Page:A history of booksellers, the old and the new.djvu/340

300 3oo THE RIVINGTONS, THE PARKERS, burnt, the Bible and ' Pamela' ought to be preserved ; and even at fashionable Ranelagh, where the former was in but little request, " it was usual for the ladies to hold up the volume (the latter) to one another, to show that they had got the book that every one was talking of." What, however, was more to Rivington's purpose, the volume went through five editions in the year of publication, 1741. This success closed Charles Rivington's business life, for he died on the 25th of February, 1742. By Ellen Pease, his wife, a native of Durham, he had six children, to whom his friend Samuel Richard- son, the executor also of his will, acted as guardian. Charles, the founder, was succeeded by John and James, who carried on the publishing business con- jointly for several years, after which James joined a Mr. Fletcher, in St. Paul's Churchyard, with whom he brought out Smollett's "History of England," by which 10,000 was cleared the largest profit that had yet been made on any single book. This success, however, encouraged James to neglect his affairs, and he took to frequenting Newmarket ; racing and gambling soon ended in a failure, and in 1760 he thought it advisable to start for the New World. Here, in Philadelphia, he commenced his celebrated Gazette, and, as he advocated the British interests and took the loyal side, his premises were destroyed by the rebels, and his type cast into republican bullets. James Rivington then came back to London, where he obtained the appointment of " King's printer to America," and furnished afresh with types and presses he returned to recommence his Royal Gazette, which he carried on boldly up to the withdrawal of the British troops ; and as he had contrived somehow, it