Personal data
William Flexney
Born 1730  Died January 7, 1808 

Publisher, living near Grays Inn Gate, Holborn (from at least 1762 to 1792). Married (1762) to a Ms Broughton, with whom he may have had two or more children.1 Flexney was the original publisher of the poems of Charles Churchill, who wrote of him:

Let those who energy of diction prize,
For Billingsgate, quit Flexney, and be wise.2

He was a friend also of Percival Stockdale who wrote of "'old friend' Flexney, 'with whom I have passed many convivial and jovial hours.'"3

Flexney published Critical Strictures on the New Tragedy of 'Elvira', written by Mr. David Malloch and Letters Between the Honourable Andrew Erskine and James Boswell, Esq. (1763) Boswell had Supper with Flexney and the printer Samuel Chandler on July 8, 1763.

  • 1In St. Andrews, Holborn (London) was christened a William Broughton Flexney in 1772 and a Martha Flexney in 1774. The younger William later became an attorney-at-law.
  • 2In "The Journey" published posthumously.
  • 3 http://www.djmcadam.com/holborn.html 
Boswell's London Journal 1762-1763

Unless otherwise noted, the source for a dated quotation of Boswell's is generally the corresponding volume of the Yale Trade Editions of Boswell's journals.