REFERENCES
- I would like to thank the following persons who gave generously of their time in commenting upon this paper: Louise Connell, Margaret Jacob, Mary Nolan, Susan Yohn, James Jacob, Barbara Balliet, Howard Negrin, Darline Levy, Ruth Graham, Phyllis Mack, Ruth Perry, Eleanor Riemer and the Intellectual History Seminar of the Institute for Research in History. The responsibility for any errors that may have occurred is mine alone.
- For background on the opposition press see the old but still useful Laurence Hanson, The Government and the Press, 1695–1763 (Oxford, 1936) and Charles Ripley Gillett, Burned Books; Neglected Chapters in British History and Literature (New York, 1932). A more recent study is Benrand Coldgar, Walpole and the Wits (Lincoln, 1976). The only study which gives thorough attention to the activities of women in the trade is Michael Harris, “The London Newspaper Press ca. 1725–1746” (Unpublished PhD thesis, University of London, 1973).
- J. G. A. Pocock, “Post-Puritan England and the Problem of the Enlightenment”, in Perez Zagorin, ed., Culture and Politics from Puritanism to the Enlightenment (Berkeley, 1980), pp. 91 ff.
- Sutherland , James R. 1935 . “The Circulation of Newspapers and Literary Periodicals, 1700–30,” . In The Library , Fourth Series Vol. XV , 111 – 12 .
- 116 Ibid.
- Peter Burke, Popular Culture in Early Modern Europe (London, 1979), p. 251, puts male literacy in England at 60% in the second half of the eighteenth century and mentions that it had increased markedly since 1650. Literacy would have been lower among women and people living outside large cities. See also Michael Harris' extremely useful chapter, “The Structure, Ownership and Control of the Press, 1620–1780”, in George Boyce, James Curran and Pauline Wingate, eds. Newspaper History from the Seventeenth Century to the Present Day (London, 1978), pp. 82–97, for a description of the eighteenth century market in books and newspapers.
- Blagden , Cyprian . 1960 . The Stationers' Company: A History, 1403–1959 175 – 77 . Cambridge
- For challenges to the Stationers' Company oligarchy see Richard Nutt, The Pomp and Grandeur of the Master, Wardens and Assistants [of the Stationers' Company] and their Relations and Dependents [who] have long stood upon the Miseries of the Freemen (London, 1742); also the career of James Hive described in the Dictionary of National Biography (hereafter DNB) and in Edward Rowe Mores, A Dissertation upon English Typographical Founders and Founderies … [etc.] (Oxford, 1961) pp. 60–62, 121–22. For a woman's opposition to the “live-out” system see Eleanor James, Advice to ail Printers (London, 1720), and for journeyman opposition see Ellic Howe and Harold E. Waite, London Society of Compositors … a Centenary History (London, 1948), pp. 73–4.
- For a recent contribution to the debate see J. G. A. Pocock, “Radical Criticisms of the Whig Order in the Age between Revolutions”, in Margaret Jacob and James Jacob, eds., The Origins of Anglo-American Radicalism (London, 1984), pp. 33–57.
- For the make-up of the opposition see especially J.G. A. Pocock, The Machiavellian Moment: Florentine Political Thought and the Atlantic Republic Tradition (Princeton, 1975), pp. 468–86; also W. A. Speck, Stability arid Strife: England 1714–1760 (London, 1977), pp. 219–38, and Geoffrey Holmes, British Politics in the Age of Anne (London, 1967), pp. 116–47.
- 1975 . The Excise Crisis: Society and Politics in the Age ofWalpole Oxford See in its entirety Paul Langford
- Caroline Robbins, The Eighteenth-Century Commonwealthmen: Studies in the Transmission, Development and Circumstances of English Liberal Thought [etc.) … (Cambridge, Mass., 1959); Pocock, The Machiavellian Moment … Chapters 10–15.
- Thomas , Donald . 1977 . “Press Prosecutions of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries,” . In The Library , Fifth Series Vol. XXXII , 316
- One of the most famous of these is the notorious Edmund Curll; also interesting in this regard is Samuel Negus' 1724 list of London printers complete with their political affiliations, which he compiled for the benefit of the government. The list is reprinted in John Nichols, Biographical and Literary Anecdotes of William Bowyer, 1782 (New York & London, 1974), pp. 534–35.
- Hanson . 47 50
- Harris, “The Structure, Ownership and Control of the Press …,” in Boyce, Curran and Wingate (op. cit.) pp. 84–97, contains a good overview of government activities.
- Blagden . 162
- For widows in the trade see Henry R. Plomer, A Dictionary of the Primers and Booksellers who were at Work in Scotland and Ireland from 1668–1725 (Oxford, 1922), pp. 6, 15, 26, 107 and elsewhere. See also Blagden, pp. 95, 97, 162, 222.
- Stationers' Company Apprentices, 1641–1700, D. F. McKenzie, ed. (Oxford, 1974). For Joanna Nye, see p. 114. I have gone strictly by first names in surveying numbers of female apprentices and the final dispositions of their apprenticeships.
- McKenzie , D. F. , ed. 1978 . Stationers' Company Apprentices, 1701–1800 Oxford See for example pp. 111, 289, 306, 323
- Blagden . 162
- See Stationers' Company Apprentices, 1641–1700, p. 156, where Tace Sowie is noted as being “freed by patrimony.” For information on her father see Leona Rostenberg, “Subversion & Repression: Robert Stephens, Messenger of the Press”, in Literary, Political, Scientific, Religious A Legal Publishing, Printing & Bookselling in England, 1551–1700: Twelve Studies (New York, 1965), p. 356. John Dunton discusses her in his Life and Errors of John Dunton (New York, J969), pp. 222–23. Among the works of Jane Lead published by Sowie are: The Laws of Paradise Given Forth by Wisdom to a Transslaied Spirit (London, 1695) and The Wonders of God's Creation Manifested, In the Variety of Eight Worlds: as they were made known Experimentally to the Author (London, n.d.). I owe the information about Jane Lead's connection with Tace Sowie to Catherine Smith of Bucknell University.
- Blagden . 162
- 164 Ibid.
- Hodgson and Blagden . 80
- London Evening Post No. 2,540, Saturday 18 February 1744; quoted in Harris, “The London Newspaper Press …”, p. 26.
- For additional information on hawkers see ibid., Chapter 2; also Blagden, pp. 22, 147, 164–5, 169–70.
- Common's Journals, V, 436, reads “that thirty thousand of these petitions were to come forth in print this day, and delivered to the Mercuries that cry about books.” See also Fuller's History of Cambridge, “Circumforean Pedlars (ancestors to our modern Mercuries and Hawkers) which secretly vend prohibited pamphlets.” These references from the Compact Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary (1971).
- Harris . 42 – 3 . “The London Newspaper Press …,”
- Dunton . 236
- Public Record Office, London, State Papers Domestic (hereafter SPD) 36/8 ff. 169–70.
- Sutherland . 110
- Rostenberg . 393 “English Rights and Liberties': Richard and Anne Baldwin, Whig Patriot Publishers,” in her (op. cit.) Literarv. Political. Scientific … Publishing … etc.
- 408 Ibid
- Ibid., pp. 411–12. Mrs. Manley appears on the masthead of the paper under the pseudonym “Mrs. Crackenthorpe.”
- 370 Ibid
- Estimate based on various sources including Tercentenary Handlist of English & Welsh Newspapers, Magazines and Reviews, facsimile reprint (London, 1966); R. S. Crane and F. B. Kaye, A Census of British Newspapers and Periodicals 1620–1800 (Chapel Hill, 1972), Powell Stewart, A Descriptive Catalogue of a Collection at the University of Texas: British Newspapers and Periodicals 1632–1800 (Austin, 1950). It must remain an estimate until adequate descriptive indexes are developed for all known eighteenth century newspapers and notably for the Burney Collection.
- Tercentenary Handlist of English and Welsh Newspapers …, p. 35.
- Ann Dodd was printer, publisher or sole distributor for the following papers; The Hermit (1711–1712), The Weekly Packet (1713–1721), The Old Whig (1710–1720), The Saint James Journal (1722–1723), The White Hall Evening Post (1721) and the Covent Garden Journal (1752), see Stewart, pp. 31, 112, 136, 162, 164.
- The fullest description of congers and conger activity can be found in Norma Hodgson and Cyprian Blagden, The Notebook of Thomas Bennet and Henry Clements (1686–1719) with Some Aspects of Book Trade Practice, Oxford Bibliographical Society Publications, New Series, Vol. VI, 1953, pp. 67–100.
- 90 Ibid
- Annotations on the Holy Bible By a Select Body of Divines of the Church of England (London, 1735).
- In this regard see the London Evening Post in the late I730's, and theDoiYy/Osf for 1728–29. A consistently large volume of advertising by one bookseller in a particular journal probably indicates that that person has a share in ownership. In general ownership of newspapers was kept secret because of fear of prosecution. For more on this subject see Michael Harris, “London Printers and Newspaper Production During the First Half of the Eighteenth Century,” Journal of the Printing Historical Society, Number 12, 1977–78, pp. 39–40.
- More work is needed on the financial structure of early eighteenth century publishing and the precise relationship between newspaper advertising, a comparatively new phenomenon, and bookselling. At least one other possible explanation for the mercuries' frequent use of newspaper advertising is that they had fewer alternative business contacts than male booksellers, and used the newspaper columns to offset this disadvantage
- See, for example, Rostenberg, pp. 356, 393.
- SPD 36/22, f. 12.
- Sutherland, p. 117.
- Quoted in Sutherland, p. 117.
- Gillett, p. 588.
- Ibid., p. 589.
- Ibid., p. 589.
- Ibid., p. 590.
- SPD 36/8, f. 169.
- SPD 36/8, f. 152.
- SPD 36/8, f. 157.
- SPD 36/8, f. 161.
- SPD 36/8, f. 165.
- SPD 36/8, f. 244.
- Gillett, p. 621.
- SPD 36/8, f. 169.
- See the list of contributors in Nichols, pp. 496–97.
- B. M. Add. MSS 33.054, ff. 189–90, quoted in Harris, “The London Newspaper Press” p. 45.
- Harris . “London Printers and Newspaper Production,” 38
- See SPD 36/8, f. 165.
- C. H. Timperley, A Dictionary of Printers and Priming (London, 1839), p. 612 n.
- Edward Deacon, The Descent of the Family of Deacon ofElstowe and London [etc.] (Bridgeport, Conn.: Privately printed, 1898), p. 339.
- Nichols, pp. 534–5, contains a copy of Negus' List
- The sources differ on whether Elizabeth Nutt the mercury was Richard Nutt's mother or his wife. Deacon (p. 339) claims that Elizabeth Nutt was the daughter of Cassandra and Hugh Meeres. However, Harris, “The London Newspaper Press,” p. 43, describes her as “the widow of printer John Nutt.” There may have been two Elizabeth Nutts. See also Michael Treadwell, “London Printers and Printing Houses in 1705,” Publishing History, Vol. VII, 1980, p. 30.
- King's Bench Records, 28/131, ff. 22, 31.
- SPD George II, 63, f. 216.
- Henry R. Plomer (et al.), A Dictionary of Printers and Booksellers who were at work in England, Scotland and Ireland from 1726–1775 … etc. (Oxford, 1932), entry on Sarah Nutt.
- Hanson . 72
- Deacon . 338 – 40 . and Hanson, p. 72
- DNB.
- The DNB argues against William Mears' being related to the other bookselling Mcars, and Stationers' Company Apprentices 1641–1700, p. 74, would seem to bear this out.
- Ralph Straus, The Unspeakable Curll, Being Some Account of Edmund Curll, Bookseller, To Which is Added a Full List of his Books (London, 1927), p. 294.
- See Franco Venturi, Italy and the Enlightenment: Studies in a Cosmopolitan Century (L/wdon, 1972), pp. 63–102, for Radicati's life and association with English Commonwealth thinlcers.
- Deacon . 344 – 5 .
- See SPD 36/8, ff. 152–170; also SPD 8/165, f. 154.
- Straus . 296
- Enthusiasm Display'd: Being a True Copy of a Most Learned, Conscientious and Devout Exercise, or Sermon … [Preached in 1649) by Lieutenant General Oliver Cromwell (London, 1743).
- Stewart, p. 112, supplies a description of the various editions of the Old Whig.
- See for example, The Adventures of Priests and Nuns; with some Account of Confessions and the Lewd Use They Make of Them … etc. (published for … A. Dodd without Temple Bar, 1728).
- See [John Henley], Oratory Transactions No. 1 … Occasion of the Oratory, Proving it an Episcopally and Legally Authorized Chapel of Ease and Correction to all Modern Churches … etc, (Sold by E. Nutt, A. Dodd, N. Blanford, etc., 1728).
- DNB
- SPD 36/23, f. 134.
- Straus, p. 295.
- Ibid, pp. 300–301.
- Saint-Hyacinthe's career and international connections are explored in Margaret C. Jacob, The Radical Enlightenment: Pantheists, Freemasons and Republicans (London and Boston, 1981), pp. 187–93.
- Freedom of the Press: Six Tracts, 1712–1730 (New York and London, 1974).
- See SPD 36/63, ff. 29, 36–7 for their interrogations by the Secretary of State's office.
- A modem facsimile edition of this collection can be found in The Rights of Authors: Two Tracts 1732–1738 and Freedom of the Press: Four Tracts 1740–1764 (New York and London, 1975).
- Ibid., Sixth Tract, p. 10 (tracts individually paginated).
- Ibid., p. 27.
- Ibid., p. 33.
- Ibid., p. 8.
- Ibid., p. 21.
- 6 Ibid.
- 33 Ibid
- 24 – 5 . Ibid
- 18 Ibid
- Ibid., p. 8. The journal from which these pieces were excerpted had been proceeded against several times in the 1740s. Perhaps the “moderate” tone of this work is a deliberate effort to sidestep prosecution, though I think it more likely a propaganda device, an appeal to reason in the aftermath of the “Forty-Five.”
- Wollstonecraft , Mary . 1792 . A Vindication of the Rights of Women: With Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects 26 – 31 . 42 – 4 . London
- Blagden . 231
- 251 – 52 . Ibid
- 1972 . Hodson's Booksellers. Publishers and Stationers Directory of 1855 Oxford lists a few women with newspaper stalls, apparently retailers, and only two women publishers out of more than 500 names. Neither of these women, a Mrs. Fairbum and a Miss Gibbs, appears to advertise, in stark contrast with the mercury women of the eighteenth century
- This change is exremely striking and can be readily seen in advertisements. One cited in Dunton, p. 216, ends with “to be sold by the hawkers of London.” R. M. Wiles, Serial Publication in England Before 1750 (Cambridge, 1957) reproduces a number of similar ads, e.g., from 1738, “subscribers to give notice to … any of the hawkers, or other persons, who serve out Books or Newspapers” (p. 315); 1737, “the persons who carry the news” p. 311) and numerous other nongender-specific usages (pp. 296, 298, 349, and elsewhere). By contrast an unpaged advertisement in Hodsons refers to “Booksellers or newsmen in town or country.”
- Howe and Waite, pp. 169, 227. Freemasonry, Women, and the Paradox of the Enlightenment Margaret C. Jacob Margaret Jacob teaches at the City University of New York and is a fellow of The Institute for Research in History. The author wishes to thank Phyllis Mack, Ruth Perry, Margaret Hunt, Gordon Silber, and Kathryn Sklar for their careful reading of this essay and their judicious comments