Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Newbery, Francis
NEWBERY, FRANCIS (1743–1818), publisher, born on 6 July 1743, was son of John Newbery [q. v.] the publisher, of St. Paul's Churchyard. Alone of his brothers he survived his father. After receiving preliminary education at Ramsgate and Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire, he entered Merchant Taylors' School in 1758, and matriculated from Trinity College, Oxford, on 1 April 1762. Four years afterwards he migrated to Cambridge, but took no degree in either university. During his school and university career he came in contact with many well-known men of letters. He was passionately addicted to the violin, and spent much time in private theatricals, to the detriment of his studies. He appears to have studied chemistry and medicine, but on the death of his father in 1767 he abandoned, on the advice of his father's friends, Dr. Johnson and Dr. James, the design of a professional career, and turned his attention to the business of patent-medicine selling and publishing which his father had created. In connection with the controversy which raged round the death of Oliver Goldsmith and the mistake about James's fever powder, the patent of which belonged to Newbery, he published a voluminous statement of the case, with a view to vindicating the fame of his medicine [see James, Robert]. In 1779 he transferred the patent-medicine part of the business to the northeast corner of St. Paul's Churchyard, leaving the book publishing at the old spot. The firm was subsequently known as ‘Newbery & Harris,’ to whom in 1865 succeeded Messrs. Griffiths & Farran [cf. Harris, John, 1756–1846].
Newbery was described by a contemporary ‘as a scholar and a poet, and a lover of music.’ Many of his original compositions were set to music by Dr. Crotch and others. He was very intimate with the composer Callcott, who set to music as a glee ‘Hail all the dear delights of home,’ a poem by Newbery.
Dr. Johnson seriously affronted him by telling him that he had better give his fiddle to the first beggar-man he met, and subsequently defended himself for the remark by the assertion that the time necessary to acquire a competent skill on a musical instrument must interfere with the pursuit of a profession which required great application and multifarious knowledge. Newbery was an ardent sportsman, and in 1791 purchased the estate of Lord Heathfield in Sussex, which subsequently passed into the hands of Sir Charles Blunt. Newbery died on 17 July 1818. He had married Mary, daughter of Robert Raikes [q. v.], the founder of Sunday schools. He made many translations from classical authors, particularly Horace, which are to be found in the work entitled ‘Donum Amicis: Verses on various occasions by F. N., printed by Thomas Davidson, Whitefriars, 1815.’ Newbery must be distinguished from his first cousin, also Francis Newbery, of Paternoster Row, bookseller and publisher. The latter was intimately allied in business with his uncle, John Newbery, and was the publisher of the ‘Vicar of Wakefield.’ He published the ‘Gentleman's Magazine’ from 1767 till his death on 8 June 1780.
[Manuscript autobiography in the possession of the Newbery family; Records of my Life, by John Taylor, London 1882, ii. 204. See also Prior's Life of Goldsmith; Bohn edition of Goldsmith's Works, ed. Gibbs; Forster's Life of Goldsmith; and Welsh's Bookseller of the Last Century.]