Thomas Curson Hansard

Who was Thomas Curson Hansard?

Thomas Curson Hansard was the son of the printer Luke Hansard.

In 1803, he established a press of his own in Paternoster Row. In the same year, William Cobbett, a newspaperman, began to print the Parliamentary Debates. At first, these were not independent reports, but were taken from newspapers accounts of parliamentary debate.

In 1809, Hansard started to print Cobbett's reports. Together, they also published a pamphlet describing an incident in which German mercenaries had flogged British soldiers for mutiny, and were imprisoned in King's Bench Prison for libel.

In 1812, facing bankruptcy, Cobbett sold the publication to Hansard, who continued to publish it for the rest of his life. In 1829, he added his own name to the parliamentary proceedings, giving it the title Hansard that it bears to this day.

TC Hansard was the author of Typographia, an Historical Sketch of the Origin and Progress of the Art of Printing.

The original business remained in the hands of his younger brothers, James and Luke Graves Hansard.