Dobson, Eliphal (i)

Dates Active in Dublin: 

c. 1680–1720

Business Type: 
Bookseller
Music publisher
Publisher
Address(es): 

Cork Hill, 1680–83
Stationer's Arms, [7?] Castle Street, 1683–1719

Details: 

Also known as Dopson.

Father of Eliphal Dobson (ii).

A prominent Dublin bookseller and publisher, his only recorded musical publication was an edition of Barton's Psalms. In 1719 he went into partnership with Robert Owen and Richard Gunn [no reference to music in their activities] (Munter).

The 1704 records of St Werburgh's Church provide the address of 7 Castle Street, noting the burial of a child of Eliphal Dobson (i?) with that address. An Eliphal Dobson, seatholder at St Werburgh's in 1719 could be either father or son, but the father of a child buried in March 1720 may be assumed to have been Eliphal (ii)

[Dates differ according to sources: Munter gives the dates as 1680 to 1719, Pollard gives them as 1681 to 1718 and Boydell (Calendar) gives them as 1682 to 1720 - the year that he died.]

Select Product/Work List: 

Published

  • The Psalms of David in Metre, Newly translated, with amendments. By William Barton. The Second edition, corrected and amended. With the basses, by Thomas Smith. Printed by J. Brocas, for Elip. Dopson [sic], Tho Servant Booksellers in Castle Street and P. Lawrence ... 1706 (Humphries & Smith)
    • See Also: 

    Brocas, John
    Dobson, Eliphal (ii)
    Lawrence, Peter
    Servant, Thomas

    Source(s): 

    Dix, E.R. McC., ‘Some Dublin Music Printers and Music Sellers of the Eighteenth Century’, The Irish Book Lover, 18.1 (January/February 1930), 26–28 (p. 27)

    Humphries, Charles and William C. Smith, Music Publishing in the British Isles, from the Beginning until the Middle of the Nineteenth Century; a Dictionary of Engravers, Printers, Publishers, and Music Sellers (London: Oxford University Press, 1970), p. 134

    Boydell, Brian, A Dublin Musical Calendar 1700–1760 (Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 1988), p. 261

    Munter, Robert, A Dictionary of the Print Trade in Ireland: 1550–1775 (New York: Fordham University Press, 1988), p. 80

    Pollard, M., A Dictionary of Members of the Dublin Book Trade 1550–1800: Based on the Records of the Guild of St Luke the Evangelist Dublin (London: Bibliographical Society, 2000), pp. 157–58

    Boydell, Brian, ‘Dobson, Elephal’, Dublin Music Trade Card Index <http://dublinmusictrade.ie/card-index>

    Boydell, Brian, ‘Servant, Thomas’, Dublin Music Trade Card Index <http://dublinmusictrade.ie/card-index>

    Last Update: 12-02-2017