Thomas Curson Hansard

Thomas Curson Hansard (1776 - 1833), was the son of the printer Luke Hansard.

He established a press of his own in Paternoster Row , and began in 1803 to print the Parliamentary Debates, which were not at first independent reports, but were taken from the newspapers.

After 1889 the debates were published by the Hansard Publishing Union Limited. TC Hansard was the author of Typographia, an Historical Sketch of the Origin and Progress of the Art of Printing (1825).

The original business remained in the hands of his younger brothers, James and Luke Graves Hansard (1777-1851). The firm was prosecuted in 1837 by John Joseph Stockwell for printing by order of the House of Commons, in an official report of the inspector of prisons, statements regarded by the plaintiff as libellous. Hansard sheltered himself on the ground of privilege, but it was not until after much litigation that the security of the printers of government reports was guaranteed by statute in 1840.

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