1802, June 5. Died, Thomas Sowler, of the firm of Sowler and Russell, printers and periodical publishers, at Manchester. He was born at Durham, December 9, 1765, and was the son of George Sowler, a letter-press printer of that city. Sincerely and universally respected in private life, he was highly esteemed by the trade and public generally, for his strict integrity and free and open bearing, and by his workmen as a kind, and in every sense, worthy employer. His only surviving son, Mr. Thomas Sowler, is the present proprietor and printer of the Manchester Courier, which was commenced Jan. 1, 1825.
1802, Died, John Burdon, a very respectable bookseller, at Winchester, leaving four sons; one of whom, Charles Burden, also a bookseller.
1802. William Bent, bookseller, Paternoster-row, London, began the Monthly Catalogue of New Publications, 4to.[1] From the Modern Catalogue, from 1792 to the end of 1802, eleven years, we find that 4096 new books were published, exclusive of reprints not altered in price, and also exclusive of pamphlets; deducting one-fifth for the reprints, we have an average of 372 new books per year.
1802, June 21. Allen M'Leod, editor of the Albion, daily newspaper, who had been convicted of two libels on the earl of Clare, was sentenced to eighteen months' imprisonment in Newgate, on each count, making in the whole three years' imprisonment, and from the end of that period to find security to keep the peace for seven years, himself in £1000, and two sureties in £200 each.
1802, June 22. An act was passed for regulating the franking and postage of newspapers. By this act, the regulation requiring members of parliament to give notice of the place to which newspapers might be addressed to them fell into disuse, and if a member's name only appeared upon the cover, they were sent free to all parts of the United Kingdom. The free transmission of newspapers by the post was thus virtually thrown open to the public, and the origin of the establishment of agents amongst printers, booksellers, and others, for the supply of newspapers by post, may be dated from this period.
1802, July. Died, Robert Rosser, formerly printer of the Bristol Mercury.
1802, July. Philip Rusher, printer and bookseller, at Banbury, in Oxfordshire, obtained a patent for "various improvements and alterations in the form of printing types, and the manner in which printing is to be performed therewith, so as to diminish the trouble and expense of printing, and to render it more uniform and beautiful." From a copy of Rasselas, printed with Mr. Rusher's improved types, we consider them any thing but what the preamble of the patent would lead us to believe.
1802, Aug. 7. Died,—Lewis, bookseller, in Great Russell-street, Covent-garden. He was one of the oldest booksellers in London; and used to relate that his father was a schoolfellow with Alexander Pope.
1802, Aug. 21. Died, Thomas Rickaby, a printer of eminence, of Peterborough Court, Fleet-street, aged forty-nine years. He printed the British Critic. Mr. Rickaby was among the first who turned his attention to the beautiful minute;—printing in very small type below brevier had been pursued to a great degree of excellence but by very few printers. An annual work, of the pocket book class, called Peacock's Polite Repository, and a pocket dictionary called Peacock's Johnson, were among the best efforts of Mr. Rickaby's ingenuity.
1802, Sept. Died, Daniel Richards, many years father of the parish of St. Andrews, in Holborn, London, and where he had kept a stationer's shop for more than sixty years. He was also the senior member of the court of assistants of the stationers' company. At his death he was aged eighty-seven.
1802, Sept. Died, Alderman Sutton, bookseller, at Northampton, aged seventy-eight years.
1802, Nov. 29. Died, Samuel Paterson, the well known and justly celebrated bookseller and auctioneer, of King-street, Covent-garden, London. He was the son of a respectable woollen draper in the parish of St. Paul, Covent-garden, and born 17th March, 1728. He lost his father when about the age of twelve years; and his guardian not only neglected him, but involved his property in his own bankruptcy, and sent him to France. Having there acquired a knowledge of foreign literature and publications beyond many persons of his age, he resolved to engage in the importation of foreign books; and when little more than twenty years old, opened a shop in the Strand: the only person who then carried on such a trade being Paul Vaillant. Though, by the misconduct of some who were charged with his commissions in several parts of the continent, it proved unsuccessful to the new adventurer, he continued in business till 1753. At the same early period in which he engaged in business he had married Miss Hamilton, a lady of the most respectable connexions in Scotland, still younger than himself; both their ages not making thirty-eight. He next commenced auctioneer in Essex house. This period of his life tended to develope completely those extraordinary talents in bibliography, (a science till then little attended to) which soon brought him into the notice of the literary world. His talent at cataloguizing was unrivalled. Mr. Paterson was the author of Coryat Junior,[2] three vols. 12mo. 1767; Joineriana; or the Book of Scraps, two vols. 12mo.; the Templar, a weekly paper, published by Brown, which was soon dropped; and Speculations on Law and Lawyers, applica-
- ↑ Mr. Bent also published a meteorological journal, kept in London, from 1793 to 1813, 8vo. (published annually); the London catalogue of books, to September, 1799, 8vo. 1799; appendix to ditto, to 1800, 8vo.; the modern catalogue, to 1803, 8vo. 1803; the new London catalogue, to 1807, 8vo. 1807; the London catalogue, to 1811, 8vo. modern catalogue, to 1812; the London catalogue of books, from 1814 to 1834, by Robert Bent, Paternoster-row.
- ↑ Odcombian Banquet, dished foorth by Thomas the Coriat, and served in by a number of Noble Wits in prays of his Crudities and Crambe too, 1611. Published by Ben Jonson.
