Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lloyd, Edward (1815-1890)
LLOYD, EDWARD (1815–1890), founder of ‘Lloyd's Weekly London Newspaper,’ was born at Thornton Heath, Surrey, on 16 Feb. 1815. His parents removed to London, and when quite a boy Lloyd opened a shop in Curtain Road, Shoreditch, where he sold books and newspapers, and began to publish cheap literature. In 1833 he compiled ‘Lloyd's Stenography,’ getting the introduction printed, writing the symbols with his own hand, and carrying round the copies for sale. He published in 1836 a monthly budget of news, and in 1840 ‘The Pickwickian Songster,’ which occasioned a temporary dispute with Dickens, ‘The Ethiopian Song Book’ in 1847, and other works of the same class. He also issued in 1842 ‘Lloyd's Penny Weekly Miscellany,’ which had a large circulation, and became in 1844 ‘Lloyd's Entertaining Journal,’ continuing till 1847; ‘Lloyd's Penny Atlas’ (1842–5) was a similar undertaking. A more important venture was ‘Lloyd's Illustrated London Newspaper,’ issued in opposition to the ‘Illustrated London News,’ on 27 Nov. 1842, at twopence. It was stopped after seven numbers, owing to difficulties with the stamp office, as it really contained news, though unstamped. It was continued immediately, however, without illustrations, at twopence halfpenny, under the name of ‘Lloyd's Weekly London Newspaper.’ In April 1852, when Douglas Jerrold, one of Lloyd's personal friends, became editor, the circulation had reached seventy thousand; in 1853 it averaged about ninety thousand, and some fifty years later was said to exceed a million. In 1857 Blanchard Jerrold succeeded his father, and he was in 1884 succeeded by Mr. Thomas Catling. The price was reduced to twopence in 1855, and to a penny in 1861.
In January 1855 ‘The Business and Agency Gazette’ had been established. It was merely a sheet of advertisements given away weekly to people living in Clerkenwell. In May 1856 it became ‘The Clerkenwell News,’ its price was a halfpenny, and it was the first district newspaper of London. In February 1866 its name was altered to ‘The Clerkenwell News and London Times,’ and it was now issued five times a week. In April 1866 it became a daily newspaper, and in the autumn of 1869, the proprietors of the ‘Times’ objecting to the title, its name was again altered to ‘The London Daily Chronicle and Clerkenwell News.’ On 25 Nov. 1872 the name ‘Daily Chronicle’ was adopted. In 1876 Lloyd bought it for 30,000l., and after spending 150,000l. succeeded in establishing it as a London daily newspaper. Lloyd was one of the first to introduce Hoe's American printing presses into England; he also established a large paper manufactory at Sittingbourne in Kent, and having leased over a hundred thousand acres of land in Algeria for the purpose, became a grower and importer of esparto grass for the improvement of papermaking. Lloyd died, very wealthy, on 8 April 1890 at 17 Delahay Street, Westminster, and was buried at Highgate cemetery. He left a widow and large family.
[Times and Daily Chronicle, 9 April 1890; Lloyd's Weekly Newspaper, 13 April 1890; Athenæum and East Kent Gazette, 12 April 1890; Fox Bourne's Hist. of the Newspaper Press, vol. ii.; Illustrated Lond. News, 19 April 1890 (portrait); Frost's Forty Years' Recollections, p. 84; Blanchard Jerrold's Life of Douglas Jerrold, p. 224 &c.]