author
John Worrall
d. 1771
Best known for compiling one of the eighteenth century's important guides to English law books, this London bookseller helped readers navigate a growing body of legal writing. His work remained useful enough to be revised and reissued after his death in 1771.
1 Audiobook
The Annual Catalogue (1737) Or, A New and Compleat List of All The New Books, New Editions of Books, Pamphlets, &c.
by John Worrall, William Warner
About the author
John Worrall was an eighteenth-century London bookseller and compiler of legal reference works. Surviving catalog records identify him as the compiler of Bibliotheca legum, a detailed bibliography of common and statute law books that went through multiple editions and was still being issued in updated form after his lifetime.
Sources also connect him with the Liberty of the Rolls in Middlesex and describe him as a bookseller, which fits his role in the world of legal publishing. For modern readers, his importance lies less in a personal literary career than in the careful organizing work that made legal books easier to find, compare, and use.
Very little biographical detail appears to be readily confirmed from the sources consulted beyond his profession, his major bibliographical work, and the fact that he died in 1771. Even so, his name continues to surface in library catalogs and book-history records because Bibliotheca legum remained a valued reference for the study of English law and legal printing.