[Illustration: THE RIVINGTONS.
Fear God
Honour the King]
Of the existing firms of publishers and printers, that of Messrs.
Longmans is the most memorable; _vice_ the firm of Messrs. Rivingtons,
which has now become joined to that of the Longmans. This gives us the
opportunity to consider briefly the Marks of the two firms together. In
the year 1711, Richard Chiswell, the printer of much of Dryden’s poetry,
died, and his business passed into the hands of Charles Rivington,
a native of Chesterfield, Derbyshire. Thoughtful and pious himself,
Charles Rivington threw himself with ardour into the trade for religious
manuals, and not only succeeding in persuading John Wesley to translate
“à Kempis” for him, but also in publishing the saintly Bishop Thomas
Wilson’s “Short and Plain Introduction to the Sacrament of the Lord’s
Supper,” the first edition of which bears Charles Rivington’s name on
the imprint, and which is still popular. To the novelist Richardson, he
suggested “Pamela.” Dying in 1742, he left Samuel Richardson as one of
the executors of his six children, but his sons, John and James,
continued to conduct the business. A few years later, it was deemed
advisable for the brothers to separate, and while John remained at the
“Bible and Crown,” St. Paul’s Churchyard, James joined a Mr. Fletcher in
the same locality, and started afresh. One especially fortunate venture
was the publication of Smollett’s continuation of Hume, which brought
its lucky publishers upwards of £10,000, a larger profit than had
previously been made on any one book. However, Newmarket had attractions
for James, and eventually disaster set in; he died in New York in 1802
or 1803. His brother, meanwhile, had plodded on steadily at home, and
admitting his two sons, Francis and Charles, into partnership. About
this time there were numerous editions of the classics, the common
property of a syndicate of publishers, and it says much for Mr. John
Rivington that he was appointed managing partner. About 1760 he obtained
the appointment of publisher to the Society for Promoting Christian
Knowledge, a lucrative post, held by the firm for upwards of two
generations. By the year 1889, the two representatives of this ancient
firm were Messrs. Francis Hansard Rivington and Septimus Rivington; in
this year the partnership was dissolved, and the goodwill and stock were
acquired by Messrs. Longmans. They used at various periods no less than
eight Marks, the design of which was in most cases based upon the
ancient sign of their shop, “The Bible and Sun.”
[Illustration: LONGMAN AND CO.
ERRABANT MARIA OMNIA CIRCUM
1726]
[Illustration: THE CLARENDON PRESS.