Royston was a prolific bookseller and publisher in the seventeenth-century. Over a long career in the trade, he published over 800 books, including the works of notable writers such as John Donne and Thomas Heywood. He served his apprenticeship from 1617 to 1627, initially to Josias Harrison before being turned over to John Grismond. Royston was a staunch royalist throughout the Civil Wars and Interregnum and was periodically imprisoned for publishing pamphlets critical of parliament. His loyalty was rewarded after the Restoration when the King granted him the monopoly for the works of Charles I. Moreover, it was the King’s intervention that saw Royston admitted to the Company Court of Assistants in 1663. To reflect his elevation in the Company, Royston was also admitted to the livery around this time. He proved a problematic figure for the Stationers’ Company, and was often reprimanded for infringing Company printing rights, and others’ copies. Royston enjoyed the affluent post of stationer to the court of Charles II.
The Rivington family was one of the most important book-trade dynasties in England from the early eighteenth to the twentieth centuries. The Rivingtons' connection with the book trade begin on 7 June 1703, when Charles [i] Rivington (1688 – 1742) was apprenticed to London Stationer and bookbinder Emanuel Matthews. On 6 October 1707 he was turned over to the bookseller Awnsham Churchill. Charles was formally freed in 1710, and in 1711 bought the premises and business of the recently deceased Richard Chiswell, who had been at business at the Rose and Crown at St. Paul’s Churchyard. Charles married Eleanor Pease (d. 1753) and had 13 children, of whom only six outlived their father.
Charles Rivington became the leading theological publisher in London. After his death on 22 February in 1742, the publishing business went to John [i] Rivington (1720–1792) and his younger brother James Rivington (1724–1802). For several years Samuel Richardson guided John (who was simultaneously freed and elected to the livery of the Stationers' Company on 1 June 1742) as he carried on the business for his mother, James, and himself. In 1743, with Richardson's help, John married Elizabeth Miller Gosling (1723–1792), sister to Francis Gosling, bookseller, banker, and later lord mayor of London. James was freed and elected to the livery of the Stationers' Company on 3 December 1745, and the two brothers were then in partnership until 1756 as J. and J. Rivington. They held equal shares in such works as Richardson's Pamela and Miller's Gardeners' Dictionary.
James was elected a renter warden of the Stationers' Company in 1752 and on 6 June 1754 received a £40 share in the company's English stock. Following the dissolution of the brothers' partnership on 6 March 1756, he set up a new business with the Oxford bookseller James Fletcher junior, based at the sign of the Oxford Theatre in Paternoster Row, near Cheapside. Their most profitable undertaking was the publication of Tobias Smollett's Complete History of England. However, James was also pirating the works of several of his fellow Stationers. The injunctions they brought against him, combined with the losses he sustained in underselling his competitors and his own personal gambling debts, forced the Oxford Theatre partnership into bankruptcy on 3 January 1760. Later that year, James emigrated to New York with his wife and children. He continued to pursue quick profits and incur ruinous debts in a series of ill-fated exploits, and during the American War of Independence, he contrived to fall foul of both sides of the conflict. He remained in New York after the war, and died in poverty.
In London, John flourished, and brought into family business two of his sons: Francis [i] Rivington (1745–1822), his eldest, and Charles [iii] Rivington (1754–1831), the next eldest surviving. By 1778 no fewer than seven members of the Rivington family—John, James, their brother Charles [ii], and four of John's sons—could claim to be members of the livery of the Stationers' Company.
With the death of John [i] in 1792, the firm was restyled as F. and C. Rivington. Both Francis and Charles rose within the Stationers' Company ranks: Francis was elected to the court of assistants on 6 May 1800, ultimately serving as master of the company for 1805–6; Charles, for many years a stockkeeper of the English stock, entered the court on 7 April 1812, and became master for 1819–20. Francis was also a governor of Christ's Hospital and a director of the Union Fire Office.
In 1810 Francis and Charles brought in Francis's eldest son, John [iii] Rivington (1779–1841), publisher, and the firm became F., C., and J. Rivington. After Francis's death in 1822, the publishing firm was styled C. and J. Rivington until 1827, when the two eldest surviving sons of Charles joined the establishment: George Rivington (1801–1858) and Francis [ii] Rivington (1805–1885). In 1839 John [iv] Rivington became a partner in the firm, and on 17 November 1841 his father, John [iii] Rivington, died at Lewisham, London. In the following year George retired because of poor health.
Reduced in both professional expertise and fortunes, in 853 the family moved the business firm west from St Paul's Churchyard to the family residence at 3 Waterloo Place, keeping only some warehouses in Paternoster Row. George died in 1858, and in the following year Francis [ii] retired from the business. He was succeeded in the business from 1859 by his partner and cousin John [iv] Rivington, who remained with the firm until 1866, and by his own eldest son, Francis Hansard Rivington (1834–1913). In 1867, Francis was joined in the business by his brother Septimus Rivington (1846–1926). Francis Hansard and Septimus divided the business between them, with Francis Hansard taking care of theological publishing and Septimus developing a new area of publishing for the firm, educational books. However, differences between them led to Septimus dissolving the partnership in May 1889, and becoming a senior partner of the publishing firm Percival & Co. In June of the following year Francis Hansard sold the family business to Longmans. While the family name did re-emerge when Percival & Co. became first Rivington, Percival & Co. in 1893 and then Rivington & Co. from 1897, the sale in 1890 to Longmans marked the effective end of the Rivington family publishing business.
Charles [ii] Rivington (1731–1790), born on 19 June 1731, the youngest son of Charles [i] Rivington, was the first of the Rivington printers. He was bound to Samuel Richardson on 5 August 1746, turned over on 5 December 1749 to the printer Richard Reiley, and freed by Richardson on 4 September 1753. He was elected to the Stationers' Company livery on the same day. From 1753 he took over at least some of the printing that Richardson had been carrying on for the Rivington publishing firm. This began a collaboration between the printing and publishing branches of the Rivington family that continued for many years. Charles [ii] served as a renter warden in the Stationers' Company for 1760–61, and as under-warden for 1788–90. A member of the City's common council, Charles [ii] served briefly as the City printer for 1771–2; he was also printer to Christ's Hospital, printing music from 1787 to 1789.
Thomas Rivington (1752–1767), the son of Charles's brother John [i] Rivington, was bound as an apprentice to Charles [ii] in 1766 but died in Jamaica the following year. Thomas's brother John [ii] Rivington (1756–1785) was apprenticed to Charles [ii] on 6 March 1770 and freed on 26 March 1777. John [ii] thrived as a printer, and in 1781 his brother Charles [iii] helped him obtain the post of printer to the Society for Promotimg Christian Knowledge.
Upon John's death, his wife Anne Rivington (1756–1841) took over the business, until it was eventually turned over to John Marshall and Deodatus Bye. The business passed into the hands of the Gilbert family, who in 1830 brought in as partner William Rivington (1807–1888), the fifth and youngest son of Charles [iii] Rivington. The firm became Gilbert and Rivington, the name by which they were known until 1907. For most of this period, Gilbert & Rivington carried out all printing for the Rivington publishing firm. With Richard Gilbert's death in 1852, William continued alone until 1863 when he took into partnership his nephew Alexander Rivington (1837–1917), the fourth son of Francis [ii]. The last forty years of the printing firm's existence saw Alexander bring in William's elder son, William John Rivington (1845–1914), but when Ernald Mosley joined the firm in 1875, William John left to enter publishing, becoming a partner in the firm of Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, and Rivington until 1891. Alexander himself retired in 1878. In 1881 Gilbert and Rivington became a limited liability company, and in 1907 the firm was sold to Clowes & Sons Ltd.
The Rivington family has had long associations with the Stationers’ Company. It provided four successive generations of Clerks to the Company between 1800 and 1957, and by 1983, twelve Rivingtons had served as Master of the Company. The Clerk of the Stationers' Company held an important legal and administrative position within the Company, and the Rivingtons who served as Clerks (Henry Rivington (1765–1829), Charles [iv] Rivington (1806–1876), Charles Robert Rivington (1846–1928) and Reginald Thurston Rivington (1881–1971)) were all practicing solicitors.
The famous author loved letters from an early age and so, when his limited schooling meant he must choose a trade to learn, he decided to train as a printer. Richardson was apprenticed to the printer John Wilde in 1706 and freed of the Stationers’ Company in 1715. He initially stayed on with Wilde as a compositor and corrector until his former master’s death in 1720. Ricardson married Wilde’s daughter, Martha, the following year. Martha, however, died young, and Richardson married another printer’s daughter, Elizabeth Leake, in 1733. Both the Wildes and Leakes proved useful business partners to Richardson. In 1722 he was elected a liveryman of the Stationers’ Company and throughout the 1730s, Richardson was largely engaged with the printing of periodicals, journals, and newspapers. In 1742, he was awarded the contract to print the Journals of the House of Commons. It was while composing the commissioned Letters Written to and for Particular Friends, on the most Important Occasions (1741) that Richardson drafted Pamela (1740). Richardson’s first novel was a commercial success, though critical reception was mixed and a great rivalry commenced with Henry Fielding. Two more novels followed, Clarissa (1748) and Sir Charles Grandison (1753). In his later years, Richardson became especially active within the Stationers’ Company, serving as Upper-warden (1753-1754) and Master (1754-1755) in successive years. He died a wealthy man in 1761 and his novels went on to inspire the likes of Jane Austen, Honoré de Balzac, and Anna Laetitia Barbauld.
John Playford was one of the most important publishers of music in the seventeenth century. He was born in Norwich and served seven years as apprentice to London stationer John Benson 1640-1647. Playford quickly specialised in music publications and established a bookshop by Temple Church. He took the livery in 1661, and it is from that year we find him supplying the Chapel Royal. Playford continued to enjoy royal favour, and it was the King’s influence which saw him elected to the Court of Assistants in 1681. Playford held shares in the English Stock from 1675. He was a close friend of the age’s finest musicians, including John Blow and Henry Purcell, the latter of whom composed an elegy for Playford on his death. He is buried in Temple Church.
Norton served his apprenticeship to his uncle, the London bookseller, William Norton from 1578 to 1586. From 1587, Norton was often found in Edinburgh, where he was importing books from Germany, especially after having secured a license to import books duty free into Scotland in 1589. The Scottish business weakened, however, after losing legal cases against other Edinburgh booksellers and Norton sold the business off entirely in 1596. Meanwhile in London, his first publication was a tract by Beza in 1590. Some of Norton’s more notable later publications included John Gerard’s Herbal (1597) and James I & VI’s Basilicon Doron (1603). John Bill was bound as an apprentice to Norton in 1592 and would go on to become his lifelong business partner, often travelling to continental Europe as Norton’s agent. In 1605, Norton, Bill and Norton’s cousin, Bonham Norton, formed an official publishing partnership under the imprint Officina Nortoniana. As a member of the Stationers’ Company, Norton was elected to the livery in 1598. He rose through the ranks of the Company after being elected an Assistant in 1602, serving as Upper-warden and Master for terms apiece. By the time of his death in 1612, Norton was an incredibly wealthy bookseller and left £1000 to the Company in his will.
Newcomb was born in Dunchurch, Warwickshire. He was bound to the printer Gregory Dexter on 8 November 1641 and freed by Dexter and Richard Cotes after serving seven years apprenticeship. After attaining the freedom of the Company, Newcomb married the widow Ruth Raworth and succeeded to her deceased husband’s business on Thames Street. He was elected to the livery in 1653. After the Restoration, and despite printing extensive Commonwealth literature during the Interregnum, Newcomb was appointed to manage the King’s Printing House. His print output included such notable texts as the first printed English translation of a work by Descartes, A Discourse of a Method (1649), but Newcomb was known predominantly for his printing of newsbooks and periodicals. Newcomb printed, for example, Mercurius Politicus (1651-1660), the Public Intelligencer (1655-1660), Mercurius Publicus (1656-1660), the Parliamentary Intelligencer (1656-1660), and the London Gazette (1665-1688). The Fire of London forced him to relocate to the Savoy in 1666. In 1675, he was elected to the Stationer Court of Assistants and in 1677 Newcomb was formally recognised as King’s Printer. He died on 26 December 1681, and his body was laid in state in Stationers’ Hall before being taken to Dunchurch for burial.
From 1730, Newbery was working as a journeyman for the printer William Carnan in Reading. Upon Carnan’s death, Newbery took over the running of the Reading Mercury and married Carnan’s widow, Mary. The family moved to London in 1744. Newbery became an important early publisher of works for children. He was an innovative and intelligent businessman, issuing the first children’s periodical and the first children’s encyclopaedia, advertising widely, offering discounts to teachers buying in bulk, and publishing other bestsellers, from the annual Ladies Complete Pocket-Book to works by Samuel Richardson and Oliver Goldsmith. From 1751, Newbery also published the works of poet Christopher Smart, a bond strengthened when his stepdaughter Anna Maria Carnan married Smart in 1752. He died a wealthy man in 1767 and was succeeded in business by his son, Francis Newbery. In recognition of Newbery’s contribution to children’s literature, the Newbery medal, introduced in 1922 in the United States, is awarded every year to an outstanding book for children.
Christopher Meredith was a bookseller, specialising in theological books, who served as an Assistant of the Stationers’ Company from 1645 to his death in 1653.Born in Kempsey, Worcester, Meredith was apprenticed to stationer John Piper in 1616. Upon attaining the freedom in 1624, Meredith steadily rose through the ranks of the Stationers’ Company. He was clothed in 1631, and served as Renter Warden 1642-1644. Upon his death, Meredith left his two houses in St Paul’s Churchyard (the Crane and the Marigold) to the Company as well as a substantial charitable bequest to support poor men of the Company and gift Bibles and schoolbooks to the poor boys of Kempsey School and Christ’s Hospital.
See TSC/G/03/Meredith for more on the conditions of Meredith's bequest.
Mearne was born in Reading in 1624, served Robert Bates as an apprentice 1637-1646, and had set up his own book bindery in Little Britain by 1653. Upon the Restoration, Mearne was appointed Bookbinder to the King and enjoyed royal favour for the remainder of his life. In 1668, Charles II intervened to see Mearne appointed to the Company’s Court of Assistants. In 1675 Mearne’s position as Binder to the King was expanded to the life-long offices of Bookbinder, Bookseller, and Stationer to the King, which he held with his son Charles. At the same time, Mearne consolidated his influence in the Stationers’ Company, serving as under-warden for two terms (1672-1674), upper-warden (1676-1677), and finally Maser of the Company (1679-1680, 1682-1683). He was particularly known in both the Company and to the King for being involved in searches for illicit printing activity. Mearne remains famous in the book trade to this day for his elaborate and highly desirable bindings. He is credited with creating the “cottage style”, often found in red and black leather.
After the death of her husband, printer David Mallet, in 1683, Elizabeth became the operator of their two printing presses in Black Horse Alley, near Fleet Bridge. She specialised in lurid and sensational tracts, registering a great number of such works with the Stationers’ Company. Mallet also produced serial publications, such as The New State of Europe, and, most famously, the first ten issues of the Daily Courant, the first daily newspaper in Britain.
L’Estrange was born into landed gentry in Norfolk in 1616. He proceeded to Sidney Sussex College (1634) and thereafter Gray’s Inn (1637). Having fought on the Royalist side in the English Civil War, L'Estrange was arrested by the Commonwealth in 1644 and sentenced to death. This sentence was commuted to imprisonment in Newgate, from where he absconded in 1648. Following his involvement in the abortive Kentish uprising of May that year, he fled to Holland. In August 1653 he took advantage of an amnesty offered by Cromwell and returned to England. Cromwell's death in 1658 allowed L'Estrange to establish himself as a political pamphleteer for the Royalist cause. The Stuart Restoration of 1660 brought increased surveillance of the press, in the form of the 1662 Licensing Act, and in 1663 L'Estrange was appointed Royal Surveyor and Licenser. When the Act lapsed in 1679, he returned to political journalism. The changing political climate prompted him to flee England again that year, first for Edinburgh and then for the Hague. He returned in 1681, at a time when the Stuart dynasty was enjoying a brief respite from Whig opposition. L’Estrange experienced renewed royal favour under James II and was elected MP for Winchester and knighted in 1685. However, after the revolution of 1688, he was removed from government service, and his last years were blighted by poverty and failing health.
Sidney Hodgson joined the Stationers' company in 1907. He served as Stock Keeper in 1930 and was appointed Court Assistant on 7 October 1941. He served as Chairman of the Stationers' School governors from 1942 to 1944. He was elected Master of the Stationers' Company in 1949.
A long-time promoter of the Stationers' Company Archive, Hodgson was appointed Honorary Archivist in 1951, and served in that role until 1972. In 1969 he was awarded the Company's silver medal in recognition of 'his great work in keeping and preserving the unique and important archives of the Company'. (Court Book O, 4 December 1969).
Hills came to prominence as a printer for the New Model Army at Oxford. At the request of Lieutenant-General Charles Fleetwood, he was made free of the Stationers' Company, and in 1655 he secured privileges to print English bibles and psalters, previously held by the king's printers and the Stationers' Company respectively. Although briefly imprisoned after the Stuart Restoration of 1660, by 1677 he had regained sufficient official favour to be appointed one of the king's printers alongside Thomas Newcombe. In 1678 he was elected to the Court (executive body) of the Stationers' Company. Hills reached the peak of his success and influence under James II. His conversion to Catholicism and loyalty to the King saw him rewarded with the new position of printer to the royal household and chapel. It was with James’s favour that Hills survived the purges of the livery companies in 1687 and rose to hold the highest Company office of Master. However, the deposition of the Stuarts in the 'Glorious Revolution' of 1688 heralded a reversal of fortune for Hills, who fled to St Omer in December 1688, leaving his premises to be raided and destroyed by an anti-Catholic mob.
Hayward was an English artist, known especially for his stained glass work. He was a fellow of the British Society of Master Glass Painters. Hayward's stained glass windows can be found across England, from churches in London to university colleges. Particularly notable examples of Hayward's work include windows at Sherborne Abbey and Norwich Cathedral, as well as sculpture and murals at Blackburn Cathedral.
The founder of Guy’s Hospital was by trade a bookseller. Age eight, Guy’s father died, and the family moved to his mother’s hometown of Tamworth. Here, Guy was likely educated at Tamworth Grammar School until, in 1660, he was apprenticed to London bookseller John Clarke. Guy was freed of the Stationers’ Company in 1668 and made a freeman of the City of London. In 1673, he was admitted to the livery of the Company. His early career was defined by a defiance of Company patents. He was found importing Dutch Bibles and in 1679, Guy and fellow bookseller Peter Parker were selected by John Fell, Bishop of Oxford, to set up a press for the university and produce Bibles. A long legal battle ensued between Guy, Parker and the university and the Stationers’ Company. However, in 1691 the Company were triumphant, having removed Guy and Parker from their Oxford contract. Nonetheless, Guy was a highly successful bookseller and businessman, aided by successful investments in the South Sea Company. He turned his wealth to philanthropy, particularly aiding his childhood home of Tamworth. Here, he founded an alms house with a library, donated to the grammar school, and workhouses. Guy served as MP for Tamworth 1695-1708. In 1704, he became a governor of St Thomas’s Hospital and in 1721 bought land to build a new hospital in London, which would become Guy’s Hospital. Thomas Guy died in 1724. His remains were later interred in the crypt at Guy’s Hospital.