Page:A history of booksellers, the old and the new.djvu/110

So THE LONGMAN FAMILY. age, who, as Thomas Longman, is afterwards to be the founder of the great Paternoster Row firm. By a provision of his father's will, Thomas was to be "well and handsomely bred and educated ac- cording to his fortune ;" this, we presume, was duly accomplished, and in June, 1716, we find that he was bound apprentice for seven years to Mr. John Osborn, bookseller, of Lombard Street, London a man in a good, substantial way of business, but not to be con- fused with the other Osbornes of the time. Unlike Jacob, Longman served his seven years, and reaped a due reward in the person of his master's daughter ; and, as at the expiry of his time, the house of Wil- liam Taylor (known to fame as the publisher of Robinson Crusoe) had lost its chief, Osborn being appointed executor for the family, we find that in August, 1824 "all the household goods and books bound in sheets " according to valuation were pur- chased by Longman for .2,282 9^. 6d. a very con- siderable sum in those days, and, towards the end of the month, ,230 iSs. was further paid for part shares in several profitable copyrights. In acquiring this business Longman took pos- session of two houses, both ancient in the trade, the Black Sivan and the Ship, which, through the pro- fitable returns of Robinson Crusoe, Taylor had amal- gamated into one ; and here on the self-same freehold ground, the immense publishing establishment of the modern Longmans is still standing. The first trade mention we find of his name occurs in a prospectus dated Oct., 1724, of a proposal to pub- lish, by subscription, The Works of the Honourable Robert Boyle, Esq. (the father of chemistry, and brother of the Earl of Cork), " to be printed for W.