Originally a
shoemaker by trade, his premises were in the
Great Turnstile, an alley in the
City of London. That business was not successful so he became active in the book-trading market in
Holborn from 1680, travelling to
Haarlem,
Leiden, and
Amsterdam on this business and aiding such collectors as
John Moore,
Robert and
Edward Harley, Sir
Hans Sloane,
Samuel Pepys and
John Woodward. Becoming friends with fellow antiquarians such as
Thomas Hearne,
Humfrey Wanley and
Thomas Baker, he published antiquarian tracts, contributed to others, and edited an edition of
Geoffrey Chaucer published by
John Urry. Bagford, together with Humfrey Wanley and
John Talman, was one of three founder members of the reconstituted
Society of Antiquaries, which first met at the Bear Tavern on the
Strand on 5 December 1707. Bagford's collection contained many fragments of books such as title-pages and this gave him a reputation as a
biblioclast for which he was excoriated in
William Blades'
The Enemies of Books. Likewise, a twentieth-century commentator has said how Bagford is mostly remembered today for "his ability to mangle any book he laid his hands on". Bagford's bound volumes of ballads, typeface examples and other work, which he curated for his own use, form the British Library Bagford Collection, part of the
Harleian Library. Bagford also collected material for
Robert Harley, and found ballads on request for other customers including
Samuel Pepys. The ballads were published in 1878 by
Joseph Woodfall Ebsworth. ==The Gray's Inn elephant tooth and stone tool==