Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 06.djvu/97

 Bowyer ' appeared in 1772, 8vo; 3rd ed. 1782, 4to; 4th ed., much enlarged, 1812, 4to. In 1765 Bowyer had some intention of purchasing a lease of exclusive privilege of the university press, but the scheme fell through. Early in the next year he took into partnership the apprentice-manager of his business, and thenceforward the ever-increasing success of the business was insured. The typographical anecdotes of the Bowyer Press from 1722, when Bowyer became a partner with his father, to 1766, when he took John Nichols into partnership, extend in Nichols's 'Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century' to 703 closely printed 8vo pages, and from the latter date to his death in 1777 the joint productions of Bowyer and Nichols occupy in description and anecdotes 293 further pages of the same work. In 1766 Bowyer brought out with an excellent Latin preface—'Joannis Harduini Jesuitse ad censuram Scriptorum Veterum Prolegomena.' In 1767 he was appointed to print the rules of parliament and the journal of the House of Lords through the influence of the Earl of Marchmont; and at this time, for want of room, the printing-office was removed from Whitefriars to Red Lion Passage, where he placed the sign of Cicero's head, and styled himself 'Architectus Verborum.' The anxiety consequent upon this removal from the place of his birth brought on a touch of paralysis, that affected him throughout his after life. In 1771 his second wife died, aged 70. She had assisted in correcting the press until young Nichols took her place. In the preface to the second edition of 'Conjectural Emendations,' 1772, Bowyer craves indulgence from his readers in consequence of suffering from palsy and affection of the stone and bilious colic, but still continued his literary labours. In 1773 he translated and published 'Select Discourses from Michaelis, on the Hebrew Months, Sabbatical Years,' &c. 12mo; in 1774 he published anonymously his well-known work, 'The Origin of Printing, in Two Essays, 8vo,' in which he was assisted by Dr. Owen and Mr. Missy. A second and enlarged edition appeared in 1776, 8vo, with a supplement in 1781, 8vo, by Mr. Nichols. In 1776 he was laid up for weeks with paralysis; still he managed to push forward his last editorial work, Dr. Bentley's 'Dissertation on the Epistles of Phalaris,' which was not published until 1782 (8vo), five years after his death.

In the last year of his life he published 'Rolls of Parliament' in six folio volumes, and thirty-one volumes of the 'Journal of the House of Lords,' and he had a multitude of works in the press—for instance, the two handsome folios of 'Domesday Book,' which were not completed until 1783. He died on 18 Nov. 1777, aged 77. Most of his learned pamphlets, essays, prefaces, corrections, and notes have been reprinted as 'Miscellaneous Tracts by the late William Bowyer &hellip; collected and illustrated with notes by John Nichols, F.S.L. Edin.,' London, 1785, 4to, pp. 712.

Bowyer was a man of very small stature, and in the jeux d' esprit of his day we find him called 'the little man,' 'a little man of great sufficiency.' In character he was very amiable, and his cheerful disposition and learned conversation cemented many a lifelong friendship. Every species of distress was relieved by him, and so privately that the knowledge of his kindness came only from letters found after his death. His will, made 30 July 1777, often reprinted, is full of an affectionate and grateful spirit to the institutions and families of persons who had helped his father in the trouble of the great fire. To his own profession this will shows him a great benefactor, and his bequests are now administered by the Stationers' Company. For religion he had a great regard, and his moral character was unimpeachable. In the church of Low Leyton, Essex, there is a white marble monument to the memory of his father and himself, with a Latin inscription by him. A bust of him is placed in Stationers' Hall, with his father's portrait, and the brass plate underneath has an inscription in English in reference to the fire of 1712. His portrait by Basire is the frontispiece to vol. ii. of Nichols's 'Literary Anecdotes,' 1812, 8vo. The 1812 edition of his 'Conjectural Emendations' has a fine quarto-sized portrait of him as 'Gulielmus Bowyer, Architectus Verborum, æt. lxxviii.,' with various emblems beneath, including the phoenix, symbolical of the rise of the new firm from the memorable fire. There are also inferior portraits in Hansard's 'Typographia' and Wyman's 'Bibliography of Printing.' Each representation reveals to us a severe face as of one of the old puritans, in remarkable contrast to the genial faces of his father and his successor. His son Thomas survived him. He was intended to be his father's successor in business, but seems to have been a very wayward youth, though it is clear from his father's gossiping letters on domestic matters that it was the stepmother's refusal to take proper care of 'Tom,' and her extraordinary affection for her young nephew, Emonson, that disgusted the lad and turned the current of his life. Ordained by Bishop Hoadly for the church, and for a time curate at Hillsdon, Middlesex, he then became a