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836 gave a large silver coffee urn, with a set of teaspoons, &c.; and, by his last will, left a reversionary legacy of £2,500, three per cent. consols to the company; the interest of which (£75) to be thus applied: £60 in annuities of 50s. to ten poor freemen, and ten widows; £20 for a dinner for the court of assistants, who are to attend divine service, on the 19th of July, at St. Martin's church; 20s. to the clerk of the stationers' company; 30s. to the rector, for a sermon; 20s. to the curate for reading prayers; 5s. each to the clerk, organist, and sexton; and 5s. each to the beadle, porter, and housekeeper of the company. Possessing a strong mind, improved by habits of early industry, and gifted by nature with a fine manly form, improved by polished manners, the conversation of Mr. Fenner was always pleasing; his friendship was very generally courted; and his advice was frequently requested in cases of difficulty, and always given freely and judiciously. He had been twice married; and the second wife survived him; but he left no child.

1809, Dec. 20. Died,, an eminent bookseller in St. Paul's church-yard, London. He was the younger of two sons of a farmer at Everton, near Liverpool, where he was born, Nov. 15, 1738, and had therefore just completed the seventy-first year of his age. His family were dissenters of the baptist persuasion; and he was apprenticed, at a suitable age, to Mr. George Keith, a bookseller, in Gracechurch-street, who had married the daughter of the celebrated Dr. Gill. It was about the year 1760, that Mr. Johnson first entered into business for himself, in partnership with a Mr. Davenport; and nearly at the same period, he contracted an acquaintance with Mr. Fuseli, the celebrated painter. The partnership with Davenport being dissolved, Mr. Johnson formed a similar connexion with Mr. John Payne; and their business was carried on in Paternoster-row, till nearly the whole of their property was consumed by fire in 1770, no part of it being insured. By this time Mr. Johnson had acquired the highest character with those who knew him best, for integrity and a virtuous disposition; and now that he was on the ground, "his friends," as he expressed it to a particular acquaintance, "came about him, and set him up again." On this occasion, he removed to the shop in St. Paul's church-yard, where he dwelt for the remainder of his life. A short time after this epoch in his affairs, he became closely connected with the most liberal and learned branch of the Protestant dissenters in England. He published, in 1772, the poems of Ann Letitia Aikin, afterwards Mrs. Barbauld; and nearly at the same time, was placed in the same relation of publisher to Dr. Priestley, whose numerous writings were brought up by Mr. Johnson from that time forward. In 1774, when Theophilus Lindsey came to London, having given up a living of £400 per annum and rich expectancies, because he could not reconcile his conscience to the articles of the chuch of England, he immediately formed a strict intimacy with Mr. Johnson. Mr. Lindsey's circumstances became greatly straitened by the sacrifice he had made; and Mr. Johnson procured, and caused to be fitted up for him, as a chapel, the great room in the house of Mr. Paterson, in Essex-street, in the Strand, and was extremely active in procuring subscriptions, and farming a regular religious establishment in that place, which he constantly attended, as long as Mr. Lindsey continued to officiate there. Mr. Johnson was so fortunate, (and this is one of the greatest honours that can fall to a bookseller) as to have been publisher to many of the most eminent authors of his time; among whom we may name William Cowper, Mr. Johnson first obtained the copyright of Cowper's Poems, which proved a source of great profit to him, in the following manner:—A relation of Cowper's called one evening, in the dusk, on Johnson, with a bundle of these poems, which he offered for publication, provided he would publish them at his own risk, and allow the author to have a few copies, to give to his friends. Johnson having, on perusal, approved of them, undertook the risk of publishing. Soon after they appeared, there was not a review that did not load them with the most scurrilous abuse, and condemned them to the butter-shops. In consequence of the public mind being thus terrified or misled, these charming effusions lay in a corner of the bookseller's shop, as an unsaleable pile, for a long time. Some time afterwards, the same person appeared with another handle of manuscripts from the same author, which were offered and accepted on similar terms. In this fresh collection was the admirable poem of the Task. Not alarmed at the fate of the former publication, and thoroughly assured as he was of their great merit, he resolved upon publishing them. Soon after they had appeared, the tone of the the reviewers became changed, and Cowper was hailed as the first poet of his age. The success of this second publication set the first in motion, and Johnson immediately reaped the fruits of his undaunted judgment. In 1815, the copyright was put up to sale among the members of the trade, in thirty-two shares. Twenty of these shares were sold at ₤2l2 per share. Including printed copies in quires, to the amount of ₤82, which each purchaser was to take at a stipulated price, and twelve shares were retained in the hands of the proprietor. The work was satisfactorily proved, at the sale, to net ₤834 per annum. It had only two years of copyright, and yet this same copyright, with printed copies, produced, estimating the twelve shares which were retained, at the same price as those which were sold, the sum of £6764. John Horne Tooke, Dr. Darwin, Dr. Priestley, Dr. Aikin, Dr. Enfield, Mr. Fuseli, Mr. Bonnycastle, Mr. Nicholson, Mr. Howard, Mrs. Barbauld, Mary Wolstonecraft, and Miss Edgeworth. In May, 1788, he