James Halliwell was born in 1820, the son of a prosperous London linen draper. Although Shakespeare was only one among
his early antiquarian interests, Halliwell later came to focus his energies on the study of the playwright’s life and work,
producing a pioneering biography as well as a complete edition of the plays.
Halliwell’s life was nonetheless dogged by controversy. Early in his career he was accused of stealing manuscripts from Trinity College,
Cambridge, and although no charges were brought he was never again entirely free from suspicion. He married Henrietta, daughter of
Sir Thomas Phillipps, who owned one of the finest private libraries of the time. Sir Thomas opposed the match and sought continually to ruin
Halliwell’s reputation and obstruct his projects. Ironically, Halliwell eventually added Phillipps’s name to his own, in order to meet the
conditions set by his wife’s grandfather for inheriting a substantial property. But he never inherited Phillips’s library.
Halliwell-Phillipps created his Shakespeare collections primarily to further his studies. He acquired many copies of plays, and arranged
clippings from other early printed works in scrapbooks alongside his own notes. He also produced facsimiles of the quartos, so that he might
have accurate copies of editions he could not purchase.
The University of Edinburgh loaned its copy of the very rare second quarto of Titus Andronicus to Halliwell-Phillipps so that he might make
a facsimile. As a mark of his gratitude, and in order to establish a Shakespeare library in Scotland, he donated a large collection of books
and manuscripts to the University Library in 1872.