William Andrew Chatto

William Andrew Chatto (1799–1864) was an English writer. He used the pseudonym Stephen Oliver (Junior).

Life

The only son of William Chatto, a merchant who died at Gibraltar in 1804, was born at Newcastle-on-Tyne on 17 April 1799. After education at a grammar school in the north, he went into business, and around 1830 acquired the firm of his cousin, a wholesale tea-dealer, in Eastcheap, London. In 1834 he gave up business to write.^[1]

He was editor in 1839–41 of the New Sporting Magazine, and in 1844 projected a penny daily comic illustrated paper entitled: Puck, a journalette of Fun. For this paper, which he edited himself, he secured the services of contributors including Tom Taylor, but it had only a brief existence.^[1]

In 1839, Chatto was elected an honorary member of the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle-on-Tyne. He died in the London Charterhouse, 28 February 1864, and was buried in Highgate Cemetery. His epitaph, by his lifelong friend, Tom Taylor, described him as a "true-hearted and upright man".^[1]

Works

His works include two as Stephen Oliver:

• Rambles in Northumberland and on the Scottish Border: Interspersed with Brief Notices of Interesting Events in Border History (1835)^[2]

This book is now a reprint from Kessinger Publishings Legacy Reprint Series.^[3] It is referred to many times by Richard Oliver Heslop in his Northumberland Words; A glossary of words used in the County of Northumberland and on the Tyneside (2 vols), first published 1893-4.^[4]

• Scenes and Recollections of Fly-Fishing in Northumberland, Cumberland and Westmoreland.^[5]

Other books by Chatto, under his own name, include:

• Treatise on Wood Engraving, Historical and Practical: With Upwards of Three Hundred Illustrations, Engraved on Wood (1844), with engraver John Jackson;
• Facts and Speculations on the Origin and History of Playing Cards (1848);
• The Angler's Souvenir (1835, 1845, 1847 under the pseudonym Paul Fisher); and
• A Paper;—of Tobacco. Treating of the Rise, Progress, Pleasures, and Advantages of Smoking. With Anecdotes of Distinguished Smokers, Mems. on Pipes and Tobacco-Boxes, and a Critical Essay on Snuff.

Family

By his wife, Margaret, daughter of Luke Birch of Cornhill, London, he had five sons, of whom the third, Andrew Chatto (1840–1913), became a member of the publishing firm of Messrs. Chatto & Windus and three daughters.^[1]

References

Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Henderson, Thomas Finlayson (1887). "Chatto, William Andrew". In Stephen, Leslie. Dictionary of National Biography 10. London: Smith, Elder & Co.