Page:A dictionary of printers and printing.djvu/736

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EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.

727

1771, Nov. 8. Died, John Wobrall, a reiy vorth J, industrious, and intelligent bookseller in 3ell-yard, Temple-bar, London. His profession vas originally tnat of a bookbinder; but, having >een encouraged to open a shop as a bookseller, le took a house in Bell-yard, which had formerly >een the Bell inn. In 1731, he compiled and >ublished a very useful work, entitled, i9tUto(A«ra Legum Anglia, of which he printed several edi- ions, in 1735, 1738, 1740, and the last in 1768. fie also published another little piece, entitled, Sibliotheca Topoyraphica Anglicana, 1736. In 1749, he published, in three volumes folio, the valuable work which bears the name of Edward Wood't Complete Body of Conveyancing. By the incooiagement Mr. Worrall received, he was oon enabled to rratiiy his own honourable feel- ngs by an act of strict justice. In the outset of ife, having been unsuccessful, he was under the lecessity of making a composition with his cre- iitors ; but as soon as he was able, he sent for hem all, and fully paid them the deficiency. To IB only brother, Thomas Worrall, who had been I bookseller at Temple-bar, but unfortunatelv aboured under a mental derangement, which terminated his life Sept. 17, 1767, John Worrall was particularly kind. He was a very active nan ; and in ealy life walked frequently to Read- ing, (the place of his nativity) on a Saturday, and !)ack again early on Monday. Mr. Worrall bad }een for several years a widower after having lost sight children, seven of them in infancy. He lied at an advanced age, sustaining to Uie last .he character of benevolence and integriU],* which he had borne through a long life. He eft many handsome legacies to numerous rela- ions. Some time before his death, Mr. Worrall rave up the fatigues of business to his partner

  • Ir. B. Tovey ; who, in 1775, resigned the trade

o his son-in-law, Mr. Edward Brooke ; who survived till Jan. 1806. In 1783, Mr. Brooke, IS successor to J. Worrall and B. Tovey, pub- ished a new and improved edition of the Bih- iotheca Legum.

1771. Encycloptedia Brilanniea. The plan, md all the principal articles (of this now impor- ant work) were devised and written or compiled >j William Sraellie,-|- which began to appear in lumbers at Edinburgh, in this year, and was •ompleted in three volumes 4to. For editing

  • Tht Arte Bhetarike, far Iht tue 0/ att nehe at are

liudtota of Bloquenee, tette/orOe in EngUthe, if nonae Wilaony 1553. AndnownewKe teite forthe mgoiiu. vilh a Prologue to the reader. Anno DomiiUf 1 567. Imprtoted at joniOD, by Jhon Kingston. HiU carious Hack letter nonet is menUoned prindpallrfor the salte of introdndnr he followinc very liononrable note, written at the back <tf he title-page :—"Menioraodiim, the IBth of Aufoist, 1740. [ boaght a small paicel of )xx>ks of the executors of Mr. Stephens, In Witch-street, for tiiree pounds fifteen shil- Ings i and in tliis, b«dng one of the said l»olts, I found a lank note, dated the isUi Aogust, 17», for twenty.tlve wunds, which I returned to the executors 1 for wlUch they ^ve me fire guineas as a reward, also five shillings for a xittle of wine attending to receive it.

"J. WOKRALI."

t Winiam Smeliie served an appienticesUp to the print- ng buiinoss in Edinbargli, in vMch he became eminent j ]at is iKtter known to the learned world by the many ex-

dleat wokt at vrtdcb he was the aotbor.— See 1795 poet.

and superintending the work Mr. SmelHe received only the sum of £200, from its proprietor, Mr. Andrew Bell, engraver, and Colin Macfarquhar, printer. Of the original edition, the entire work of Smeliie, it is not exactly known how many copies were thrown oflf. The second edition, which began in 1776, under the editorship of James Tytler,* consisted of fifteen hundred copies, and extended to ten volumes 4to. A third edition, in eighteen volumes, 4to. was com- menced in 1789, and extended to ten thousand copies.f By this edition the proprietors are said to haved netted de42,000 of clear profit, besides being paid for their respective work as trades- men — the one as printer, and the other as engra- ver. The fourth raition extended to twenty 4to. volumes, and three thousand five hundred copies. In the fifth and sixth editions, only parts of the work were printed anew ; and to these a supple- ment in six volumes was added by Archibald Constable, after the property of the work had fallen into his hands. A seventh edition, under the editorship of profesosr Macvey Napier, is now (1838) in the course of publication.

1771, March 23. PretcotVt ManchetUr Jour- nal, No. 1 , price twopence, printed and published every Saturday, by John Prescott, in Old Mil- gate, near the cross.

1772. April. M. Pionorelli, a Neapolitan gentleman, was beheaded at Rome for his sati- rical writings against the holy see.

1772. Euayt on the most important nihjects of Natural and Revealed Religion. This work was composed and written by that singular genius, James Tytler, while confined within the precincts of the sanctuary of Holyrood. He had a press of his own, from which he threw off various pro- ductions, generally without the intermediate use of manuscript. In a small mean room, amidst the squalling and squalor of a number of chil- dren, he stood at a printer's case, composing pages of types, either altogether from his own ideas, or peniaps with a volume before him, the language of which he was condensing by a men- tal process little less difficult. He is said to have.

  • James Tytler was a man of extraordinary genius and

extensive learning ; but whose lifte is a melSLncholy in- stance ot talents misapplied. A large portion of that additional matter by which the Enegclopiedia Britanniea was extended from tliree to ten volumes, was the produc- tion of Tytler. The payment of this labour is said to have been very small, insomuch that the poor author could not support his family in astylesuperiortothat of acommon labourer. At one time, during the progress of the work, he lived at the village of Dnddingston, in the house of a washerwoman, whose tab inverted formed the only desk he could command ; and one of his children was l^uently despatched with a parcel of copy, upon the proceeds ot whidi depended the next meal of the family. Itlscnrions to reflect that the proceeds of the work, which included so much of this poor man's labonrs, were, in the next ensuing edition, no less than iff43,000. A man who has so litUe sense of natural dignity as to besot his senses by liquor, and who can so readily make his intellect Bul)serrient to the porposes of those who wish to employ its powers, can scarcely expect to be otherwise than poor ; wl^ile his very poverty tends, l>y inducing dependence, to prevent liim fh>m gaining the proper reward for ills labour. — See a Biographleat. Sketch of the Life of Jama Tytler. Edin- bnigh : printed liy and for Denovan, Lawnmarkel; 1805.

t To Uie third edition Tytler contributed the article on elecbicity, which I* allowed to be excellent.

VjOOQ IC