proprietors of the Morning Chronicle to the double station of printer and editor, which he filled with much credit to himself until the year 1789, when he commenced the Diary, which is already noticed at page 764, ante. Mr. Woodfall possessed the virtues of private life that endear a man to society, and was particulary distinguished for his literary talents. In 1793, he sought to be appointed remembrancer of the city of London, an office for which he was peculiarly qualified; but private friendships and superior interest prevailed. He was also devoted, to the belles lettres; and, as such, was the intimate friend of Garrick, Goldsmith, Savage, (whose tragedy of Sir Thomas Overbury he prepared for exhibition, acted at Covent Garden in 1777,) and all the other members of the old literary school, of which he was one of the very few remaining disciples. He was so passionately fond of theatrical representations, as never to have missed the first performance of a new piece for at least forty years; and the public had so good an opinion of his taste, that his criticisms were decisive of the fall or fortune of the piece and the performer.[1] Unfortunately for himself and his family, he placed all his hopes on the most precarious species of property, and became the proprietor of a newspaper, which his talents raised to eminence; but the talents of no individual could secure it a permanent station upon that eminence. The paper fell, and with it fell his hopes. Though disappointed, he was not to be diverted from his favourite pursuits. He was constant in his attendance at the bar of the house of lords, which he visited so lately as July 27, 1803. Although he was far advanced in life, he was active, animated, and in full possession of his mental faculties, without the appearance of any considerable waste of his physical strength. To a large family, entirely dependent upon his industry, his death was therefore an unexpected, deplorable, and afflicting event. He died, after a week's illness, in his fifty-eighth year, in Queen-street, Westminster; and his remains were interred on the 6th, in St. Margaret's church-yard.
1803. The British and Foreign Bible Society instituted by the right hon. sir John Shore, baron Teignmouth; the cause of which he has advocated, as its president, with great ability. He was born in Devonshire, in 1751, and early in life went to India in the civil service. In 1793 he was appointed governor general of Bengal, at which time he was created a baronet. He was the bosom friend of sir W. Jones, and succeeded him in the presidentship of the Asiatic society.
1803, Aug. 7. Died, William Charnley, bookseller, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, aged seventy-six years, being the oldest in the trade in the North of England. Mr. Charnley served his apprenticeship to Martin Bryson, a respectable bookseller residing on the bridge in Newcastle, who was upon terms of intimacy and friendship with Allan Ramsay, of Edinburgh, and who once addressed a letter to Bryson, with the following superscription:
To Mr. Bryson, on Tyne brigg.
An upright downright honest whig.[2]
Mr. Emerson Charnley, who is styled by Dr. Dibdin,[3] the veteran emperor of Northumbrian booksellers, succeeded his father, and has carried on one of the most respectable bookselling businesses out of London.
1803. The first book printed at Northampton, capital of Hampshire county, in the state of Massachusetts, North America, was a work by Dr. Joseph Priestley,[4] entitled, Notes on all the books of Scripture, four vols. 8vo.
1803, Sept. 28. Died, Ralph Griffiths, LL.D. the original institutor of the Monthly Review, and which, with unremitting perseverance, he conducted fifty-four years, assisted only by his son in the latter period of his life.[5] He was originally a watch-maker at Stone, Staffordshire, and a steady attendant at the Presbyterian meeting at that place. Abandoning his trade he went to London, and turned bookseller, first on Ludgate-hill, afterwards in Paternoster-row, and finally in the Strand, where he had the misfortune to fail; and his Review being sold for the benefit of his creditors, was purchased by Mr. Collins, then an enterprising bookseller at Salisbury. Under Collins the work improved in variety and reputation, if not in sale;—and Griffiths, who had retained the management, regained the whole of the property itself about the year 1780. He now began a new series, and the profits of the work were so much increased, that he commenced a handsome establishment at Turnham Green; kept two carriages, and lived in style. He obtained, unsolicited, the degree of doctor of laws from an American college
- ↑ The family of the Woodfalls have long been distinguished both in the annals of typography and literature. Sophia Woodfall, (afterwards Mrs. M'Gibbon,) was the daughter of William Woodfall, and inherited from her parents a love for the stage; she performed at Covent-garden theatre with considerable eclat; and was for several years the principal heroine of tragedy, at the theatres royal Liverpool and Manchester, where she was not only admired for her tragic powers, but highly respected in private life. Before her marriage she produced Frederick Montravers or the Adopted Son, novel, 2 vols. 12mo. 1802; Rosa, or the Child of the Abbey, novel, 4 vols. 12mo. 1804.
- ↑ This anecdote is recorded in Sykes, vol. I. p. 224.
- ↑ See Dibdin's Northern Tour, vol. I, p. 3S0, a work as deficient in information, as it is expensive in price; unworthy of its title, or the name of Dibdin.
- ↑ Dr. Joseph Priestley, the most celebrated philosopher of his time, was born at Fieldhead, near Halifax, Yorkshire, March 13, 1733, and educated at Daventry, under Dr. Ashworth. In 1761, he became tutor to the college at Warrington, and there wrote several works, after which he resided six years at Leeds. In 1773, he became librarian to lord Shelborne, and in August, 1774, discovered dephlogisticated air, which has been called the birth-day of Pneumatic chemistry, which produced him great distinction. In 1778, he removed to Birmingham, and in 1791, a church and king mob burnt his house and library, and he removed, first to Hackney, and afterwards to Pennsylvania where he died, February 6, 1804.
- ↑ One of the earliest coadjutors of Dr. Griffiths, was Dr. William Rose, who has the credit of having written the first article in that valuable work. Dr. Rose was born in the county of Aberdeen, in Scotland, and for about thirty years was an inhabitant of Chiswick, where he kept an academy; he was a man of amiable manners, and much esteemed in the literary world. He died July 4, 1786, aged sixty-seven years
