1811, April. The first attempt at printing by a machine was at this time. After many obstructions and delay, the sheet H of the New Annual Register for 1810, "Principal Occurrences," 3,000 copies, were printed by this machine; and is the first part of a book so printed.
1811. Died, Robert Loder, printer and bookseller, of Woodbridge, Suffolk, where he had carried on his business with reputation for forty years, and died early in this year. His antiquarian tracts display considerable industry and research. His publications were, Ordinances, &c. for Seckford's Almshouses in Woodbridge, 4to. Woodbridge Terrier, exhibiting an Account of all the Charters, with notes. Orders of the Free School in Woodbridge. Dowsing's Journal for demolishing Church Ornaments in Suffolk. History of Framlingham, 1798.
1811, May 22. Died, George Robinson, an eminent bookseller of Paternoster-row, London. He was son of George Robinson, noticed at page 808, ante, and after the death of his father carried on the business conjointly with his uncle, John. His merits were accompanied by the most unassuming modesty; his good qualities were more solid than shining, more truly useful to himself and others than superficially glaring, or idly ostentatious. The successors to the extensive concern of the elder Mr. Robinson, were men of the highest integrity, and great skill in their profession. But the business was so immensely large, as to exceed their strength, when the grand pillar of the house was removed. Besides other unforeseen misfortunes, their exertions in trade were baffled in a single night, by the destruction of a printing office in which they happened to have property to a very large amount, by fire. Discouraged but not daunted, they met this misfortune with firmness, and for a long time struggled to free their vast affairs from the embarrassments which it had occasioned; but, finding their difficulties increase, instead of involving themselves still deeper, by resorting to the usual means of upholding a sinking credit, they met the evil day with resolution, and submitted their extensive concerns to an ordeal fatal to the credit of half the commercial world. They were declared bankrupts,[1] and patiently investigated every account, and punctually fulfilled every engagement; a considerable surplus rewarded their labour and perseverance, and they rapidly emerged with the highest honour to themselves, their credit gathered strength from the shock, which a short time before had menaced its annihilation. The unremitting exertions of Mr. George Robinson, throughout the whole of these difficulties, perhaps, shortened his life; but he lived to see them crowned with success, and a comfortable provision made for those most dear to him.
1811, May. John Drakard, proprietor and printer of the Stamford News, sentenced to pay a fine of £200, and to be imprisoned in Lincoln jail for eighteen months, for a libel on flogging the military. The paragraph had been copied from the London Examiner. A subscription of £400 was raised towards the support of Mr. Drakard. He published the Life of Colonel Wardle. 1810.
1811, May. Died, Mr. Wall, bookseller, at Kew, near London, where his family had been known for upwards of one hundred years, as booksellers, stationers, newsmen, and keepers of the circulating library since the commencement of that institution.
181l, May. Died, Alexander Bartholoman, proprietor and printer of the York Herald, and one of the common councilmen for Walmgate ward, in the city of York, aged forty-nine years.
1811. Account of the London Daily Newspapers, 8vo. by James Savage, author of the Librarian, and some time assistant librarian of the London institution.
1811, July. The printers, booksellers, tvpe-founders, and press makers, of Holland and the Netherlands, were, by a decree published at Amsterdam, to have their names and residences registered.
1811. Aug. 30. Died, John Crickett, of doctors' commons, marshal and serjeant-at-arms of the high court of admiralty. He was master of the stationers' company in 1810. He died at Hyde house, Edmonton, aged seventy-eight.
1811, Aug. 31. Died, Hugh Brown, many years printer of the Morning Herald.
1811, Aug. The patent of king's printer for Ireland renewed for forty years.
1811, Sept. Died, William Tesseyman, many years a respectable bookseller at York. He died at Beverley.
1811, Sept. 25. Died, Joshua Eddowes, a respectable printer and bookseller at Shrewsbury, in the eighty-eighth year of his age.
1811, Nov. 1. Henry White, proprietor and editor of the Independent Whig, London, was tried but acquitted, for a libel, having been previously confined for three years in Dorchester jail.—See page 832 ante. In December, a meeting was held at the Crown and Anchor Tavern, in support of Mr. White, who for several years contended against the entire power of the crown lawyers. The following resolutions were carried:
1. That the liberty of the press is an inseparable part of a free constitution, and that they must exist or perish together.
3. That it appears to this meeting, that the manly and judicious conduct pursued by Mr. White, in his late struggle with the strong arm of power, in refusing to submit to a false confession, or to suffer judgment to go by default, has done signal service to the cause of truth.
3. That, taking into consideration the personal sufferings he has undergone in his banishment from society in a distant jail; the expenses incurred in the support of himself and printer, in their three years' imprisonment, and the consequent difficulties to which he is now exposed; it is earnestly recommended to the friends of
- ↑ At the sale of the Robinsons', the copyright of Vyne's Spelling Book sold at the enormous price of £2500, with an annuity of fifty guineas to the author.
