acquitted at the Old Bailey, for alleged murder of their respective crews: "that the defendants be imprisoned three years, Hart in Gloucester, and White in Dorchester jail, and at the expiration of that time, they give security for their good behaviour for five years in £500 each, and sureties in £250 each.
1808, June 1. Died, — Twopenny, bookseller, Nottingham.
1808, June. Died, Samuel Goadby, stationer, at the royal exchange, London, in the eighty-ninth year of his age. It is hoped, that the remark will not be thought out of place; but, if a character is to be held up to the public as a proper subject for their respect and imitation, domestic and social virtues, piety and benevolence must form the grand outlines of a proper object of real respect. The hero, the statesman, the poet, or the painter, demand, and frequently, as such, deserve our admiration; but it is only to the man of domestic worth and social excellence, that the homage of the virtuous heart will ever be offered. Mr. Goadby was a man of universal benevolence, and of unwearied assiduity in every good work; to feel for misery, and relieve it, was the business of his life. He was the son of Samuel Goadby, who enjoyed a lucrative and respectable place under the city of London, was born in Moorfields, Sept. 20, 1719, and at a proper age was bound apprentice to a Mr. Virtue, a stationer at the royal exchange; and either a short time before Mr. Goadby had completed his apprenticeship, or very soon after, Mr. Virtue died, leaving a widow and two daughters. Mr. Goadby, at this early period of life, had conducted himself in so exemplary a manner, that it was thought right to take him into partnership with Mrs. Virtue; and at the expiration of eleven years, their interest was made one by marriage. Mrs. Goadby did not live more than fourteen years after their union; but, previous to her death, she said, that her marriage with Mr. Goadby was one of the most propitious circumstances of her life. Mr. Goadby was one of the six gentlemen, who about the year 1750, formed a society for the promotion of religious knowledge amongst the poor; and, for many years, he sent a rich supply of bibles, testaments, and pious books, for the poor of Hadleigh, and the villages around; and subscribed ₤50 to the patriotic fund; he was also, for many years, a subscriber to the lying-in charity, and to several dispensaries; and, by his will, left handsome legacies to the institutions he had subscribed to. Mr. Goadby's shop, at the royal exchange, was, for many years, in an evening, the meeting-place of a select party of men of superior abilities, for the purpose of conversation, and they had a very different effect upon the members of this friendly circle, to that produced by convivial meetings, where wine and riot preclude sentiment, and destroy reason. Mr. Goadby had survived every member of the circle, in which he had for many years enjoyed so much rational satisfaction. He had many singularities; he was very nice in his person; dressed very plain; but had made no change in the cut of his coat for near fifty years. He was a dissenter from the ceremonies of the establishment; but he felt all that cordiality which Christianity inculcates, for every good man, though he might not be able to say Amen to his creed in every point. He was indefatigable in his endeavours to secure the everlasting and present felicity of his fellow-mortals. His expressive countenance would be illumined or be clouded, as the tale you told presented to his view a suffering or happy fellow-being; but his feelings did not pass off in the vapour of sensibility; for he was known, when near eighty years of age, to ascend a dark and dangerous staircase, to visit the abode of sickness and want; and there, with the gentle hand of charity, and the warm heart of a Christian, relieve and soften the sorrows inflicted by poverty and sickness. Such a man is so incalculable a blessing to society, that we are called upon, by every good principle, to appreciate, respect, and emulate.
Religion was his guide; he always stood
Firmly obedient onto what was good.
Mr. Goadby had been a widower forty-two years; and, though he had much perplexity and trouble throughout his long life, the domestic comfort he enjoyed for the last twenty years was derived from his marriage fifty-nine years before, by the kind attentions of his daughters-in-law. His remains were deposited in the same grave with his wife, in Bunhill-fields'burying-ground, June 22, and the funeral oration was delivered at the grave by the rev. Hugh Worthington, with a warmth of expression that evinced how justly he appreciated the excellence of his departed friend.
1808, July 4. The editors of seven London newspapers were fined £25 each, for the insertion of a paragraph reflecting on the conduct of the jury, whose case was referred to in that of Hart and White.
1808, July. Died, George Lewis, bookseller, Worcester, an honest and industrious tradesman.
1808, Aug. 16. An action was tried in the court of king's bench, in which sir John Carr,
knight,[1] was plaintiff, and Vernor, Hood and Sharpe, booksellers, were defendants, to recover damages for the publication of a satirical work, called My Pocket Book,[2] in which the works of the plaintiff were held up to ridicule. The jury, under the direction of the judge, found a verdict for the defendants, considering the book a fair criticism. It appeared upon this trial, that sir John Carr had received for the copyright of the
- ↑ Sir John Carr, knight of the Sicilian order of St. George and Constantine, was a native of Devonshire, and bred to the law. He received the honour of knighthood in 1806, from the duke of Bedford, when lord-lieutenant of Ireland, and also from his Sicilian majesty, and in 1811, he married a lady of fortune. He was the author of some poems, and a considerable contributor to the Annual Review.
- ↑ My Pocket Book; or, Hints for a right Merrie and conceitede Tour. 12mo. 1807. By Edward Dubois, esq. of the Inner Temple, editor of the Monthly Mirror, a work chiefly relating to the stage. He also published the Decameron of Boccacio, with remarks on his life and writings. 1807, and Francis' Horace, with additional notes. 4 vols. 12mo. 1807.
