Steevens, George (1736 -1800)

George Steevens, the Shakespeare scholar, was the only child of George Steevens, and Mary Perryman. He was educated at a school in Kingston on Thames, at Eton and King's College Cambridge, where he was admitted a Fellow Commoner 29 March 1753, leaving without a degree in 1756. He moved to London, living at first in chambers at the Temple, but soon moved to Hampstead. There he built up a fine collection of Shakespeareana and other early English books and a complete set of all Hogarth's prints. In 1773 he published with Dr Johnson's advice and encouragement an edition of Shakespeare's works in ten volumes. The edition was well received and has many scholarly merits, but is marred by the abuse he poured on some of his predecessors. An irascible man, he never married, and left all his possessions to his cousin Elizabeth Steevens. His library was sold at auction in London by T. King 13 May 1800.