To C. Rivington, Dr.
£ _s._ _d._
To Printing and Paper, 35,000 Copies of Sermons 785 5 6
By sale of 17 Copies of said Sermon 1 5 6
--------------
Balance due to C. Rivington £784 0 0
--------------
In a day or two he received a letter from Rivington to the following
purport:--
“REV. SIR,--I beg pardon for innocently amusing myself at your
expense, but you need not give yourself any uneasiness. I knew better
than you could do the extent of the sale of single sermons, and
accordingly printed one hundred copies, to the expense of which you are
heartily welcome.”[23]
In 1736 Rivington became an active member of a society for promoting
the encouragement of learning, but as he and his colleagues sustained
much injury through it, this was in the following year abandoned.
In 1737 we find him venturing in a very different path. “Two
booksellers,” writes Richardson, “my particular friends (Rivington and
Osborne), entreated me to write for them a little volume of letters, in
a common style, on such subjects as might be of use to those country
readers who were unable to indite for themselves. ‘Would it be any
harm,’ said I, ‘in a piece you want to be written so low, if one should
instruct them how they should think and act in common cases, as well as
indite?’ They were the more urgent for me to begin the little volume
for the hint. I set about it, and in the progress of writing two or
three letters to instruct handsome girls who were obliged to go out
to service, as we phrase it, how to avoid the snares that might be
laid against their virtue, the above story occurred to me, and hence
sprang ‘Pamela.’” The first two volumes of the story were written in
three months, and never was a book of this kind more generally or more
quickly admired. Pope asserted that it would do more good than twenty
sermons, mindful, perhaps, of its publisher; Slocock and many other
eminent divines recommended it from the pulpit; a critic declared that
if all books were burnt, the Bible and ‘Pamela’ ought to be preserved;
and even at fashionable Ranelagh, where the former was in but little
request, “it was usual for the ladies to hold up the volume (the
latter) to one another, to show that they had got the book that every
one was talking of.” What, however, was more to Rivington’s purpose,
the volume went through five editions in the year of publication, 1741.
This success closed Charles Rivington’s business life, for he died on
the 25th of February, 1742.
By Ellen Pease, his wife, a native of Durham, he had six children, to
whom his friend Samuel Richardson, the executor also of his will, acted
as guardian.
Charles, the founder, was succeeded by John and James, who carried on
the publishing business conjointly for several years, after which James
joined a Mr. Fletcher, in St. Paul’s Churchyard, with whom he brought
out Smollett’s “History of England,” by which £10,000 was cleared--the
largest profit that had yet been made on any single book. This success,
however, encouraged James to neglect his affairs, and he took to
frequenting Newmarket; racing and gambling soon ended in a failure,
and in 1760 he thought it advisable to start for the New World. Here,
in Philadelphia, he commenced his celebrated _Gazette_, and, as he
advocated the British interests and took the loyal side, his premises
were destroyed by the rebels, and his type cast into republican
bullets. James Rivington then came back to London, where he obtained
the appointment of “King’s printer to America,” and furnished afresh
with types and presses he returned to recommence his _Royal Gazette_,
which he carried on boldly up to the withdrawal of the British troops;
and as he had contrived somehow, it is said by forwarding early
intelligence, to propitiate the enemy, he was allowed to continue his
paper, which soon died for want of subscribers; but until 1802 he lived
in New York, leaving many descendants there. Even in those early and
unsophisticated days, Yankee gentlemen had contracted the habit of
“cowhiding” obnoxious or impertinent editors, and the wit of the _Royal
Gazette_ was in its time sufficiently stinging and personal to involve
its proprietor in many of these little difficulties. James Rivington
relates rather an amusing story of an interview with Ethan Allen,
one of the republican heroes, who came for the express purpose of
administering chastisement. He says:--
“I was sitting down, after a good dinner, with a bottle of Madeira
before me, when I heard an unusual noise in the street, and a huzza
from the boys. I was on the second story, and, stepping to the window,
saw a tall figure in tarnished regimentals, with a large cocked hat and
an enormously long sword, followed by a crowd of boys, who occasionally
cheered him with huzzas, of which he seemed quite unaware. He came
up to my door and stopped. I could see no more--my heart told me it
was Ethan Allen. I shut my window, and retired behind my table and my
bottle. I was certain the hour of reckoning had come--there was no
retreat. Mr. Staples, my clerk, came in, paler than ever, clasping
his hands--‘Master, he has come!’ ‘I know it.’ I made up my mind,
looked at the Madeira, possibly took a glass. ‘Show him up, and if
such Madeira cannot mollify him, he must be harder than adamant.’
There was a fearful moment of suspense; I heard him on the stairs,
his long sword clanking at every step. In he stalked. ‘Is your name
James Rivington?’ ‘It is, sir, and no man can be more delighted to
see Colonel Ethan Allen.’ ‘Sir, I have come----’ ‘Not another word, my
dear Colonel, until you have taken a seat and a glass of old Madeira.’
‘But, sir, I don’t think it proper--’ ‘Not another word, Colonel, but
taste this wine; I have had it in glass ten years.’ He took the glass,
swallowed the wine, smacked his lips, and shook his head approvingly.
‘Sir, I come----’ ‘Not another word until you have taken another glass,
and then, my dear Colonel, we will talk of old officers, and I have
some queer events to detail.’ In short, we finished three bottles of
Madeira, and parted as good friends as if we never had cause to be
otherwise.”
In England, to return there, John Rivington was still successfully
fostering his father’s business. A quiet and sedate man, with nothing
of James’ rashness and venture about him, he is described by West
as being stout and well formed, particularly neat in his person,
of dignified and gentlemanly address, going with gold-headed cane
and nosegay twice a day to service at St. Paul’s--as befitted the
great religious publisher of the day, and living generally upon the
most friendly terms with the members of the Episcopal Bench, and
breakfasting every alternate Monday with Bishop Seeker at Lambeth. A
kind master, too, for coming back on the 30th of January, from service,
and finding his sons and clerks plodding at the desk--“Tous, sous, how
is this?--I always put my shutters up on this day.”
In May, 1743, he married a sister of Sir Francis Gosling, Alderman,
afterwards Lord Mayor, and as she brought him a fortune and fifteen
children, the match may probably be considered a prosperous one.
Orthodox in his views, and true in business to the professions he
held out privately, Wesley and Whitfield had to go elsewhere for a
publisher, although there must have been plenty of temptation to
incline the trade to patronise Methodism, for Coote, in a comedy of
his, published in 1757, makes a bookseller say:--“I don’t deal in the
sermon way now; I lost money by the last I printed, for all ’twas by a
Methodist.” But John Rivington would have none of them, and in 1752 we
find him publishing “The Mischiefs of Enthusiasm and Bigotry: an Assize
Sermon by the Rev. R. Hurd;” and about 1760 he was appointed publisher
to the venerable “Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge”--an
office that remained in the family for upwards of seventy years.
Dissent in itself was injurious enough to his interests, but when
Wilberforce and Hannah More succeeded in making a portion of the Church
“Evangelical,” upwards of half his customers deserted to a rival shop
in Piccadilly.
Some time before this he had admitted his sons, Francis and Charles,
into partnership, and he was then appointed manager in general of the
works published by his _clique_;--that is, of standard editions of
Shakespeare, Milton, Locke, and other British classics, and of such
religious works as were produced in an expensive and bulky form; and
of these works, two especially, Dr. Dodd’s “Commentary,” and Cruden’s
“Concordance” stand out so prominently that some slight account of
their authors may not be unacceptable.
William Dodd was a man of great learning, and a very popular preacher
in the metropolis, and in 1776, when he was appointed chaplain to
the King, took his degree of LL.D. Ambitious and fond of display he
found himself in debt, and determined to make a bold effort to secure
the Rectory of St. George’s, Hanover Square. To her great surprise
the wife of Lord Chancellor Apsley received an anonymous letter
offering her £3000 if she would procure Dr. Dodd’s presentation to
the parish. This insulting proposal was traced to Dodd, and the King
ordered that he should be deprived of his chaplaincy. This disgrace,
of course, involved him still further, and to extricate himself from
these difficulties he was tempted to forge the name of his pupil, Lord
Chesterfield, to a bond for £4200. On the discovery of the forgery, Mr.
Manley, a solicitor, called upon the doctor with the bill, leaving it
on the table in a room where a fire was burning, when he went out for
the obvious purpose of refreshment. Dr. Dodd appears to have been too
honest to destroy the fatal document, and he was afterwards tried and
condemned for forgery, and, spite of all the strenuous efforts of his
friends, was executed on 27th of June, 1777.
Alexander Cruden, one of the most useful men who have ever followed
the painstaking and praiseworthy profession of index-making, was born
in Aberdeen in 1701. An unfortunate passion, which was treated by its
unworthy object with great contumely, weakened his senses, and on the
discovery that the girl he worshipped was pregnant by her own brother,
he went for a short time entirely out of his mind. On his recovery,
he was sent to London in the hopes that the difficulty of obtaining
position and livelihood might act tonically. At one of the first houses
at which he called, the door was opened by the wretched girl herself,
and poor Cruden rushed off wildly and vacantly into the streets.
For many years he was a bookseller, doubly entitled, therefore, to
a notice here, and upon the counter of his shop, under the Royal
Exchange, his famous and laborious “Concordance” was compiled. Queen
Caroline, to whom it was dedicated, unluckily died before publication,
and the downfall of the expectations he had formed from her patronage
was too much for the author, and his friends were compelled to place
him in a lunatic asylum. Having made his escape, he brought an action
against his relatives for false imprisonment--offering his sister
the choice of Newgate, Reading and Aylesbury jails, and the prison
at Windsor Castle. He was never insane in the eyes of his employers,
and as a corrector of the press, especially in the finer editions of
the classics, his services were invaluable. Henceforth he adopted the
name of “Alexander the Corrector,” as expressive of his character of
censor general to the public morals. Armed with a large sponge, his
favourite and incessant weapon, he perambulated the town, wiping out
all obnoxious signs, more especially “Number 45,” then rendered famous
by Wilkes. Giving out, too, that he had a commission from above to
preach a general reformation of manners, he made the attempt first
among the gownsmen at Oxford, and then among the prisoners at Newgate;
but in neither case did he meet with much encouragement. He asked for
knighthood from the King, and a vacant ward from his fellow-citizens;
and on refusal said that he possessed the hearts if not the hands of
his friends. He was found dead on his knees, apparently in a posture of
prayer, at his lodgings in Islington on November 1st, 1770.
Samuel Richardson appears to have entertained grateful remembrance of
the commission to write the “Familiar Letters to and from several
Persons upon Business and other Subjects,” for on his death he left a
mourning ring to James Rivington.
During Dodsley’s illness, Rivington and his sons managed the _Annual
Register_, and when on his death it was sold to Orridge and others,
they started an annual of their own, which lasted till 1812, and
then till 1820 was in abeyance, resumed again till 1823, and in the
following year the two were merged into one, and after being published
for a few years by the Baldwins, its management returned again to their
own hands. Through the _Register_ they were brought into connection
with Burke, and were subsequently publishers of his more important
works.
At all times the Rivingtons took a very great interest in the
Stationers’ Company; this was especially the case with James, who
served as master, and at the same time he, his two brothers, and
his four sons were all members of the livery. He held many public
appointments, was in commission of the peace, a governor of most of the
Royal hospitals, and a director of the “Amicable Society,” and of the
Union Fire Office.
He died, universally regretted, on the 16th of February, 1792, in his
seventy-second year, and was followed by his widow in the succeeding
October.
Owing to the split we have referred to in his business, and to
his uniform generosity, the fortune he left behind him was not
large--indeed, money hoarding has been an attribute of none of the
Rivington family.
His two elder sons, Francis and Charles, carried on the business
vigorously. Another son, Robert, captain of the “Kent”--East
Indiaman--fell, gallantly defending his ship in the Bay of Bengal, and
was thus celebrated in the _Gentleman’s Magazine_:--
* * * * *
“His manly virtue mark’d the generous source,
And naval toil confirm’d the naval force;
In fortune’s adverse trial undismay’d,
A seaman’s zeal and courage he display’d;
For honour firmly stood, at honour’s post,
And gain’d new glory when his life he lost!”
A fourth son John, a printer in St. John’s Square, had died previously
in 1785.
The first important event in the new publishing house was the
establishment of the _British Critic_, in which Nares and Beloe were
conjoint partners with Francis and Charles Rivington. The _British
Critic_ was started in January, 1793, in monthly numbers of two
shillings each, and by the end of the century attained a circulation of
3500. The editorship was entrusted to Nares, and with the assistance of
Beloe it was conducted down to the forty-second volume in 1813. William
Beloe was some time librarian of the British Museum, but a stranger
who had been admitted to the print-room, having abused his confidence,
and stolen some of the pictures, the librarian was somewhat unjustly
asked to resign. Among the other contributors to the _British Critic_
were Dr. Parr--of whom Christopher North says, not unfairly, “in his
character of a wit and an author one of the most genuine feather-beds
of humbug that ever filled up a corner of the world”--and Whittaker,
author of the “History of Manchester.” In 1813, the second series of
the _Critic_ was commenced, under the editorship of the Rev. W. R.
Lyall, afterwards Dean of Canterbury; in 1825 the publication was made
quarterly, and a third series began, which, however, only reached
three volumes.
Of all the literary men connected with the Rivingtons of this era,
none were more useful, and few deserve more grateful remembrance
from posterity, than George Ayrscough---_facile princeps_ of index
makers. Originally a miller’s labourer, he obtained a situation in
the Rivingtons’ shop, and was afterwards promoted to a clerkship in
the British Museum; soon after his further rise to the position of
assistant librarian he took orders; but it is as a maker of catalogues
and indexes that he is still known; and how great the labour and
patient skill needful in compiling the indexes to the _Gentleman’s
Magazine_, the _Monthly Review_, and the _British Critic_ must have
been, all students can approximately guess from the immensity of labour
saved individually by their use.
John, the eldest son of Francis, was admitted a partner in 1810, and
in 1819 they took a lease of No. 3, Waterloo Place; and so popular
were they at the time that it is said Sir James Allen Park, one of the
judges, came down to the new house before nine o’clock on New-year’s
Day, that he might enrol himself as their first customer. In 1820
they determined to start a branch house for the sale of second-hand
books and general literature, and John Cochrane was placed at the head
of this establishment. He collected one of the finest stocks ever
gathered, and published the best and most carefully compiled catalogue
that had then been issued, extending to 815 pages, and enumerating
17,328 articles, many of the rarest kind. The business, however,
entailed considerable losses, and was abandoned in 1827.
On October 18, 1822, Francis Rivington, the senior partner, died,
earning a character for high probity and sincere and unaffected piety.
Like his father he had been a governor in many charitable institutions.
“Such a man,” says the author of his obituary notice, “cannot go
unwept to the grave; and the writer of this article, after a friendly
intercourse of sixty years, is not ashamed to say that at this moment
his eyes are moister than his pen”--a quaint but sincere tribute. He
had married Miss M. Elhill, sister of an eminent lead merchant, and
four of his sons survived him.
In 1827 George and Francis, sons of Charles, joined the firm; and in
1831, Charles, the younger of the two original brothers, was found dead
on the floor of his dressing-room. In social life he was distinguished
by the mildness and complacence of his temper; and his conversation was
invariably enlivened with anecdotes and memories of the literary men
and clergymen with whom he had come in contact.
The firm now, therefore, consisted of John, the son of the elder, and
Francis and George, two sons of the younger brother.
We shall see, in the following memoirs of the Parkers, how marvellously
religious life was quickened at Oxford by the publication of Keble’s
“Christian Year.” This feeling, intense in its inner nature as any
of the revivals, culminated or fulminated in the publication of the
“Tracts for the Times”--the most important work, perhaps, with which
the Rivingtons have ever been connected; and worthy, therefore, of
the scanty notice for which we can afford space here. The “Tracts
for the Times” were commenced in 1833, at a time, according to the
writers, “when irreligious principles and false doctrines had just
been admitted into public measures on a large scale ... when the Irish
sees had been suppressed by the state against the Church’s wish....
They were written with the hope of rousing members of the Church to
comprehend her alarming position--of helping them to realize the
fact of the gradual growth, allowance, and establishment of unsound
principles in her internal concerns; and, having this object, they
used spontaneously the language of alarm and complaint. They were
written as a man might give notice of a fire or inundation, so as to
startle all who heard him” (vol. iii. p. 3). As far as fulfilment of
intention went in startling, the writers were perfectly successful.
Exhibiting great talents, depth of thought, logical power, acuteness
of reasoning, and an undoubted religious feeling, their effect was
spontaneous. By one party, and an increasing one, the writers were
welcomed with a reverend love that almost forbade criticism, and
by the other with the greatest uneasiness and suspicion. The chief
writers in the series, for the “Tracts” continued to appear during the
space of several years, were Newman, Pusey, Keble, and Williams. In
Ireland the clergy were anxious to come over in a body, and greet them
collectively. In Scotland, Pusey and Newman were denounced at a public
dinner as enemies to the established religion; and at Oxford, where
they were personally loved and respected, they were looked upon by a
large portion of the members with peculiar distrust. Parties in the
Church were formed, and claimed, or were christened after, the names
of the writers--such were originally the _Puseyites_ and _Newmaniacs_.
At length the famous “Number 90” appeared, and was thus greeted by the
University:--“Modes of interpretation such as are suggested in this
tract, evading rather than explaining the sense of the 39 articles, and
reconciling subscription to them with the adoption of errors which they
were destined to counteract, defeat the object, and are inconsistent
with the due observance of the above-mentioned statement.” The Bishop
of Oxford forbade their further publication, and shortly afterwards
Newman, the author of “Number 90,” showed his honesty by going over to
the Roman Catholic Church.
The publication of these “Tracts” still further strengthened the
Rivingtons in their position of High Church publishers, and their
business benefited considerably by the great increase of the High
Church party.
In 1827 a fourth series of the _British Critic_ was commenced,
incorporated with the _Theological Review_. In 1843, however, in
consequence of the extreme views that had been expressed in its pages,
the publication was discontinued, to the very great regret of the
clergy; the _English Review_, which started from its ashes, met with
but little support, and lasted only till 1853.
To complete our personal account of the firm:--John Rivington, who
married Anne, daughter of the Rev. John Blackburn, canon of York, died
21st November, 1841, at the age of 62. His son John was admitted a
partner in 1836, and is the present head of the firm. George Rivington
died in 1842, having retired on account of ill health in 1857, and in
1859 Mr. Francis Rivington retired from active partnership. The present
representatives of the firm consist, therefore, of Mr. John Rivington,
fifth in descent from the founder, and Mr. Francis Hansard Rivington,
who is the sixth.
In 1853 the firm removed their place of business from the ancient house
in St. Paul’s Churchyard, and consolidated it at 3, Waterloo Place,
retaining nothing but some warehouses in Paternoster Row. In 1862,
after an interval of thirty years, they re-acquired the agency of the
Cambridge “Press”--a famous manufactory of Bibles, Prayer Books, and
Church Services; and in the next year, 1863, they opened branch houses
at both Oxford and Cambridge--an extension of business that, after a
long life of 160 years, says something for the vitality of the firm.
* * * * *
In treating of the Parkers, it will be necessary to bear in mind the
essential fact that there were two distinct families of that name, both
engaged in the publication of religious books, and both interested in
the “Bible Press”--the one at Oxford and the other at Cambridge; and
though its chief interest, as regards later years, will be centred in
the younger (publishing) family, who began life in London, it will be
necessary, according to our general plan, to give a preliminary glance
at the elder family, whose name is more intimately connected with the
University of Oxford.
The first of the Parkers with whom we need concern ourselves was Dr.
Samuel Parker, sometime Bishop of Oxford. The product of a changeable
age, he was a very Vicar of Bray. While at the University of Oxford,
he affected to lead a strictly religious life, and entered a weekly
society then called the “Gruellers,” because their chief diet was
water gruel; and it was observed “that he put more graves into his
porridge than all the rest.” Formerly a nonconformist, having once
taken orders, he became chaplain to a nobleman in London, whom he
amused with his humorous sallies at the expense of his old comrades
the Puritans. During Charles’s reign, his writings were distinguished
by the bitterness of his attacks upon the dissenting party; and on the
accession of James he was installed in the bishopric of Oxford, upon
the death of Dr. Fell--the famous subject of inexplicable dislike. He
now embraced the Romish religion, “though,” writes Father Peter, a
Jesuit, “he hath not yet declared himself openly; the great obstacle
is his wife, whom he cannot rid himself of.” Finding the cause growing
desperate, he sent a discourse to James, urging him to embrace the
Protestant religion. His authority in the diocese became contemptible,
and he died unlamented in 1687. He left, however, a son of his own
name, an excellent scholar and a man of singular modesty, who married
a bookseller’s daughter, of Oxford, and had a numerous family, to
support whom he not only wrote, but published, and himself sold, books
of a learned class--the most important of which was the “Bibliotheca
Biblica.” He died in 1730, and his son, Sackville Parker, was an
eminent bookseller in the Turl, his shop being chiefly frequented
by the High Church and non-juring clergy. He was one of the four
octogenarian Oxford booksellers who all died between 1795 and 1796, and
whose united years amounted to 342. He was succeeded by Joseph Parker,
his nephew.
About the year 1790, Joseph Parker was apprenticed to Daniel Prince,
whose successor, Joshua Cooke, was agent to the University Press,
and thus he was able to become acquainted with the management of its
publications. The Bible Press was at this period in debt, and was an
annual expense to the University, but Parker saw the feasibility of
making it a profitable concern, and, by dint of strenuous persuasion,
was, in 1805, allowed to enter into partnership with the University
Press, jointly with Cooke and Samuel Collingwood, the latter of whom
attended to the printing, while the publishing business was left
entirely in Joseph Parker’s hands. Great difficulty was felt at first
in borrowing money to meet that advanced by the University. In a few
years, however, the debts were paid off, and large profits began to
come in, and during his lifetime he was able to pay over upwards of
£100,000 into the University chest, building in addition the new
printing-office, at a cost of £40,000, investing large sums in “plant,”
and leaving a concern that was worth £10,000 a year to the partnership.
For the seven years previous to 1815 the number of Bibles printed at
Oxford was 460,500; Testaments, 386,000; of prayer-books, 400,000; of
catechisms, psalters, &c., 200,000; and the money received as drawback
for paper duty amounted to £18,658 2_s._ 6_d._ For the same period
at Cambridge the Bibles numbered 392,000; the Testaments, 423,000;
the Prayer-books, 194,000; while the drawback was only upwards of
£1087 7_s._ 6_d._ In addition to his interest in the Bible Press,
which yielded him about £1000 a year, Joseph Parker, on the death of
his regular trade partner, Hanwell, became sole proprietor of the
old-established bookselling business of Fletcher and Hanwell, in the
Fleet, and, on the retirement of Cooke, succeeded to the office of
“Warehouse-keeper,” and also to the appointment of agent for the sale
of books published on the “Learned” side of the press; the value of
the books sold on this side amounted to from £3000 to £5000 annually,
while on the Bible side under his management the sales were something
like £100,000 worth.
By far the most important work, however, with which Joseph Parker’s
name is concerned, is Keble’s “Christian Year.” We believe that the
first risk of publishing was insured by Sir John Coleridge. Nothing
could be more unassuming than its first appearance in 1827, in two
little volumes, without even the authority of an author’s name. None
of the regular literary journals noticed its publication, excepting a
friendly greeting in a footnote to an article on another subject in the
_Quarterly Review_. Appealing to no enthusiastic feelings, deprecating
excitement, and courting no parties, silently and imperceptibly at
first, but with increasing rapidity, it found its way among all
sections of churchmen, and was the real commencement of that movement
in the Church with which afterwards the “Tracts for the Times” were
associated. At Oxford, when once its popularity was attained, its
effects were marvellous; young men dropped the slang talk of horses
and women and wine, and went about with hymns upon their lips; instead
of the riotous joviality of “wines,” the evening meetings became
austere; and even the most careless made some little temporary effort
to be better and purer. Partaking of the nature of a revival--among
a better-educated and less-impressionable class than that usually
affected by such movements--its strongest outward symptoms were of
longer than ordinary duration, and its inner effects much deeper.
The most popular volume of poems of recent times, it is said in the
number of its editions to have out-rivalled Mr. Tupper’s works (we
state a fact merely, with an apology for mentioning the two names
together); in less than twenty years, twenty-seven editions had been
exhausted.[24]
The author’s profits, as well as the publisher’s, were large, and the
Rev. J. Keble devoted his portion of them to the entire reconstruction
of his own church, that of Hursley, in Hampshire.
In 1832 Joseph Parker retired from business, retaining, however, his
share in the Bible Press until his death in 1850.
Mr. John Henry Parker, his nephew, was the son of John Parker,
merchant, of the City of London, and was born in the year 1806. After
receiving a good education at Dr. Harris’s school at Chiswick, he
entered the bookselling trade in 1821, and was consequently fully
prepared, eleven years later, to occupy the position just vacated by
his uncle.
Mr. John Henry Parker is known almost as well as an antiquarian, and
as a writer on architecture, as a publisher. He continued his uncle’s
business at Oxford, and extended it to London, where for many years
it was under the management of Mr. Whitaker. The University, however,
bought in again the share held by his uncle, in 1850, and declined
admitting Mr. J. H. Parker as a partner unless he undertook to give up
general business, as by a clause in the deed of partnership none of
the temporary proprietors are allowed to follow any other calling. Mr.
Parker’s business was in such a profitable condition as to render such
a step totally out of the question. He acted, however, as agent for the
Oxford Press for many years.
In 1856 the Gentleman’s Magazine was transferred to his house, and
for some time he was, with two other gentlemen, conjoint editor; and
in 1863 he retired in favour of his son James, devoting his time
exclusively to the study of architecture. Among his best-known writings
are “The Glossary of Architecture,” and “An Introduction to the Study
of Architecture,” both of which are considered standard works on the
subject.
In 1863, the year of his retirement, the agency of the works published
by the delegates of the Oxford University Press was transferred to
Messrs. Macmillan and Co., and the ancient connection was altogether
broken. Mr. James Parker, however, still continues the Oxford
book-trade, though we believe the London house does the more important
business.
Having dealt thus cursorily with the firm of John Henry and Joseph
Parker, of London and Oxford, we come to the somewhat similar title of
John William Parker and Son, of the West Strand, London.
John William Parker,[25] whose father was in the navy, was born in the
year 1793, and at an early age entered the service of the late Mr.
Clowes, printer, then only commencing business, and, at the age of
14, was bound apprentice to him. Here he took a strong dislike to the
irksomeness of case, and it was found more profitable to employ him
in the counting-house generally, where his retentive memory and his
habits of close observation were quickly turned to good account. When,
indeed, most of the records were destroyed by the outbreak of a fire,
young Parker’s memory was found most essential as a substitute for the
current business documents.
Messrs. Clowes commenced their printing establishment in a very small
way, but soon progressed, and were among the first to use the steam
press; but as they were then in Northumberland Court, Strand, their
neighbour, the Duke of Northumberland, brought an action against
them for causing a nuisance, and eventually bought them out of their
tenement, and Parker induced Clowes to purchase the lease and plant
of a factory in Duke Street, Stamford Street, which had been started
unsuccessfully by Applegarth, the inventor of the steam press. Here,
undisturbed by neighbouring aristocrats, Parker became the manager
of the business, and it prospered so exceedingly that he established
a printing-press of his own in the immediate vicinity, and found it
necessary to live in Stamford Street, where he made the acquaintance
of Dr. D’Oyley, Rector of Lambeth, Dr. Mant, and a number of other
influential clergymen, whose connection with the venerable “Society
for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge” eventually stood him in good
stead.
About the year 1828, the University of Cambridge found that the
receipts from its Press were barely sufficient to cover the expenses,
while at the sister University, under the management of Collingwood
and Mr. Joseph Parker, the annual returns were not only large, but
increasing yearly. In this strait the Syndics applied to Mr. Clowes,
who sent Mr. Parker down to inspect. The sensible manner in which
he at once detected the faults of the establishment, and suggested
improvements, led to his immediate engagement as advising printer at
a salary of £200; and he soon proved his worth by turning to account
the apparently useless stereotype plates; from one set alone, in one
year, he cleared £1500 by cutting out the heads of chapters, &c., and
re-setting them in new type. He re-opened the account with the “Bible
Society,” and in dealing with the “Christian Knowledge Society,”
abolished the tax of middlemen.
Parker had hoped, by his energy and perseverance, to become a partner
with Mr. Clowes, but finding this precluded by family arrangements,
he established himself at 445, West Strand, and at once received the
appointment of “publisher of the books issued under the direction of
the Committee of General Literature and Education, appointed by the
Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.” This “Committee” had been
established to sanction and recommend books of a wholesome character,
but which, not dealing chiefly with religious matters, were believed to
be out of the legitimate sphere of the original Society’s operations.
In July the first number of the _Saturday Magazine_ appeared. Mr.
Parker was his own editor, and many of the illustrations were from
the pencil of his son, Mr. Frederick Parker, who died very young. The
_Saturday Magazine_--one of the three parents of our cheap periodical
literature--was published weekly at the low price of a penny, and, a
_répertoire_ of useful and entertaining facts, and not much else, was
intended to counteract the effects of the licentious publications of
the day, then the only ones within reach of the poorer classes. It was
continued successfully for thirty-five volumes; but is more interesting
now as the foreshadowing of a better time than for any intrinsic value
of its own. It was eventually merged in _Parker’s London Magazine_.
445, West Strand became, of course, the Cambridge Depository for
Bibles, Testaments, and Common Prayer-books printed at the University
Press, and, at the death of Smith, Parker was appointed printer to
the University at a salary of £400 a year, and visited Cambridge once
or twice a fortnight. For many years, in spite of all his strenuous
efforts and his repeated advice, the Bible Society set their faces
resolutely against steam-printing. On one occasion he prepared a large
edition of the nonpareil Bible at two-thirds of the price then charged,
and took a dozen copies to the manager, Mr. Cockle, hoping that the
Bible Society would encourage so laudable an improvement. The manager
hummed and hawed, sent for the binder, told him in confidence that
the Cambridge people had kindly prepared some cheap Bibles printed
by machinery, but he thought “from the smallness of the margins they
_might_ not fold evenly, and was not sure that, as a cheaper ink had
been used, they _might_ not set off when pressed,” and all these
predictions were verified, and the Committee would not sanction the
purchase of such rubbish. Strangely enough, two or three years later,
when cheap Bibles were eagerly called for, the whole of the rejected
set were purchased by the Society, and no difficulty was experienced in
their manipulation.
William IV. having expressed his royal wish for a Bible, Mr. Parker
determined to print one specially, and on the occasion of the
installation prepared a dozen sheets, which were pulled by the Duke
of Wellington and other magnates; this is the first book ever printed
with red rules round, and, as the “King’s Bible,” attained in various
forms and sizes a great success. A committee was appointed to read and
revise it, and it was purposed to make it the standard edition. One
copy upon vellum was intended for the King, but as he died before its
completion, her present Majesty Queen Victoria was graciously pleased
to accept it. After some years Parker’s interest in the Bible Press
flagged, and much dissatisfaction was caused, and about 1853 he retired
altogether from the management.
Parker had from a very early date thought of printing his own books,
and started an office that was afterwards removed to St. Martin’s Lane,
but ultimately relinquished the management to Mr. Harrison, whom he
took into partnership. When the Council of Education was formed Parker
was appointed publisher, and gave every assistance in the way of funds
and encouragement, and Mr. Hullah, in particular, found in him a warm
supporter.
Parker was twice married; by his first wife he had two sons, Frederick
and John William, and this latter, born in 1820, after receiving a good
education at King’s College, was admitted into the house in 1843, and
in a few years took the chief management of the general business.
Under Mr. John William Parker, Jun., the house became identified with
the Liberal and Broad Church party, and till his death he held the
reins of _Fraser’s Magazine_ entirely in his own hands. Strangely had
that periodical altered since the days of Maginn and Fraser. Now it was
the centre, in connection with 445, West Strand, from which issued the
teachings of Maurice, Kingsley, and Tom Brown--the nursery of muscular
Christianity--in one sense the cradle of Christian Socialism.
Mr. Parker, Jun., in his capacity of publisher and editor felt an
immense responsibility, and really believed that the bishops of the
Church of England held but sinecure offices, while he, and the heads
of other publishing firms, were our virtual spiritual fathers and
directors. He made himself no partizan in the religious and political
questions of the day, and no prospect of pecuniary advantage would
induce him to publish a book until he was first assured that it was the
expression of honest conviction, or the result of honest labour. “One
day,” says the writer of an obituary notice, “going into Mr. Parker’s
room, we found his pale face paler than usual with anger. ‘Look at
these,’ he said, putting a bundle of letters into our hands, ‘or rather
do not look at them.’ A lady, eminent in certain circles as a spiritual
teacher, wanted him to publish a devotional book for her. She had sent
him the private correspondence of some thirty different ladies, who had
trusted her with the innermost secrets of their souls and consciences,
as an advertisement of herself, her abilities, and her popularity. Mr.
Parker was perhaps never seen more indignant. He declined the book on
the spot. He returned the letters with a regret that the lady should
have sent him what had been intended for no eye but her own. A few
days after he showed us the lady’s reply. Stung by the rebuke, she had
dropped the mask for the moment, and had told him she did not require
to be lectured on her duty by an insolent tradesman.”
Of the success with which Mr. Parker’s publications met it is
sufficient to mention the names of Maurice, Kingsley, Mill, Buckle,
and Lewis. Fruitful of discussion as were the works of the writers
mentioned, they were all thrown into a temporary shade by the cry that
arose on the publication, in 1860, of “Essays and Reviews,” to which
only the first named contributed. Shortly after the appearance of the
volume a document was issued, bearing the signature of every bishop of
the united Church, condemning many of the propositions of the book as
inconsistent with an honest subscription to her formularies. This was
succeeded by an address to the Archbishop of Canterbury, signed by more
than 10,000 clergymen, condemning in the strongest terms the teaching
of the essayists. As we all remember, the case was tried in the Court
of Arches, and led to the temporary suspension of Dr. Williams and Mr.
Wilson; a suspension that was afterwards reversed by the Privy Council.
But this case, interesting as it may be for the student in the future,
though one of too many _causes célèbres_ of church persecution, is too
well known to detain us longer at present.
Mr. Parker, who took a deep interest in all religious questions, held
weekly gatherings at his house, and was loved and respected by his
clients, who regarded him as a friend rather than a business aid. He
died in 1861, and for the moment the knot of earnest men who were
clustered round _Fraser’s Magazine_ were dispersed. But in the year
1863 the agency of the works published by the delegates of the Oxford
University Press was transferred from the other Parkers to Messrs.
Macmillan, and henceforth _Macmillan’s Magazine_ and its contributors
may be considered as an offshoot from 445, West Strand.
After the death of his son, Mr. Parker, who had for some years taken
little active part in the management of the business, took his old
assistant, Mr. William Butler Bown, into partnership; but the
connection did not last long, and in 1863 the stock and copyrights were
disposed of to Messrs. Longman, who agreed to allow Mr. Bown an annuity
of £750 a year, which he only lived a year and a half to enjoy.
On May 18th, 1870, Mr. John William Parker died at his country house
near Farnham. By his first wife he left two daughters living, and by
his second (the daughter of Dr. Mantell, the well-known geologist)
one son and two daughters. He was seventy-eight years of age at the
time of his death; and, though his life presents us with little that
is striking or historically strange, he had played an honest part
manfully, and may be remembered as one of the few instances in which a
publisher, successful as an architect of his own fortune, has been wise
enough to transfer his business at the very zenith of its success to
the keeping of other hands, when he had ascertained that his own were
too aged for its proper maintenance and management. The Broad Church,
so called, and the liberal thought of the country, owe much to the now
defunct firm of John William Parker and Son.
* * * * *
JAMES NISBET, the son of a poor Scotch farmer, who afterwards became
a cavalry serjeant, was born on Feb. 3rd, 1785. After receiving the
ordinary rudiments of education he was apprenticed to Mr. Wilson of
Kelso for three years, but having obtained the offer of a situation in
London he was permitted to leave before his indentures had expired. He
left Scotland with only four guineas in his purse, and being delayed on
the road, was obliged to sell his violin. On reaching town he became
clerk to a Mr. Hugh Usher, a West India merchant in Moorfields, and his
salary commencing at £54 12_s._ per annum took some years before it
increased to £120.
James Nisbet’s career has been to a certain extent chronicled by his
son-in-law, the Rev. J. A. Wallace, in a volume entitled, “Lessons from
the Life of James Nisbet, the Publisher”--not, says the author, “a
mere biography”--would that it were!--but a series of forty chapters
or lessons, each commencing with a text and ending with a hymn. To its
rambling and incoherent pages we are indebted, however, to many of the
facts in the following notice.
On the evening of Nisbet’s arrival in London a young Scottish friend
took him about sight-seeing. The walk terminated in a blind alley and a
strange looking house--which instinct at once told him was “the house
of the destroyer.” He gave up intercourse with his companion, and fled
away hastily, and not till some few days afterwards, when he found a
refuge in the Swallow Street Chapel, did he recover his equanimity.
From his earliest boyhood he had a great liking for “the courts of the
Lord;” a pocket-book dated 1805, contains a list of places at which
the gospel was reported to be purely preached. It seems, too, that
his favourite books at this time were Henry’s “Commentary,” Cruden’s
“Concordance,” Hall’s “Contemplations,” and Baxter’s “Saints’ Rest.” At
the Swallow Street Chapel he met his future wife.
As befitted a persevering and energetic man he was an early riser, yet
he found that not only did his business require it, but he discovered
“our Lord when on earth rising a great while before day that He might
spend some time in secret prayer, and David says, ‘Early will I seek
Thee.’” So good a habit scarcely needed so lofty an apology.
His father appears to have remonstrated with him as to his excess of
zeal: “Concerning the meetings you attend, God Almighty never designed
man to spend all his time in godliness; He designed such as you and me
to work for our bread”--advice that had not much effect, for we find
Nisbet writing when down home in Scotland in 1808, “I have lost much
time in coming here--no Thursday night sermons, no companion with whom
I would wish to be on intimate friendship, and no Sabbath schools; and
the Sabbath is a very poor Sabbath, very unlike our dear Sabbath in
London.”
Having, however, returned to London in 1809, he commenced business
for himself on a very limited scale as a bookseller in Castle Street,
and characteristically the first books sold were copies of Streeter’s
“Catechism.” In due course of time he prospered, was admitted to the
freedom of the City of London, and elected to the office of Renter
Warden in the Stationers’ Company.
As soon as his reputation as a religious publisher was established, he
purchased a house in Berners Street--“the great object of his ambition
being, not to amass a large fortune for aggrandisement, but to be the
pious proprietor of a comfortable dwelling, which he could throw open
for the hospitable entertainment of godly men.”
He firmly adhered to his principles of publishing books of one peculiar
class, and rigidly excluded everything that was not of a moral or
religious character; and not satisfied with purchasing the copyright
of his authors upon highly advantageous terms, often added a liberal
bonus when the work proved profitable. “To such a degree,” says his
biographer, “did his generosity overflow, that one estimable man,
‘whose praise is in all the churches,’ felt constrained to put the
curb on his publisher’s largesse. ‘I shall agree to accept one hundred
pounds, and no more,’ commences one of his legal agreements.”
Such conduct had its reward, for, says Mr. Wallace, “notwithstanding
the humble position which James Nisbet occupied as a mere shopkeeper,
so high was the estimation in which he was held as a philanthropist and
a churchman that he was occasionally honoured by pressing invitations
from families in the higher ranks of life, to visit them at their
country seats”--the lesson drawn from such amazing condescension by the
biographer being, “Him that honoureth I will honour”--and accordingly
Nisbet went for a whole week to Tollymore Park, and naturally writes
from there: “What a blessed thing it is to be a Christian.” The curious
chapter in which this visit is recorded is headed, “Yea, brother, let
me have joy of thee in the Lord.”
Among the numerous authors with whom Nisbet was connected was Edward
Irving, for whom he published “Discourses on Daniel’s Vision of the
Four Beasts,” and other books. Irving, by far the greatest orator and
most eloquent speaker of our later times, “was for long enshrined
in the warm recesses of Nisbet’s heart, and Nisbet not only sat
under him, but contributed £21,000 to the Regent’s Square Church.
But the love of truth was in Nisbet stronger than earthly affection,
and soon the gift of speaking with unknown tongues was discovered.”
“Last Sabbath,” writes Nisbet, “a most tumultuous scene took place,
the lives of many people being in jeopardy, so that even Mr. Irving
himself was terrified, and said that he would not allow the spirits
to speak again in public.” He was then accused of heresy, and Nisbet,
like most conscientious men, felt constrained to side against him. An
ecclesiastical assize was holden for his trial, in March, 1833, at
which a strange scene occurred. His answer to the charge was rather an
authoritative command than an apology, perorating thus:--
“I stand here not by constraint, but willingly. Do what you like. I ask
not judgment of you; my judgment is with my God; and as to the General
Assembly, the spirit of judgment is departed from it. Oh, know ye not
how near ye are to the brink of destruction. Ye need not expedite your
fall. All are dead carrion. The Church is struggling with many enemies,
but her word is within herself--I mean this wicked assembly.”
Then after the trial he was found guilty, and the sentence of
deposition was about to be prefaced with prayer, when a loud voice was
heard from behind a pew where Irving stood:--“Arise, depart! arise,
depart! flee ye out, flee ye out of here! ye cannot pray! How can ye
pray? How can ye pray to Christ whom ye deny? Ye cannot pray. Depart,
depart! flee, flee!” The church was at this moment wrapped in silent
darkness, and when this strange voice ceased, the 2000 sprang trembling
to their feet as though the judgment day had come. On lighting a
candle, however, it was ascertained that the speaker was a Mr. Dow, who
had been lately ousted from the church for similar views. Irving rose
grandly to obey the call, and pressing through the crowd that thronged
the doorway and the aisles he thundered: “Stand forth! stand forth!
what, will ye not obey the voice of the Holy Ghost? As many as will
obey the voice of the Holy Ghost, let them depart!” Onward he went to
the door, and then came to the last words:--“Prayer, indeed, oh!” and
thus he left his church for ever.
Thousands and almost millions of tracts and small books did Nisbet
scatter broadcast, freely to those who could not pay, with small charge
to those who could. And at the period of the “Disruption” he circulated
at his own expense, not only in Scotland and Ireland, but all over
England, great multitudes of Dr. James Hamilton’s “Farewell.” But even
in the midst of these labours the ungodly were busy, and a rumour was
circulated that James Nisbet had gone over to the Church of Rome; and
this, in spite of his well-known antipathies, gained considerable
credence. The following is from a letter from Mr. Wolff:--“I, a few
days ago, read in the _Morning Post_ that an eminent and successful
bookseller had entered the Church of Rome. I thought that this
bookseller must be one of the Tractarian party (the Rivingtons), but
to my utter astonishment I heard it whispered that the bookseller was
nobody else than Mr. James Nisbet, his whole family, and my old friend
Mr. Murray, with the observation that ‘one extreme leads to the other
extreme.’... My dear Nisbet and Murray, what could induce you to do
such a spite to your John Knox, Chalmers, and Gordon, and join with
a rotten church? Nobody is more impatient in acknowledging the good
things to be found in the Church of Rome than myself, yet I would
rather see the Pope and all his cardinals fly to the moon than become
a Papist again. In fact I never was one.” (A curious way of putting it.)
This was not the only hoax by which James Nisbet was a sufferer. Later
on, a practical joke was played upon him by some wag, who sent the
following to a large number of country papers:--
“Nearly Ready, in Three Handsome Octavo Volumes,
“LITERARY PYROTECHNICS; or, Squibs, Pasquins, Lampoons, and other
Sparkling Pleasantries, by the best English Writers, from the
Reign of Elizabeth to the Present Day, with Philological Notes
by the Hon. the Vice-Chancellor Sir William Page Wood, Knt.
“James Nisbet and Co., Berners-street, London.”
This very advertisement was directed to be inserted in the next issue,
and a copy of the paper containing the advertisement was to be sent to
the publisher with the price of inserting it four or six times. About
one hundred papers fell into the snare, to James Nisbet’s horror and
amazement.
Nisbet was a very charitable man to all of his way of thinking. The
“Saints” were freely welcomed to his hospitable house, which was used
as a free hotel by travelling missionaries and preachers, who often
said a grateful “grace for all the rich mercies of his table.” He was
one of the chief supporters of the Fitzroy Schools, and one of the most
zealous founders of the Sunday School Union. Nor was he wanting in
generosity to general and more publicly useful charities; and, during
a period of thirty years, his books show that he collected for more
than five hundred institutions, and that the total amount that passed
through his hands was £114,339 16_s._ 4_d._
It is pleasant, amid the farrago of religious cant and trash with which
the “Lessons from his Life” are surrounded, to find some glimmering
of the real man--the enterprising and successful bookseller. “From his
energy of character, and from habit, he was more accustomed to lead
others than to be led himself; therefore, any attempt to alter or set
aside arrangements which he had himself devised ... was almost sure to
meet with, on his part, a strenuous and determined resistance.”
In 1854, when the cholera was raging in London, his brave conduct was
far above any party praise. The position of chairman of the Middlesex
Hospital devolved temporarily upon him, and fearlessly he set about his
difficult duty. Day after day he was at his post, directing all things,
and alleviating, with every means in his power, the physical sufferings
of the patients; and still, while adopting all that was proper to
check the progress of the disease, not unmindful of administering the
consolations of religion.
He died on the 8th November, 1854, having been seized with a violent
illness on his return from a before-breakfast visit to the Orphan
Working School at Haverstock Hill.
In a funeral sermon, preached by Dr. Hamilton at Regent’s Square
church, his character is thus summed up, both sides of it being
cautiously exhibited:--“With a sanguine temperament, he had strong
convictions and an eager spirit; and, whilst he sometimes magnified
into an affair of principle a matter of secondary importance, he was
impatient of opposition, and did not always concede to an opponent the
sincerity he so justly claimed for himself. Then, again, his openness
was almost excessive, and his determination to flatter nobody sometimes
led him to say things more plain than pleasant.... Those only could
appreciate his excellence who either knew his entire mode of life, or
whose casual acquaintance was confined to the walks of his habitual
benevolence.”
As a publisher, he was eminently successful, and reaped a due reward
for his honest industry; never had he a bad debt but once, and, on
recovering that unexpectedly, he presented the amount of it, in a
silver service, to a church. The books he issued were chiefly of an
ephemeral religious class, and literature is certainly less indebted to
his success than were the charitable institutions of the day.
Mr. James Murray, who had been Nisbet’s partner in business for many
years, succeeded to the command of the firm; and, after his death at
Richmond in June, 1862, Mr. Watson, the present manager, was appointed
by the family to superintend the whole concern.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
_BUTTERWORTH AND CHURCHILL_: