William Tait (publisher)

[2] The eldest son of Isabella Bertram and her husband, James Tait (1762–1834), an architect in Edinburgh,[3] he was born there on 11 May 1793.

Giving up on a legal career, by 1818 he had opened a bookshop at 78 Princes Street, Edinburgh with his brother Charles Bertram Tait,[4] and shortly afterwards began publishing.

In 1833, Tait was elected to the first reformed town council of Edinburgh, and in the same year was sent to gaol for four days on 10 August for refusing to pay church rates, which were then a target in radical circles.

His shop was a meeting-place and it is told that Sir Walter Scott and Thomas Carlyle were present at the same time without managing to meet.

[5] In 1837, Tait was part of a group who helped create the Political Martyrs' Monument at Old Calton Burial Ground.