosier, Sheriff of Nottingham in 1774.  Married Mary Hartray in 1746.
4. Hannah (1729-?) who married John Stanley, 25 October 1763.
5. Possibly a John Heath (1734-?).

Joseph Heath: An Overview

We know about Joseph Heath from the following sources:

1. The book "Records of the Heath Family Vol 1" by George Heath, 1913. 
2. A note written by George Nicholas Heath, 1974.
3. The "Heath Family Engravers Vol 1", by John Heath, 1993.

We know that Joseph Heath refered to himself as a writing master in 1724 and that he was married to Hannah.  He obtained his freedom as a bookseller in 1743.  In 1744 he apprentised his son as a bookseller.  There is a note regarding a book being printed by Joseph Heath in 1744 (senior or junior?).  He published in manuscript form a Dictionary of Semography in 1747, now preserved in Nottingham library.  In 1754 he is recorded as a bookseller in the Market-place, Long Row in Nottingham (his son Joseph (junior) being in Timber Hill, which became South Parade around 1850).  There is a record of a Joseph Heath from Abchurch Lane buried at Bunhill Fields nonconformist burial ground, London, 1 January 1757.

Heath's Circulating Library Believed to have been the bookplate of a Circulating Library operated by Joseph Heath in the mid 1700s.

We do not know of the parents or ancestors of Joseph Heath.  However the following persons should be noted as they were both in the book business and may be ancestors:

Thomas Heath who is noted with reference to the book "A Continuation of Sir Philip Sydney's Arcadia, Wherein is handled the Loves of Amphialus and Helena".  Published in London in 1651 to be sold by Thomas Heath.

James Heath (1629-1664?) the Historian who wrote the following:
A chronicle of the late intestine war in the three kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland, 1661.
Elergy on Dr Thomas Fuller, 1661.
An Essay to the Celebration of the Anniversary of his Majestie's Birth and Restitution, 1662.
An Elergy upon the most Lamented Death of the Late Dr J Gauden, 1662.
The Glories and Magnificent Triumphs of the Blessed Restitution of King Charles II, 1662.
Flagellum: or the Life and Death Birth and Burial of Oliver Cromwell the Late Usurper, 1663.
Elergy on the much Lamented Death of Dr Sanderson, Lord Bishop of Lincoln, 1663.
A New Book of Loyal English Martyrs and Confessors, 1663.
Brief but Exact Survey of the Affairs of the United Netherlands.
England's Chronicle of Lives and Reigns of the Kings and Queens, 1689?.

For more information on James Heath the Historian look in the "Dictionary of National Biography" published by Oxford University Press.

If you have any information to add to what is listed please contact me on jj@jjhc.info
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