Life
?1679-1753; b. Dumfries-shire, Scotland; settled in Dublin, c.1703; estab. printing-house at The Sign of the Two Bibles, in Essex St.; printed Bibles and Books of Common Prayer; Dublin printer and member of celebrated family of printers; issued first Dublin edition of Paradise Lost (1724); re-issued Sir William Petty’s Atlas [Hibernia delineatio] in 1732 and published other maps of his own, notably A New Correct Map of The Whole World, by H[erman] Moll (1730); made Freeman of Dubin, 1709; became associated with Constantia Crawley, who edited Grierson’s Classics, incl. Terence’s Comedies [Comediae] and Tacitus’s history - the latter drawing praise from Swift in a letter to Alex. Pope (6 Feb. 1730); successfully petitioned the Irish Parliament for a patent as the King’s Printer in Dublin, 1729; lived in Rathfarnham Hse.; appt. churchwarden of St. John’s, Drumcondra, 1720; d. 27 Oct. 1753, in Drumcondra, Dublin [aetat. 74]; bur. St. John’s Cemetery, Dublin; suffered death of Constantia, 1732; married Jane Blow, dg. of the Belfast printer; numerous children registered at St. John’s; a Memorial was prepared by his son George Abraham Grierson, 1754.
[ See “Grierson Family History” - as attached. ]
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Works
Numerous publications incl. Petty’s Hiberniae Delineatio (1732); The World Described or a New and Correct Sett of Maps (1746); The English Pilot: Northern Navigation (1749); The English Pilot: Southern Navigation (c.1772). See Antique Maps and Prints (Ireland) [online].
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Criticism
J. R. H. Greeves, Two Irish Printing Families (Belfast 1955), 8pp. [on Blow and Grierson].
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Notes
Rare Books: Bernard J. Shapiro, Rare Books, lists George Grierson (1680-1753), a Dublin printer and publisher who issued A New and Correct map of ye Whole World. by H. Moll Geor. Is most humbly dedicated to Luke Gardiner Esq. Deputy Vice Treasurer and Receiver General of His Majesties Revenue in the Kingdom of Ireland. By his most obedient serveant G. Grierson (Dublin 1730) - priced at £12,000 [online; defunct 27.02.2015].
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