Delepierre, Joseph Octave I Delepierre I, 1802-1879, antiquary, author. Born in Bruges. LL.D. Univ. Of Ghent. Practised as advocate in Brussels; then for some twenty years was archivist in Bruges. In 1849 appointed Belgian secretary of legation in London; held position for many years; also consul-general for Belgium in London. Popular among English men and women of literary, artistic, and social distinction, many of whom were to be seen at his Sunday evening receptions. Members of Philobiblon and other learned societies, to whose publications he contributed. F.S.A. Contributed to St. James's Magazine. Author of more than fifty works, most of them in French, some in English, e.g., Old Flanders, 1845; A Sketch of the History of Flemish Literature, 1860.

      Among the clubs to which Delepierre belonged was Our Club, of which Dickens's son Charles was also a member (Masson, Memories of London in the 'Forties, p. 222).
      Delepierre's H.W. article ["The Domestic Mercury" XIII, 445-48. May 24, 1856], a description of the contents of the Dec. 19, 1679 Mercurius Domesticus (the only number issued), is in line with his antiquarian interests. Occasional constructions and phrases indicate that English is not the writer's native language. Bourne's H.W. article "Historic Doubt" was based on "Doute historique," one of Delepierre's contributions to the Philobiblon Miscellanies.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                          D.N.B.

Author: Anne Lohrli; © University of Toronto Press, 1971.