of sheriff. This occurred twice, during 1802 and 1806; but it was represented that the state of his health would incapacitate him for sustaining the arduous duties which the shrievalty necessarily imposes upon those who undertake it. Notwithstanding, therefore, the advantages he might have derived by continuing to reside in the capital, Mr. Simmons, still panting for his native air, repaired, about the year 1768, to Canterbury, where he established a printing-office, with the management of which he had previously made himself acquainted. He was at this period the only printer in Kent. The foundation both of his celebrity and property, property being the consequence of real celebrity, was here laid by him in the publication of the newspaper entitled the Kentish Gazette. Before his time, the Kentish Post, or Canterbury News, was the only paper devoted to that extensive opulent county: it consisted of just four foolscap folio pages, containing two or three advertisements; and was adorned with a woodcut, that occupied full one-third of the first leaf. He could not but improve on such a plan. Introducing a new type, and a new taste, his undertaking at once succeeded. Mr. Simmons soon became the first stationer, bookseller, &c. in the city that gave him birth. Mr. Simmons was in politics a whig; and was, during the short period the Rockingham administration were in power, appointed distributor of stamps for the county of Kent; the emoluments of which, estimated as considerable, are known to have essentially contributed to his actual wealth. Declining, from prudential views, the contests of party, and having already filled the highest civic offices of his native place, Mr. Simmons turned his attention to objects of general and practical utility. The first public act of this kind, in which this praiseworthy zeal became manifest, was the tender of his services to regulate the improvements agreed to be introduced into Canterbury; and such were the ability and attention evinced by him, especially as to the paving of the city, that he received the thanks of the corporation, accompanied with a piece of plate, of the value of ₤50. He was engaged m another great work. In 1794, Messrs. Simmons and Royle gave a premium of £2450 for a thirty years' lease of Abbot's and King's mill; and they expended on the building, together with its improvements, to the amount of £8000 more. Mr. Smeaton,[1] however, the celebrated engineer, undertook the erection of a new mill, with such a power as should turn six, and even eight pair of shears, for the regular supply of the Canterbury market with flour. Instead of converting this useful design, (which was finished by Mr. Abbot, of Canterbury, in a masterly style,) into a monopoly for the oppression of the inhabitants, and the avaricious accumulation of wealth, Mr. Simmons was enabled to realize projects infinitely more gratifying to his feelings. Its returns have been computed at £40,000 per annum; and he was also enabled to keep down the price of meal, and the assize of bread. Determined to effect both these ends, he cheerfully assisted the magistrates in adjusting the value of the quartern loaf; and, in 1800, issued an advertisement, by which he publicly invited the industrious poor to come in person for a supply of their necessities. Sensible of the various benefits extended to their city by this spirited citizen, in the accomplishment of which he had expended about two thousand guineas,[2] his townsmen, at the general election in 1806, exhibited their sense of his public conduct, by electing him one of their representatives in parliament. But Mr. Simmons did not long enjoy this trust. He died as he had lived, however, in the service of those by whom it was conferred, during the February of 1807, whilst attending his duty in the house of commons.
1807, March 17. John Pridden, who had for nearly half a century carried on the business of a bookseller in Fleet-street, London; was one of the many instances that integrity and perseverance introduce their attendant votaries to ease, affluence, and satisfaction. To animate others to appreciate the value of unsullied honour, or bear up against the torrent of stern oppression, a few particulars respecting the life of this worthy man cannot be omitted. He was born July 20, 1728, at Old-Martin-hall, in the parishes of Ellesmere and Whittington, in Shropshire, of rather wealthy parents; but his father dying when he was only twelve years of age, and his mother marrying again, he soon experienced the withholden protection of his mother, and the most unmerciful and cruel treatment of his step-father. Indeed, the severity he endured was so great, that he was frequently laid up; and often rescued by his neighbours from the tyrannic grasp of his step-father. But, alas ! nothing could
- ↑ John Smeaton was born at Austhorpe, Yorkshire, May 28, 1724. Through intended for the practice of the law by his father, himself an attorney, he was, pursuant to his own request, placed under a mathematical instrument maker. He was afterwards admitted a member of the Royal Society, where, in 1759, he obtained the gold medal for his paper on The Natural Powers of Wind and Water to turn Mills and other Machines depending on a Circular Motion. On the 2nd of April, 1757, the Eddystone Lighthouse was founded of stone, by Smeaton, and completed on the 24th of August, 1759. He died at Austhorpe, Oct. 28, 1792.
- ↑ Amongst his many excellent undertakings of this kind, must be specified the improvement of some acres of land long since devoted to the ruins of the Dungil, Dungeon, or Dane-John; names which sufficiently indicate the epoch at which, and the nation by whom, it was erected. This ancient fortress then stood on a tract of waste ground; and remained an uneven and rugged piece of pasture, until 1790, when Mr. Simmons commenced his salutary reform, not for his private advantage, but purely for the recreation and advantage of the public. On the side of the mount is a circular walk, having seats, which command views of the city and its environs; and upon the top stands a stone pillar, on one of the four marble tablets of which is the following
INSCRIPTION.
"This field and hill were improved, and these terraces, walks, and plantations, made in the year 1790, for the use of the public, at the sole expense of James Simmons, Esq. of this City, alderman and banker. To perpetuate the memory of which generous transaction, and as a mark of gratitude for his other Public Services, this pillar was erected by Voluntary Subscription, in the year 1803."
