the national convention which sat in London from 12 April 1842, and is credited with having drawn up the monster petition, signed by 3,300,000 persons, and presented on 2 May, in favour of the confirmation of the charter. Philp was a contributor to the ‘Sentinel’ from its commencement on 7 Jan. 1843.
In 1845 he settled in Great New Street, Fetter Lane, London, as a publisher, and was sub-editor of the ‘People's Journal’ from 1846 to 1848. His attention being drawn to the demand for cheap popular literature, he published, on his own account, the ‘Family Friend,’ successively a monthly, fortnightly, and weekly periodical. He acted as editor from 1849 to 1852. It had an enormous sale. Similar serials followed: the ‘Family Tutor’ (between 1851 and 1853), the ‘Home Companion’ (from 1852 to 1856), and the ‘Family Treasury’ (in 1853–4). He also edited ‘Diogenes,’ a weekly comic paper (1853–4). He then commenced to compile cheap handbooks on the practical topics of daily life. In many cases they were issued in monthly numbers at twopence. The most popular, ‘Enquire within upon Everything,’ appeared in 1856; a sixty-fifth edition followed in 1882, and in 1888 the sale had reached a total of 1,039,000 copies. A supplement, ‘The Interview,’ appeared in 1856; republished as ‘A Journey of Discovery all round our House,’ London, 1867. Similar compilations were: ‘Notices to Correspondents: Information on all Subjects, collected from Answers given in Journals,’ 1856, 8vo, and ‘The Reason Why: a careful Collection of some hundreds of Reasons for Things which, though generally believed, are imperfectly understood’ (1856, tenth thousand 1857). The latter heralded a ‘Reason Why’ series of volumes dealing with general science (1857, 8vo, forty-fifth thousand 1867); domestic science (1857, 1869); natural history (1860); history (1859, 8vo); the bible (1859); christian denominations (1860, 8vo); the garden and farm (1860); and physical geography and geology (1863). Philp's dictionaries of daily wants (1861), of useful knowledge, 1858–62 (issued in monthly parts), of medical and surgical knowledge, ‘The Best of Everything,’ and ‘The Lady's Every-day Book,’ 1873, were all very popular. Philp also published a ‘History of Progress in Great Britain,’ in sixpenny monthly parts, June 1859 to July 1860, which was reissued in two volumes (1859–60). The portions dealing with ‘The Progress of Agriculture’ and the ‘Progress of Carriages, Roads,’ &c., were printed separately (London, 1858, 8vo).
Philp died at 21 Claremont Square, Islington, on 30 Nov. 1882, aged 64, and was buried at Highgate. He left an only son.
Philp was responsible for many works resembling those mentioned, and also compiled guides to the Lake district and Wales, and to the Great Northern, the Midland (1873), London and North-Western (1874), London and South-Western (1874), Great Eastern (1875), London, Brighton, and South Coast (1875), and South-Eastern railways (1875). At least five songs by him were set to music, and he wrote a comedy, in two acts, ‘The Successful Candidate’ (1853). His portrait is given in vol. i. of the ‘Family Treasury.’
[Works above mentioned; Allibone's Dict. of Engl. Lit. Suppl. ii. 1233; Boase's Collectanea Cornubiensia, 1890, col. 736; Boase and Courtney's Bibliotheca Cornubiensis, pp. 492–5, Suppl. p. 1313; Gammage's Hist. of the Chartist Movement, pp. 197, 213, 214, 215, 222, 226, 227, 230, 441; Public Opinion, 25 Sept. 1880 p. 390, and 15 Jan. 1881 p. 71.]
PHILPOT. [See also Philipot.]
PHILPOT, JOHN (1516–1555), archdeacon of Winchester, third son of Sir Peter Philpot, was born at Compton, Hampshire, in 1516. He was educated at Winchester, where he had as a contemporary John Harpsfield [q. v.], with whom he made a bet that he would write two hundred verses in one night without making more than three faults, which he did. In due course he went to New College, Oxford, where he was fellow from 1534 to 1541. He graduated B.C.L., but on the enactment of the six articles in 1539 he went abroad and travelled in various countries. He fell into an argument with a Franciscan friar between Venice and Padua, and very narrowly escaped the claws of the inquisition in consequence. On his return he went to Winchester, where he read lectures in the cathedral, and, at some uncertain date, became archdeacon. He now fell to squabbling with his bishop, John Ponet [q. v.], whom the registrary Cook, ‘a man who hated pure religion,’ had stirred up against him. Cook even set on the archdeacon with his servants as if to murder him. When Mary came to the throne Philpot soon attracted attention. He was one who in the convocation of 1553 defended the views of the catechism, especially with reference to transubstantiation. In 1554 he was in the king's bench prison, and even there he found something to dispute about, as some of his fellow-prisoners were Pelagians. In October 1555 he was examined in Newgate sessions house, and, though Bonner did his best for him, he was convicted. He was burned at Smithfield, suffering with heroism, on 18 Dec. 1555.
