the first motions of anger upon some particular occasions; but this part of his disposition he had so far conquered, that, for a long time before he died, no one who had occasion to receive his orders did, I believe, hear an intemperate or harsh word proceed from him; or see any thing in his behaviour, that betrayed any misbecoming degree of inward concern. "He took care to season the minds of his servants with religious instructions; and, for that end, did himself often read discourses to them on the Lord's-day, of which he was always a very strict and solemn observer. And what they thus learned from him in one way, they did not unlearn again in another; for he was a man, not only sincerely, pious, but of the nicest sobriety and temperance, and remarkably punctual and just in all his dealings with others. I see many authentic witnesses of this particular branch of his character. "He abounded in all the truest signs of an affectionate tenderness towards his wife and children; and yet did so prudently moderate and temper his passions of this kind, as that none of them got the better of his reason, or made him wanting in any of the other offices of life, which it behoved or became him to perform; and therefore, though he appeared to relish these blessings as much as any man, yet he bore the loss of them, when it happened, with great composure and evenness of mind. "He did also, in a very just and fitting manner, proportion his respects to all others that were any way related to him, either by blood or affinity; and was very observant of some of them, even where he could not be determined by any views of interest, and had manifestly no other obligations but those of duty and decency to sway him. "In what manner he lived with those who were of his neighbourhood and acquaintance, how obliging his carriage was to them, what kind offices he did, and was always ready to do them, I forbear particularly to say; not that I judge it a slight, but because I take it to be a confessed part of his character, which even his enemies (if there were any such) cannot but allow: for, however in matters where his judgement led him to oppose men on a public account, he would do it vigorously and heartily; yet the oppositions ended there, without souring his private conversation, which was, to use the words of a great Writer, "soft and easy, as his principles were stubborn." "In a word, whether we consider him as an husband, a parent, a master, relation, or neighbour, his character was, in all these respects, highly fit to be recommended to men; and, I verily think, as complete as any that ever fell under my observation. And all this religion and virtue sat easily, naturally, and gracefully upon him; without any of that stiffness and constraint, any of those forbidding appearances, which sometimes disparage the actions of men sincerely pious, and hinder real goodness from spreading its interest far and wide into the hearts of beholders, "There "There was not the least tang of religious (which is indeed the worst sort of) affectation in any thing he said or did; nor any endeavours to recommend himself to others, by appearing to be even what he really was: he was faulty on the other side, being led, by an excess of modesty, to conceal (as much as might be) some of his chief virtues, which therefore were scarce known to any but those who very nearly observed him, though every day of his life almost was a witness to the practice of them. "I need not say how perfect a master he was of all the business of that useful profession wherein he had engaged himself; you know it well; and the great success his endeavours met with sufficlently proves it. Nor could the event well be otherwise; for his natural abilities were very good, and his industry exceeding great, and the evenness and probity of his temper not inferior to either of them. "Besides, he had one peculiar felicity (which carried in it some resemblance of a great Christian perfection), that he was entirely contented and pleased with his lot; loving his employment for its own sake, as he hath often said, and so as to be willing to spend the rest of his life in it, though he were not, if that could be supposed, to reap any further advantages from it. "Not but that the powers of his mind were equal to much greater tasks; and therefore when, in his later years, he was called up to some public offices and stations, he distinguished himself in all of them by his penetration and dexterity in the dispatch of that business which belonged to them, by a winning behaviour and some degree even of a smooth and popular eloquence which Nature gave him. But his own inclinations were rather to confine himself to his own business, and be serviceable to Religion and Learning in the way to which God's Providence had seemed more particularly to direct him, and in which it had so remarkably blessed him. "When riches flowed in upon him, they made no change in his mind or manner of living. This may be imputed to an eager desire of heaping up wealth; but it was really owing to another principle: he had a great indifference to the pleasures of life, and an aversion to the pomps of it; and therefore his appetites being no way increased by his fortune, he had no occasion to enlarge the scene of his enjoyments. "He was so far from over-valuing any of the appendages of life, that the thoughts even of life itself did not seem to affect him. Of its loss he spake often, in full health, with great unconcern; and, when his late distemper attacked him (which from the beginning he judged fatal), after the first surprize of that sad stroke was over, he submitted to it with great meekness and resignation, as became a good man and a good Christian. "Though he had a long illness, considering the great heat with which it raged, yet his intervals of sense being few and short, left but little room for the offices of devotion; at which he was the less concerned, because, as he himself then said, he had not been wanting in those duties while he had strength to perform perform them. Indeed, on the Lord's-day which immediately preceded this illness, he had received the Sacrament; and was, therefore, we have reason to believe, when the Master of the House soon afterwards came, prepared and ready to receive him. "As the blessings of God upon his honest industry had been great, so he was not without intentions of making suitable returns to Him in acts of mercy and charity. Something of this kind he hath taken care of in his will, drawn up at a time while his family was as numerous as it is now, and his circumstances not so plentiful. One part of the benefactions there directed was worthy of him, being the expression of a generous and grateful mind towards the persons who had most obliged him, and of a pious regard to the place of his education. More he would probably have done, had not the disease, of which he died, seized him with that violence, as to render him incapable of executing whatever of this kind his heart might have intended. "He is now gone, and his works have followed him: let us imitate his example, that, when we also depart this life, we may share his heavenly reward, and be as well spoken of by those who survive us!" John Dunton says, "Mr. Thomas Bennet, a man very neat in his dress, very much devoted to the Church, has a considerable trade in Oxford, and prints for Doctor South, and the most eminent Conformists. I was partner with him in Mr. Lecrose's Works of the Learned; and I must say he acted like a man of conscience and honesty."-The following epitaph is in St. Faith's church: "Here lyeth the body of Mr. Thomas Bennet, Citizen and Stationer of London, who married Mrs. Elizabeth Whitewrong, eldest daughter of James Whitewrong of Rothavastead, in the County of Hertford, esq; by whom he had one son and two daughters; and departed this life August the 26th, in the Year of our Lord 1706, and in the 42d year of his age." AWNSHAM and JOHN CHURCHILL, two of the most considerable Booksellers at the beginning of the Eighteenth Century, have been noticed in vol. I. pp. 149-151.-See also Bp. Atterbury's Epistolary Correspondence, vol. I. p. 315; and Archbishop Nicolson's, vol. I. p. 227.-Awnsham Churchill died April 24, 1728; and is said by Granger to have been the greatest Bookseller and Stationer of his time. An original letter, dated April 30, 1728, observes, "I hear that your great Bookseller, Awnsham Churchill, is dead: he had a great stock, and printed many books; and I hope the sale of his effects will throw a plenty of books on the City of London, and reduce their present high price." Gent. Mag. vol. LIII. p. 832.—Mr. Awnsham Churchill, by Sarah, daughter of John Lowndes, esq. had three sons; of whom the eldest, William Churchill, esq. married, first, 1770, Louisa. Augusta Greville, daughter of Francis first Earl Brooke and Earl of Warwick, by whom he had one son, William, the present possessor of Henbury. He married, secondly, Eliza, widow of Frederick Thomas, third Earl of Strafford. ***In my researches after some of the dates in the preceding pages, having minuted the Obits of a considerable number of Printers and Booksellers, many of them the personal Friends of Mr. Bowyer or myself, and nearly all of them connected with the subject-matter of these volumes; I shall here introduce them in alphabetical order.-If asked, why Printers and Booksellers in particular; I answer, They are a valuable class of the community-the friendly Assistants at least, if not the Patrons of Literature-and I am myself one of the Fraternity. - Let the members of other Professions, if they approve of the suggestion, in like manner record the meritorious actions of their Brethren. Charles Ackers, esq. many years in the commission of the peace for the county of Middlesex, was the original Printer of The London Magazine. He died June 17, 1759. Mr. John Almon died in 1895. See a full account of this extraordinary person in the new Edition of the Biographical Dictionary, 1812; or in Gent. Mag. vol. LXXV. p. 1179. Mr. Thomas Astley, a Bookseller in very considerable and extensive business, well known as the Publisher of an excellent "Collection of Voyages," &c. &c. died Feb. 28, 1759. Mr. Richard Bacon, many years Printer of the Newark Mercury, died in April 1812, æt. 67. Mr. Abraham Badcock, Bookseller, at the corner of St. Paul's church-yard, died April 18, 1797. He was a native of Devonshire, in which county his family have been many years esta blished. The death of this gentleman was among the circumstances most apt to excite reflections of an useful nature in the minds of the living. At the middle time of life, and in the perfect enjoyment of health, he caught a cold on Sunday the 12th, which was soon followed by symptoms of sore throat. In a state by no means alarming to his friends, he continued till the Friday following, when a frenzy seized him about twelve o'clock, and by two he was no more. His judgement of books was good; and he possessed literary talents himself which might have been greatly useful to the world, had circumstances called them into exercise. A few of the best-designed books for children were written by him at moments of leisure: and it is believed that few of the numerous writers of either sex, whose labours have first met public attention from that long-famed receptacle, were without considerable obligations to his friendly and judicious suggestions. To the chasteness, delicacy, and decorum of style, so peculiarly necessary to be preserved in books intended for the amusement and instruction of youth, his attention was particularly directed; and to thisobject he has been frequently known to sacrifice what, by less considerate judges, might have been deemed well worthy of publication. To the character of Mr. Badcock the pen can scarcely do justice, without seeming to bestow panegyrick. On general subjects few men, perhaps, thought more justly; in all transactions of business none could conduct themselves with more urbanity. With the diligence and accuracy of a tradesman, he most most happily blended the manners and principles of a gentleman." Superior to the petty attentions to immediate profit, which actuate many persons in trade, he was the liberal patron, the able and faithful adviser, the unostentatious but sincere friend. An innate sense of strict honour, by which all his dealings were directed and governed (though often thought impracticable in trade, and, in his particular, often disadvantageous in a pecuniary point of view), obtained for him that mental satisfaction with which no pecuniary emolument can enter into competition. It gained him the universal esteem and admiration of all who knew him; and what greater earthly happiness can a human being aspire at or enjoy? With his hand on his heart, the writer of this small tribute to the memory of an excellent man, solemnly affirms, that honest truth alone has guided his pen, and that he has rather fallen short of than exceeded what strict justice would have allowed him to say. Feeble, however, as is the attempt, a large circle of acquaintance will recognize the lineaments of the picture, and all will apply particular observations to the respective circumstances to which they have reference. Nor has any circumstance in the writer's own life more hardly knocked at his heart" than the first intimation of Mr. Badcock's decease. Mr. William Baker, Printer, son of Mr. William Baker, (a man of amiable character and manners, of great classical and mathematical learning, and more than forty years master of an academy at Reading,) was born in 1742. Being from his infancy of a studious turn, he passed so much of his time in his father's library as to injure his health. His father, however, intended to have sent to the University; but a disappointment in a patron who had promised to support him, induced him to place him as an apprentice with Mr. Kippar, a Printer, in Cullum-street, London, where, while he diligently attended to business, he employed his leisure hours in study, and applied what money he could earn to the purchase of the best editions of the Classics, which collection, at his death, was purchased by Dr. Lettsom. This constant application, however, to business and study, again endangered his health, but by the aid of country air and medicine he recovered; and on the death of Mr. Kippax he succeeded to his business, and removed afterwards to Ingram-court, where he had for his partner Mr. John Willium Galabin*, now principal Bridge-master of the City of London. Among his acquaintance were some of great eminence in letters; Dr. Goldsmith, Dr. Edmund Barker, the Rev. James Merrick, Hugh Farmer, Cæsar De Missy, and others. An elegant correspondence between him and Mr. Robinson, author of the Indices Tres,' printed at Oxford, 1772, and some letters of inquiry into difficulties in the Greek language, which still exist, are proofs of his great erudition, and the opinion entertained of him by some of the first scholars. *This worthy Veteran, having relinquished his original profession, has for some time been Senior Bridgemaster of the City of London; but has had the severe affliction of following three sons, all promising young Printers, to an untimely grave. Such |