JERDAN, William (1782-1869), journalist, was born April 16, 1782, at Kelso, Scotland. After leaving the parochial school of his native town, his erratic youth between the years 1799 and 1806 was spent in the successive spheres of a country lawyer’s office, a London West India merchant’s counting-house, an Edinburgh solicitor’s chambers, and the position of surgeon’s mate on board H.M. guardship “Gladiator” in Portsmouth harbour, under his uncle, who was surgeou. In 1806 the insertion of some verses of his in a Portsmouth paper determined Jerdan’s choice of literature as a profession; and, proceeding to London, he found employment as a newspaper reporter. By 1812 he had become editor of The Sun, a semi-official Tory paper; but a quarrel with the chief proprietor brought that engagement to a close in 1817. He passed next to the editor’s chair of The Literary Gazette, which he conducted with success for thirty-four years. Jerdan’s position as editor introduced him into high social and literary circles; and it is not easy to account for the deference he met with, unless one is content to accept him at his own somewhat self-satisfied estimate, as contained in his Autobiography (4 vols., 1852-3), for which, however, there is no other warrant. An account of his acquaintance, among whom Canning was a special intimate, is to be found in his Men I have Known (1866). When Jerdan retired in 1850 from the editorship of the Literary Gazette, his pecuniary affairs, either through misfortune or imprudence, were far from satisfactory. A testimonial of over £900 was subscribed by his friends; and in 1852 a Government pension of 100 guineas was conferred on him by Lord Aberdeen. Among other works, including translations from the French, Jerdan contributed to Fisher's ...