that as he (Seller) had been for several years collecting and composing these works, it was forbidden ‘to copy, epitomise, or reprint’ the treatises of navigation; ‘to counterfeit any of the maps, plans, or charts’ in them, or to import them or any part of them from beyond the seas, ‘either under the name of Dutch Waggoners or any other name whatsoever,’ within the term of thirty years.
Notwithstanding the declaration on the title-page of the ‘English Pilot’ that it is ‘furnished with new and exact draughts, charts, and descriptions gathered from the experience and practice of divers able and expert navigators of our English nation,’ the maps and charts were taken from the Dutch, and were, in many instances, printed from the Dutch plates, from which the original Dutch title had been imperfectly erased, and an English title, with Seller's name, substituted. The ‘English Pilot’ ran through many editions, till the end of the eighteenth century, new maps from time to time taking the place of the old. The number of maps which Seller published was very great; some of them, no doubt, drawn by himself or under his direction; but there is no reason to suppose that he was a surveyor or hydrographer in any other sense than a compiler and seller of charts. Besides these, he published almanacs for the Plantations—for Jamaica and Barbados; a ‘Pocket Book containing several choice Collections in Arithmetic, Geometry, Surveying, Dialling,’ &c. (12mo, 1677); and ‘The Sea-Gunner, shewing the Practical Part of Gunnery as it is used at Sea’ (sm. 8vo, 1691). John Seller, jun., had a shop at the sign of the Star, near Mercer's Chapel in Cheapside, where the older man's publications were on sale.
[General and Map Catalogues in the British Museum; his own publications, information from Mr. C. H. Coote.]
SELLON, BAKER JOHN (1762–1835), lawyer, born on 14 March 1762, was second son of William Sellon (d. 1790), perpetual curate of St. James's, Clerkenwell. He was admitted into Merchant Taylors' School on 2 Nov. 1773 (Register, ed. Robinson, p. 137), whence he was elected to St. John's College, Oxford, on 11 June 1779, and graduated B.C.L. on 24 Oct. 1785 (Foster, Alumni Oxon. 1715–1886, 9. v.). His own wish was to have entered holy orders, but, at his father's request, he studied law, and was called to the bar from the Inner Temple on 10 Feb. 1792. After practising for several years with distinction, he was admitted a serjeant-at-law in Easter term, 1798, and became ultimately leader of the Norfolk circuit. Increasing deafness, however, obliged him to refuse a judgeship, and finally to retire from the bar. At his request Henry Addington, viscount Sidmouth [q. v.], appointed him in 1814 police magistrate at Union Hall, whence, in January 1819, he was transferred to Hatton Garden office. There he continued to act until his retirement in 1834. He died at Hampstead on 19 Aug. 1835. By his marriage, on 24 Jan. 1788, to Charlotte (d. 1832), daughter of Rivers Dickinson of St. John Street, Clerkenwell, he had a large family. His second daughter, Maria Ann, married, in 1819, John James Halls [q. v.], and his third daughter, Anne, married, in 1816, Sir Benjamin Collins Brodie the elder [q. v.]
Sellon was author of: 1. ‘Analysis of the Practice of the Courts of King's Bench and Common Pleas, with some Observations on the mode of passing Fines and suffering Recoveries,’ 8vo, London, 1789. 2. ‘The Practice of the Courts of King's Bench and Common Pleas,’ 2 vols. 8vo, London, 1792–6; 2nd edit. 2 vols. 8vo, London, 1798. A book founded upon George Crompton's ‘Practice,’ 1780 and 1786. 3. ‘Treatise on the Deity and the Trinity,’ 8vo, London, 1847, a posthumous work, edited by W. Marsh.
[Gent. Mag. 1790 ii. 673, 763, 1835 ii. 651–3; Reminiscences of Wm. Rogers, rector of St Botolph, Bishopsgate, p. 6; Watt's Bibl. Brit.; Allibone's Dict. of Authors.]
SELLON, PRISCILLA LYDIA (1821–1876), foundress of Anglican sisterhoods, born in 1821, was daughter of William Richard Baker Sellon, commander R.N. The latter was a son of Thomas Smith, receiver-general to the dean and chapter of St. Paul's, by Sarah, daughter of William Sellon, and sister of Baker John Sellon [q. v.] Smith assumed in 1847, on inheriting the property of his aunt, Sophia Sellon, the name and arms of his mother's family.
Miss Sellon lost her mother early in childhood, and was trained by her father in habits of independence. The want of employment for women impressed her in youth, and, learning printing, she advocated it as an industry for her sex. She was just about to leave England on New Year's Day, 1848, when she was arrested by an appeal from Bishop Henry Phillpotts [q. v.], in response to which she began working among the poor in the three towns of Plymouth, Devonport, and Stonehouse. She was alone for some time, but gradually other ladies joined her in the work, and she became the foundress of the
