HANSARD, LUKE English printer, was born in St. Mary's parish, Norwich, educated at Boston grammar school, and apprenticed to Stephen White, a Norwich printer. As soon as his apprenticeship had expired Hansard started for London with only a guinea in his pocket, and became a compositor in the office of John Hughs (1703-71), printer to the House of Commons. In 1774 he was made a partner, and in 1800 the business came completely into his hands. He printed the Journals of the House of Commons from 1774 till his death. The promptitude and accuracy with which he printed parliamentary papers were often of the greatest service to the Government—notably on one occa sion when the proof-sheets of the report of the Secret Committee on the French Revolution were submitted to Pitt 24 hours after the draft had left his hands. He devised numerous expedients for reducing the expense of publishing the reports; and in 1805, when his workmen struck at a time of great pressure, he and his sons themselves set to work as compositors. Luke Hansard died on Oct. 29, 1828.
His son, THOMAS CURSON HANSARD (1776-1833), established a press of his own in Paternoster Row, and began in 1803 to print the Parliamentary Debates, which were not at first inde pendent reports, but were taken from the newspapers. After 1889 the debates were published by the Hansard Publishing Union Lim ited. The original business remained in the hands of his younger brothers, James and Luke Graves Hansard (1777-1851). The firm was prosecuted in 1837 by John Joseph Stockwell for printing by order of the House of Commons, in an official report of the inspector of prisons, statements regarded by the plaintiff as libel lous. Hansard sheltered himself on the ground of privilege, but it was not until after much litigation that the security of the printers of Government reports was guaranteed by statute in 1840.