author
Ebenezer Pearse
A 19th-century Swansea printer, bookseller, and stationer, he is best remembered for compiling a vivid directory of the town during a period of rapid growth. His surviving work offers a useful snapshot of everyday commercial life in Victorian Wales.
1 Audiobook
Pearse's Commercial Directory to Swansea and the Neighbourhood, for 1854
by Ebenezer Pearse
About the author
Ebenezer Pearse was a printer, bookseller, and stationer based in Wind Street, Swansea. Sources linked to the 1851 Swansea census describe him as originally from Bristol, and local history records connect him with printing newspapers, pamphlets, posters, and books while also running a circulating library.
He is best known today for Pearse's Commercial Directory to Swansea and the Neighbourhood, for 1854, a detailed local directory that listed residents, businesses, and public information. The book has lasted as both a practical record of Swansea and a valuable window into the town's commercial life in the mid-1800s.
Some basic biographical details about him are sparse, so much of his reputation now rests on his printed work and his place in Swansea's book trade. Even so, that work makes him an interesting figure for readers curious about local history, publishing, and the texture of everyday Victorian urban life.