I've cheated a little on this, but still may not have the answer :
I opened a World Almanack (it's not Google

) that I have, to look up famous writers from the 18th century (definitely not 19th, and 17th is unlikely but maybe possible). Here's the list :
Blake, William
Burns, Robert
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor
Defoe, Daniel
Dryden, John
Franklin, Benjamin
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von
Goldsmith, Oliver
Hume, David
Johnson, Samuel
Kant, Immanuel
Paine, Thomas
Paine, Thomas
Robinson, Mary
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques
Scott, Walter
Southey, Robert
Swift, Jonathan
Voltaire, Jean-Marie Arouet de Candide
Wordsworth, William
There are three possibilities that I see here, but one name stands out bold - in a Jules Verne (which arildno cleverly guessed) kind of way.
Do you see what I see ?