William Maltby

William Maltby (1763–1854) was an English solicitor, librarian and bibliographer, known also as a close friend of the poet Samuel Rogers.

Early life Born in London on 17 January 1763, he was youngest of the ten children of Brough Maltby, a wholesale draper, of Mansion House Street, and his wife Ann Dyer; Edward Maltby the bishop was a first cousin, as was the journalist John Dyer Collier, father of John Payne Collier. He was educated at the school of the Rev. James Pickbourne in Hackney, where he formed his life-long acquaintance with Samuel Rogers, a fellow-pupil.

Legal career Maltby went on to study at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, but as a Dissenter, did not take a degree. He practised law as a solicitor for at time with his elder brother, Rowland Maltby, who had been clerk to the Fishmongers' Company. On 23 June 1787 he was called to the bar at Gray's Inn. On 13 February he revealed the involvement of Russell Manners, a former Member of Parliament: he and Manners had married sisters.

Librarian After the death of Richard Porson in 1808, William Maltby succeeded him as principal librarian of the London Institution on 1 February 1809; its library had been founded in 1806, and Maltby had William Upcott as assistant. He started a programme of expansion, and by 1811 there were 12,000 books.

Maltby died at the London Institution on 5 January 1854, and was buried at Norwood cemetery, where a tablet was erected to his memory by his old friend Rogers.

Works Maltby took part in the compilation of the 1813 and 1835 London Institution library catalogues. He also contributed to Recollections of the Table Talk of Samuel Rogers (1866), by Alexander Dyce, an appendix Porsoniana.