Page:A dictionary of printers and printing.djvu/834

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NINETEENTH CENTURY.
825

1806, March 25. Died, Mileson Hingeston, bookseller, near Temple-bar, in the Strand, London. After having been several years in business, he retired to a comfortable situation in the ordnance office, and died much respected, at his house in the tower.

1806. An extraordinary Case in Chancery fairly stated. 8vo. Mrs. Mary Crowe, the writer of this pamphlet, her husband, and Mr. Delahoy, the printer, at Deptford, were imprisoned by order of the lord chancellor, for a libel on the court, contained in the above pamphlet.

1806, April 7. Died, Thomas Jones, a worthy and respectable printer in Fetter-lane, London, aged seventy-five.

1806, June 30. Died, Peter Whynne, an eminent bookseller in Paternoster-row, London. He had just purchased the elegant villa of Mr. Wilkinson, at Canonbury; but did not live to take possession. Mr. Whynne, was a man of strong intellect; and, with rather a rough exterior, possessed the milk of human kindness.—From habits of industry, imbibed in early life, and the aid of inflexible integrity, he had acquired a handsome competence, with the esteem of an extensive circle of friends. He died at Eltham, in Kent, leaving a widow, with two sons and three daughters.

1806, Aug. 26. Died, James Robson, a very eminent bookseller, in Bond-street, London.—He was born in the year 1733, at Sebringham, in Cumberland, where his family had been settled from ancient times in the respectable condition of yeomen. He was educated at a neighbouring grammar school; and at the age of sixteen went to London, under the protection of his relation Mr. Brindley, then an eminent bookseller in New Bond-street. Mr. Robson succeeded him in business in 1769, which he carried on for more than forty years, with integrity, fame, and profit. He entered the career of active life with all the advantages of a solid and pious education, habits of frugality without meanness, a persevering industry, and manners peculiarly liberal and obliging, free alike from the pernicious and offensive vanity of assuming the habits of the higher ranks, or the insolent affectation of contemning them. Soon after he settled in business be made a considerable addition to his domestic comforts and his property, by marrying the only daughter of Mr. Perrot, an eminent builder, near Grosvenor-square, by whom he had a large family.[1] About the year 1707, the dean and chapter of Westminster appointed Mr. Robson high bailiff of the city and liberty; but he resigned it some time before his death. He was also in the commission of the peace for the county of Middlesex, in which he had considerable property. In 1788, accompanied by his friend Mr. James Edwards, bookseller, of Pall Mall, Mr. Robson undertook a journey to Venice, on purpose to examine the far-famed Pinelli library,[2] the catalogue of which made six 8vo. volumes. This superb collection, by a bold and successful speculation, he secured, by offering a price for it which the executors and trustees of Maffei Pinelli, who died in Feb. 1785, found it their interest to accept; and during the severe winter of 1788-9, the books were, not without much hazard from the sea, brought safely to London; and sold by auction, at the great room in Conduit-street, in 1789 and 1790. The produce of the auction was £9,356. A sale catalogue was published in London in 1789, entitled Bibliotheca Pinelliana; a catalogue of the magnificent library of Maffei Pinelli, late of Venice, &c. in one thick volume 8vo. Mr. Robson's chief amusement, when relaxing from the tumult of the world, was that which delighted Isaac Walton; and the records of Hampton and Sunbury proclaim his skill and patience as an angler; where, with a few select companions, he occasionally whiled away the early dawn and evening shade in harmless sport. His conversation was mild, cheerful, intelligent, communicative, but never obtrusive; and as he had imbibed in his early education a familiar acquaintance with the Latin poets, was frequently illustrated by apt quotations.—Though very far removed from the character of a bon vivant, he was a member of a literary club of booksellers, held at the Shakspeare tavern; a friendly band, where congenial spirits, warmed, not heated, with the genuine juice of the grape, unreservedly poured out their whole souls in attic wit and repartee. After an association of about thirty-five years with this literary society, Mr. Robson was nearly the last survivor.

1806, Aug. Died,—Farmer, well known as a retailer of newspapers. He had acquired by his extraordinary industry, parsimony, and methods peculiar to himself, a sum amounting to £9000. His manners and external appearance indicated extreme poverty; his plaintive stories very often excited pity, and induced many to act with tenderness towards him. The following circumstance was related as the cause of Mr. Farmer's death. An old man, a news dealer, being much afflicted with disorders incident to advanced age, wished to dispose of his business; the sum demanded for it was £50. Mr. Farmer seemed inclined to purchase, but could not think of advancing so large a sum as £50 at one time, but, supposing the old man could not live long,

agreed to allow him 27s. per week during his natural life. These terms were agreed to; the old man retired into the country, recovered his

  1. His eldest son James, whom he intended to have succeeded him in business, unhappily lost his life, at the age of twenty years, by a fall from his horse, at Sebringham. — See Gentlemam's Magazine, vol. lv. p. 439. His second son, George, was educated at Queen's college, Oxford, and obtained the vicarage of Chirke, and a prebend in the cathedral of St. Asaph. Mr. Robson had also five daughters, and was proprietor of Trinity chapel, Conduit-street.
  2. The Pinelli collection of books long held a distinguished rank among the libraries of Europe, it was upwards of two hundred years forming by the family, and comprehended an unparalleled collection of Greek, Roman, and Italian authors, from the origin of printing, with many of the earliest editions printed on vellum, and finely illuminated; a considerable number of curious Greek and Latin manuscripts,(biblical, legal, and classical) from the eleventh to the sixteenth century, and the completest specimen hitherto known to exist, of an instrument written upon the ancient Egyptian papyrus, A.D. 572.