Edward Lloyd

This website has been set up by members of Edward Lloyd’s family who believe that his life’s work has been overlooked by the historical record. If you know something about Lloyd or have any leads on where we can improve our information, please contact Joy Vick who manages this website.

Monday, 16 February 2015, was the 200th anniversary of Edward Lloyd's birth. Commemorative blogs were written:

British Library’s “Untold Lives”—Margaret Makepeace
Edward Lloyd’s 200th Anniversary—1815–2015—John Adcock
St Bride’s Foundation (Joy Vick)
Friends of Lloyd Park (Joy Vick)

Dr Sarah Lill’s PhD thesis, The Spectacle of Crime: Edward Lloyd and the Mass-Market Periodical, 1830-1855, sheds new light on Lloyd’s early works

Private life

Edward Lloyd had 18 children who survived into adulthood, two sons with his wife Isabella, one son from a relationship with Mary, and eight sons and seven daughters with Maria. Within three weeks of Isabella’s death in 1867, Edward and Maria married although 11 of the children born prior to their marriage remained illegitimate.

A few facts

Lloyd’s Weekly Newspaper was the only UK newspaper to sell a million copies in the 19th century. That landmark was achieved on the 81st anniversary of Lloyd’s birth—16 February 1896
Lloyd introduced the Hoe rotary press to English newspaper publishing.
He was the only newspaper publisher to make all his own newsprint.
He revolutionised paper-making by growing a vast crop of esparto grass in Algeria.
Sweeney Todd was published in serial form by Lloyd in 1846–47.
He popularised vampire fiction 52 years before Bram Stoker’s Dracula.
Marie Lloyd (Matilda Alice Victoria Wood) took her stage name from the popular Lloyds Weekly Newspaper.
The Lloyd family lived for 29 years in Water House, Walthamstow. It was given to the people of London by the family in 1898 and is now the William Morris Gallery.
Percy Lloyd, Edward's youngest son, built Voewood House in Norfolk.
Deflation prevailed over Lloyd’s lifetime—£144 at his birth was equal in buying power to £100 at his death. By contrast, £100 at his death was equal to £287 in 1920, £558 in 1960 and £11,477 in 2014.
Money was particularly volatile while Lloyd was developing his businesses—in the late 1840s, sterling’s purchasing power fluctuated by more than a fifth.

Edward Lloyd, 1815-1890

Edward Lloyd was one of the 19th century’s most succesful newspaper proprietors. His two titles—Lloyd’s Weekly Newspaper and The Daily Chronicle—were among the century's best sellers, and Lloyd’s Weekly Newspaper was the first newspaper in the world to achieve a circulation of one million copies. Nevertheless, he has seldom featured in histories of the British newspaper industry which often fails to see past The Times.

The first half of the nineteenth century saw an incredible growth in literacy amongst working people. In addition to his newspapers, Lloyd was a prolific publisher of “penny serial novels” in the 1830s and 40s, having more than 200 titles to his name including the infamous Sweeney Todd. These works were always offered at the affordable price of just one penny and sold very well.

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Edward Lloyd’s chutzpah

This is a George III halfpenny stamped with the words “Lloyd’s Weekly Newspaper 3d Post Free”. The scale on which Lloyd did this led to his being denounced in The Times. This created quite a stir, and gave Lloyd’s Weekly welcome publicity. As a result, the defacement of coins was made a crime and stamped coins ceased to be legal tender under an Act of Parliament passed in 1853.

Edward Besly, a numismatist and great great grandson of Edward Lloyd, wrote an article about this episode. We reproduce it here by courtesy of the National Museum of Wales.

In another publicity drive, Lloyd sent men out overnight to paint advertisements for Lloyd’s Weekly on London’s pavements.

Newsagents often boycotted Lloyd’s Weekly because the low price prevented them earning a large enough profit, but Lloyd was able to use the postal system instead, as free delivery was included with the Stamp Duty under the 1836 Act.

This poster illustrates the paper mills at Sittingbourne.