Rivington family, printers, publishers and lawyers

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.

Charles [i] Rivington (1688–1742)
John [i] Rivington (1720–1792)
James Rivington (1724–1802)
Francis [i] Rivington (1745–1822)
Charles [iii] Rivington (1754–1831)
John [iii] Rivington (1779–1841)
George Rivington (1801–1858)
Francis [ii] Rivington (1805–1885)
Francis Hansard Rivington (1834–1913)
Septimus Rivington (1846–1926)
Charles [ii] Rivington (1731–1790)
John [ii] Rivington (1756–1785)
Ann [Anna] Rivington [Burge] (1756–1841)
William Rivington (1807–1888)
Henry Rivington (1765–1829)
Charles [iv] Rivington (1806–1876)
Charles Robert Rivington (1846–1928)
Reginald Thurston Rivington (1881–1971)

Fitzpatrick, B. (2024, November 14). Rivington family (per. c. 1710–c. 1960), printers, publishers, and lawyers. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Retrieved 25 Aug. 2026, from https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-70881.