1813. Pantalogia; or, a Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, twelve volumes royal 8vo. The general editor of this work was Dr. Olinthus Gregory,[1] who furnished nearly three-fourths of the articles.
1813. The Western Luminary. This paper was established in the early part of the year, by Thomas Flindell, at Exeter, in 4to.
1813. Western Star, published at Glasgow.
1813. The Glasgow Packet.
1814, Jan. 12. Died, Evan Thomas, commonly called the rev. Evan Thomas, having once been in orders. He was a native of South Wales, and was classically versed in his vernacular tongue; was brought up a printer, and was at one time a swift and correct compositor; but he left the case and composing stick to take a flight among the stars, having been a judicial astronomer, a comet hunter, a dealer in the black art, and a teller of fortunes to the credulous. With all his sky knowledge, he was often out of sorts, till the walls of Shrewsbury workhouse received him, and where death finally capped his balls at the advanced age of eighty years.
1814, Jan. Died, John Blake, proprietor of the Maidstone Journal, and one of the jurats of that town.
1814. Chalcographimania; or, the Portrait Collector and Printsellers' Chronicle: with Infatuations of every description;—a humorous poem, in four books, with copious explanatory notes. By Satiricus Sculptor, esq. London: 1814. 8vo. Of this the less is said the better.
1814, Feb. J. Magee, [2] proprietor of the Dublin Evening Post, sentenced to pay a fine of £1000, and to be imprisoned for six months, to commence from the expiration of his former sentence, and to give security to keep the peace, himself in £1000, and two sureties in £500 each. The cause of this further prosecution was the publishing the Kilkenny Catholic resolutions, which the chairman of the meeting, captain Bryan, had not the courage to avow.
1814, Feb. Died, Isaac Garner, printer, at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, aged fifty-five. He was a poet of considerable talent.
1814. Feb. Died, Jonathan Knott, for many years an eminent printer and bookseller, at Birmingham, where he died, aged forty-seven years. In 1804, Mr. Knott, in conjunction with Mr. Robert Lloyd, purchased the copyright of Aris's Birmingham Gazette. As a member of society, his conduct was ever generous and noble; as a tradesman, liberal and irreproachable.
1814, March 18. Died, John Vint, editor of the Isle of Man Weekly Gazette.[3] Mr. Vint was a native of Newcastle-upon-Tyne,[4] and during his apprenticeship officiated as editor and compositor. He afterwards went to London, where he was engaged as sub-editor on the Morning Post and Courier daily papers. His next situation was the conductor of Harrop's Manchester Mercury and British Volunteer, and his final at Douglas, where he was suddenly remored from this life in the sixtieth year of his age. Distinguished as he was by his talents and industry, he was, however, still more distinguished by his virtues and exemplary conduct in the relations of domestic life.
1814, March. Died, William Lane, formerly of the Minerva printing-office, London; from which concern he had retired about ten years, in favour of his late partner, Mr. Newman. He was long distinguished for his copious publications of novels, and for the energy with which he established circulating libraries in every town, and almost every village of the empire. For many years he was senior captain of one of the regiments of the London militia. No man knew the world better, and none better how to manage and enjoy it. He was twice married, but left no children. He died at Brighton, aged seventy-six.
1814, May 8. Died, William Nelson Gardiner, bookseller, of Pall-mall, London. He was a man of great eccentricity of conduct; regardless of all the forms of civilized life, both in his dress and deportment. He possessed considerable knowledge of books, and was a very spirited engraver. Accumulated misery, both bodily and mental, led him to commit the rash deed of dying by his own hand. The evening before his death (the manner of which must excite the commiseration of every good man) he addressed a letter to the editor of the Morning Chronicle, who had shewn him repeated kindnesses, enclosing a "brief memoir of himself."[5] In this letter he declared that his sun was set forever—that his business had nearly declined—his catalogue failed—his body was covered with disease — and he had determined to seek that asylum " where the weary are at rest" He was born at Dublin, June 11, 1766, of poor parents.
1814, May. Died, William Adams, many years a very worthy bookseller at Loughborough, in Leicestershire, where he died, aged seventy.
1814, June. Died, John Stockdale, bookseller, Piccadilly, London, where he had carried on business for forty-four years. He was aged sixty-five years. — See page 764, ante.
1814, July 7. Died, Peter Bower, bookseller, and arch-beadle of the university of St. Andrews, which office he had held nearly seventy years, and was at the time of his death one of the oldest and most respectable booksellers in Europe. He was in his ninety-second year.
- ↑ Olinthus Gregory was born at Yaxley, Huntingdonshire, in 1774, and at an early age he conceived a strong predilection for mathematics, and became a contributor to the Lady's and Gentlemen's Diaries. About 1796 he went to Cambridge, opened a bookseller's shop, and at the same time began to teach mathematics both in town and university. In 1802 he was invited to the royal military academy at Woolwich, where he was second mathematical master, and in the same year became editor of the Gentleman's Diary. In 1804-5 he took the degree of A. M. and in 1808 received a diploma as LL.D. Dr. Gregory took an extensive part in the early volumes of the Retrospect of Philosophical, &c. Discoveries.
- ↑ John Magee, esq. died Sept. 2, 1822, at Ashford, near Newrath bridge, in the county of Wicklow.
- ↑ Mr. Beaston, proprietor of the Isle of Man Weekly Gazette, died July, 1814, universally regretted.
- ↑ Another account says he was born at Alnwick.
- ↑ See Gentleman's Magazine, vol. 84, p. i. page 622-3.
