{On the text plaque:}
Alexander Cruden, 1699 - 1770. Humanist scholar and intellectual. Born Aberdeen. Educated Marischal College. Came to London 1719 as tutor. Appointed Book Seller to Queen Caroline in 1737. Compiled the Concordance to the Bible. Died here in Camden Passage, November 1st.
'whom niether {sic} infirmity nor neglect could debase' Nelson 1811
{On the portrait plaque, beside the bust:}
1961 Payton
Camden Passage (link now dead) had a picture of the unveiling by Poet Laureate Betjeman and church dignitaries and a suggestion that the plaque was erected by a Chapel Market Stallholders Association.
2015: For their excellent post on Cruden London Details did some digging and raise a question about the origin of the description of Cruden: “whom neither infirmity nor neglect could debase”. The phrase appears in an 1811 book by John Nelson “History, Topography, and Antiquities of the Parish of St. Mary Islington in the County of Middlesex”. However its source is usually given as Alexander Chalmers’ introduction to Cruden’s Concordance. The phrase does appear there, but not in any editions earlier than 1811, which rather suggests that Chalmers ‘borrowed’ it from Nelson. This work by London Details also enabled us to correctly identify “Nelson”; previously we had only managed to guess, incorrectly, that he was Thomas Nelson, a religious publisher.
Site: Alexander Cruden (1 memorial)
N1, Camden Passage, 45
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