Utterson, Edward Vernon (1776 -1856)

Edward Vernon Utterson, of Beldornie Tower, Isle of Wight, and afterwards of Brighton, was the eldest son of John Utterson of Fareham in Hampshire, and Elizabeth Rowe. He was educated at Eton and Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where he was entered in 1794, and admitted a Pensioner 17 February 1798. He graduated LL.B. in 1801, entered Lincoln's Inn 31 October 1794, and was called to the bar 1 February 1802. He practiced in the Court of Chancery, and in 1815 he was appointed one of the six Clerks of Chancery, a post which he held until its abolition in 1842. He married Sarah Elizabeth Brown, daughter of a hop merchant of Peckham. All his life he was a talented amateur artist and a great collector of art and books. He set up his own private press, the Beldornie Press, at his house, Beldornie Tower, and edited a number of reprints of important English books. Utterson was a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, 1807, an original member of the Roxburghe Club, 1812, and a Trustee of the Royal Victoria Yacht Club. Part of his library was sold by S.L. Sotheby & J. Wilkinson 19 April 1852 and 20 March 1857, an anonymous sale also at Sotheby's 5 July 1852 of `Choice and Fine Books' may also have been of books from Utterson's library.