author
J. Crossley
A Victorian man of letters with a lawyer’s training, he became one of Manchester’s best-known literary figures and an extraordinary book collector. His work combined scholarship, editing, and a deep love of old books and local history.
1 Audiobook
The Fourth Battalion, The King's Own (Royal Lancaster Regiment) and the Great War
by W. F. A. (Walter F. A.) Wadham, J. Crossley
About the author
By profession, James Crossley was an English lawyer, but he became far better known as an author, bibliophile, and literary scholar. Born in 1800 and dying in 1883, he built a reputation as a major literary presence in Manchester and was widely respected for his knowledge of books, manuscripts, and historical writing.
He played an important role in learned societies, serving for many years as president of the Chetham Society and later of the Record Society of Lancashire and Cheshire. Sources also describe him as Honorary Librarian at Chetham’s Library, where his influence on local literary culture was especially strong.
Crossley was famous for the scale of his personal library, which reportedly grew to well over 100,000 volumes. That passion for collecting, along with his writing and editorial work, helped make him a lasting figure in the world of nineteenth-century English scholarship.