Thomas Longman

Thomas Longman (1699 – 18 June 1755) was an English publisher who founded the publishing house of Longman.

Longman was born at Bristol, the son of Ezekiel Longman and his second wife Sarah. The Longman family had been involved in the manufacture of soap for several generations and his father owned a shop and stalls in Temple Street. Longman's parents had died by the time he was nine. His father requested in his will that he be "especially well and handsomely bred and educated". From his mother he inherited a considerable amount of property at Winford, Winfrith, Rudghill and Stroud. When Longman was seventeen his guardians - his brother Ezekiel, Nathaniel Webb and Mrs Thomas Coules - apprenticed him for seven years to John Osbom, a bookseller in Lombard Street, London. In 1724, when his apprenticeship was ended, he purchased the business of John Taylor, a bookseller in Paternoster Row for £2,282. Taylor had been the first publisher of ' Robinson Crusoe', and traded at the sign of the Ship and Black Swan.