Catholic bookseller and publisher Burns and Oates was formed by a partnership of James Burns, who had been a stationer and bookseller in London since 1835, and William Wilfred Oates, who had published in Bristol as Austin and Oates. The firm largely published devotional material and church magazines until it was joined around 1900 by Wilfred Meynell, after which it became a leading publisher of religious literary material. It also became renowned for fine printing and typography.
Burns and Oates purchased the company R. and T. Washbourne in 1920, becoming Burns, Oates and Washbourne. It retained its identity during ownership by Hutchinson from 1929 and Eyre and Spottiswoode from 1939, then was established again as an independent publishing house in 1948 under the name Burns and Oates by Thomas Ferrier Burns, a relative of James Burns. It was sold to Verlag Herder (Freiburg) in 1967 and the imprint ceased for a time, but was revived in 1974 by Search Press, and used for religious publications.
