John Wade (author)

In early life Wade worked for at least a decade as a wool-sorter. Encouraged by Francis Place and others, he took up journalism in London, initially from 1818 editing the Gorgon.[2] Writing never made him much money, and his main income in his later years was a civil-list pension of £50, granted to him on 19 June 1862 by Lord Palmerston, mainly on the representations of the publisher Effingham Wilson.[1]

Wade was a vice-president of the historical section of the Institution d'Afrique of Paris. He died at Chelsea on 29 September 1875, and was buried in Kensal Green cemetery on 2 October.[1]

As an author Wade's major success was The Black Book, or Corruption Unmasked! Being an Account of Persons, Places, and Sinecures, 1820–3, 2 vols. Published by Effingham Wilson, and brought out when the reform excitement was commencing, it produced a considerable sensation, and fifty thousand copies were sold. With some alterations in the title, it was reproduced in 1831, 1832, and 1835.[1]

In 1826 he wrote for Longmans The Cabinet Lawyer: a Popular Digest of the Laws of England, the twenty-fifth edition of which appeared in 1829. Another popular work was British History, chronologically arranged, 1839; supplement 1841; 3rd edit. 1844; 5th edit. 1847. Effingham Wilson paid Wade a weekly salary for years while he was compiling it, and supplied him with works of reference.[1][3]

Wade also edited an annotated Junius, including Letters by the same Writer under other signatures, (1850, in Bohn's "Standard Library", 2 vols.). Here he was out of his depth, and the imperfections of his edition, and especially of his introduction, were pointed out by Charles W. Dilke in the ‘Athenæum’ of 2 Feb. et seq.[4][1]

• The Black Book, or Corruption Unmasked

Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Lee, Sidney, ed. (1899). "Wade, John". Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 58. London: Smith, Elder & Co.