HOFFMAN, Francis (fl.1706-1741) — London
Woodcut & copper engraver; poet; author. Wrote “A poem on the manor of Woodstock” 1706, with a map of the manor, presumably engraved by himself; a self-portrait titled Francis Hoffman : first inventor of shipping with three bottoms 1710 includes the inset A new & accurate map of Great Britain, with political captions, e.g. Fires of division; his The heavenly aurora, or, dawn of Christ’s 1000 years reign ca. 1710, features a globe (the world opposing the spirit and power of God). Also known for music engraving, e.g. for “Lyra Davidica” 1708, trade-cards, satires, etc., and particularly known for engraving heading blocks, decorative initials, etc., for books, e.g. Samuel Wyld, “The practical surveyor, or, the art of land-measuring” 1725, and newspapers (see Stanley Morison, “The English newspaper” 1932, pp.321-324). Hoffman was also responsible for a version in verse of John Bunyan’s “The pilgrim’s progress” 1706; as well as the author of various political tracts, e.g. “The demolishing edict of that most incomparable, and most ingenious gentleman, politician, and small wit, F—–s H-ffm-n, esquire, in favour of his own works” 1714; “The testimony of Francis Hoffman, concerning the truth and inoffensiveness, and for reasonable moderation in wearing apparel, against flesh pride, house pride, national pride, and most of all against priest pride, wickedness and avarice, in turning their stone whores of Babylon into downright open sepulchers, casting forth dead mens stench into the streets, and poisoning the inhabitants of this great city” 1723. Also compiled “A curious uncommon account of the great eclipse of the moon” 1725 and is known for portraits, etc. An illustrated poem by Hoffman, In defence of the marble effigies of Sir Thomas Parkyns, Baronet, erected by him in his life-time, in a moralizing posture survives in Nottinghamshire archives (Parkyns died in 1741).
Born about 1676 — a trade card cut for a perfumer in 1741 gives his age as sixty-five, which would tie in with the man of this name reportedly born in Berkshire, the son of Samuel Hoffman and his wife Sarah Atfield, who married at Speen in 1675. He was perhaps the Francis Huffman of Chelsea, whose wife was buried at Hammersmith in 1717 and whose son of the same name was apprenticed to a leather clog-maker in June 1720. He worked for Charles Ackers in 1728, and is listed as a resident engraver in the Bowyer Ledgers in 1731. Despite a warning that Hoffman tended “to romance a little in conversation”, the antiquary Francis Blomefield paid him to come to Norfolk in 1736 to engrave illustrations for Blomefield’s “History of Norfolk”. Hoffman absconded after three weeks with some of the plates, presumably after a dispute of some kind. Strutt noted some portraits by Hoffman, etched “in a very coarse, tasteless style, without the least merit to recommend them”. The man born In Berkshire was buried at St. Mary, Speen, 27 Aug 1748 at the age of seventy-two.
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Alexander. BBTI. BM. Bryan. Grant. Henrey. Humphries & Smith. LHD. NA. David Stoker (ed.), “The correspondence of the reverend Francis Blomefield 1705-1752”, 1992. Strutt.