862
HISTORY OF PRINTING.
testaments, 386,000 ; of prayer books, 400,000 ; of catechisms, psalters, &c. 200,000. The value of the whole was £212,917 I*. 6d. Value of books not sacred, printed at Oxford, £24,000.
1816. The Glasgow stationers' company com- menced. It originated from the brakbinders' society, which had been instituted at Glasgow so early as the year 1740.
1815. Scribbleomania ; or, the Printer'i deviPt Polychrcnicon, a mblime poem. London, 8to. A copy was sold at Brockett's sale for 6t. 6d.
1816, Oct. 22. Died, John Dean, printer and bookseller, at Congleton, in Cheshire, aged fifty- two years. Mr. Dean was an alderman of that corporation.
1816, Nov. 22. Died, James Lackington, the celebrated bookseller of Finsburv-square, London ; who, from a very humble birth, retired firom the bookselling busmess with a competent fortune, the reward of his own ingenuity, mdus- try, and tact. This remarkable individual, in his Autobiography, informs us that he was born at Wellington, in Somersetshire, August 31, 1746 ; that his father, George Lackington, was a journeyman shoemaker, and a person of such dissipated habits, that the whole charge of rear- ing his family fell upon his wife, a very industri- ous woman, who could not aiford to pay two- pence a-week for schooling. At the age of four- teen he was bound apprentice to a shoemaker at Taunton, with whom he remained seven years, and worked as a journeyman at Bristol and other places. In 1770, he was married at St. Peter's church, Bristol, to a young woman named Nancy Smith, to whom he had been attached seven years. In August, 1773, he arrived in Ijondon, with two shillings and sixpence in his pocket, and soon obtained plenty of work. In June, 1774, he opened a little shop in Featherstone- street, in the parish of St. Luke, as a master shoe- maker and bookseller ; and the first stock which be purchased was a bagful of old books, chiefly on divinity, for a guinea, and with some old scraps of leather, laid the foundation of his future good fortune. "At that time," says Lackington, " Mr. Wesley's people had a sum of money which was kepton purpose to lend out, for three months, without interest, to such of their societv whose characters were good, and who wanted a temporal' relief. To increase my little stock, I borrowed five pounds out of this fund, which was of great service to me. In our new situation we lived in a very frugal man- ner, often dining on potatoes, and quenching our thirst with water ; being absolutely deter- mined, if possible, to make some provision for such dismal times as sickness, shortness of work, &c., which we had been frequently involved in before, and could scarcely help expecting not to be our fate again." In 1775 he lost his wife, which involved him in the deepest distress ; but on the 30th of January 1776, he married again. From this period, success attended him in afl his business arrangements, as a dealer in old books ; and be mentions, that nothing did him so much good as the practice of selling only for ready
money. He also adopted the jdux of publishing catalogues of his boots : the fint catalogue, he says, contained twelve thousand volumes. Fnna buying small quantities of books, he rose to be able to purchase whole libraries, reversions of editions, and to contract with authors for maira. scripts of works. This extensive and lucratiTe busmess now enabled him to live in a very superior style. '* I discovered," says he, *' Out lodgings in the country were very healthy. The year ai'ter, my country lodging was transformed into a country house, and, in another year, the inconveniences attending a stage-coach were remedied by a chariot. As usual in such cases, the envy of the world pursued Lackington for his supposed extravagance; but it appears he was strictly honourable in trade, and spent only what was his own. He assures his readers that he found the whole of what he was poaessed of in "tmall profit*, bound by industry, and clasped \)j economy" In I792,theprofitsofhisbunoeES amounted to £5000. The success of Lackiog. ton enabled him in 1798, to retire from the boot- selling business with a competent fortone, the rewara of his own ingenuity, industry, and tuct, in the way of reprinting books at a cheap rate, leaving Mr. George Lackington, a third cousiii, at the head of the firm. Lackington at fiist took up his residence in Gloucestershire. Sub- sequently, he purchased two estates in Alvest«De, one of which was a genteel house, in which he made various improvements, and took up his abode, keeping a carriage, and living in great style. In his retirement, he again joined himself to the methodists, for whom he built and endowed different chapels, and, till the last, expressed his great sorrow for the manner in which he had spoken of that body in his published memoirs.* He finally retired to Budleigh Salterton, in Devonshire; but soon after, his health declined, and at length his decease took place in the seventieth year of his age.
Mr. Lackington observed in the motto of his carriage, " Small gains do great things;" and in him was exemplified the quotation very aptlv selected for him in more than one of his cata- logues : " Sutor ultra cressidam feliciter ansus."
1816, Dec. 22. Died, John Drew, a worthy honest journeyman printer, aged seventy-two years. He had been a compositor in the em- ploy of Messrs. Bowyer and Nichols, but, about 1786,l)ecoming almost totally blind, hesupported himself with credit as a bookseller and slatioDet in a small way, in Fetter-lane, Fleet-street,where he died. He had for some years enjoyed one of the pensktns left by Mr. William Bowyer for the benefit of deserving journeymen printers.
1816, Z)ec. 30. Died, Daniel Bonp, who.io the capacity of a journeyman printer, afforded an example which others will do well to imitate. He was brought up under his father's eye in the printing-office of Mr. John Nichols, London;
• Memotn o/ the fint fmty-fitt peart of M< Life, «^ 1791. Mr. LacldDgtnn pnbllahed Coi^emkmi, t" ■[*!f are added, Letten on the bad eonsequences of MVint daughtert educated at Bearding Sehoolt, ISmo. 1M<.
VjOOQ IC
