Page:A history of booksellers, the old and the new.djvu/364

324 &4 THE RIVINGTONS, THE PARKERS, liam Butler Bown, into partnership ; but the con- nection did not last long, and in 1863 the stock and copyrights were disposed of to Messrs. Longman, who agreed to allow Mr. Bown an annuity of ?$o a year, which he only lived a year and a half to enjoy. On May :8th, 1870, Mr. John William Parker died at his country house near Farnham. By his first wife he left two daughters living, and by his second (the daughter of Dr. Mantell, the well-known geolo- gist) one son and two daughters. He was seventy- eight years of age at the time of his death ; and, though his life presents us with little that is striking or historically strange, he had played an honest part manfully, and may be remembered as one of the few instances in which a publisher, successful as an archi- tect of his own fortune, has been wise enough to transfer his business at the very zenith of its success to the keeping of other hands, when he had as- certained that his oWn were too aged for its proper maintenance and management. The Broad Church, so called, and the liberal thought of the country, owe much to the now defunct firm of John William Parker and Son. JAMES NISBET, the son of a poor Scotch farmer, who afterwards became a cavalry Serjeant, was born on Feb. 3rd, 1785. After receiving the ordinary rudiments of education he was apprenticed to Mr. Wilson of Kelso for three years, but having obtained the offer of a situation in London he was permitted to leave before his indentures had expired. He left Scotland with only four guineas in his purse, and being delayed on the road, was obliged to sell his