Spurrell family, (of Carmarthen)

Family

Spurrell family, (of Carmarthen)

The House of Spurrell, printers and publishers, was founded in 1840 by William Spurrell (1813-89), the third son of Richard Spurrell and Elizabeth Thomas of Carmarthen. He worked for Bradley & Evans, London printers and publishers, 1835-1840, before returning to Carmarthen to set up his own business. Among his most important publications were his Welsh-English dictionary (1848), the English-Welsh dictionary (1853) and Carmarthen and its neighbourhood (1860). He also owned and edited Yr Haul, 1857-1884. He married Sarah Walter in 1846, and they had several children including Edith Spurrell (1848-1908), Dr Charles Spurrell (1866-1949) and Walter Spurrell (1858-1934). Walter joined the family business and in due course succeeded his father. He issued the West Wales Historical Records (14 vols, 1911-1929), the Journal of the Welsh Bibliographical Society and John Bodvan Anwyl's revised editions of the Welsh-English (1914) and English-Welsh (1916) dictionaries. He married Florence Mary Turner of Stoke Newington, London, in 1893 and they had a son, H. W. Spurrell. Following Walter's death in 1934 the business passed out of the hands of the family. H. W. Spurrell inherited the family papers.