Owing to the split we have referred to in his business, and to his uniform generosity, the fortune he left behind him was not large—indeed, money hoarding has been an attribute of none of the Rivington family.
His two elder sons, Francis and Charles, carried on the business vigorously. Another son, Robert, captain of the “Kent”—East Indiaman—fell, gallantly defending his ship in the Bay of Bengal, and was thus celebrated in the Gentleman’s Magazine:—
* * * * *
“His manly virtue mark’d the generous source,
And naval toil confirm’d the naval force;
In fortune’s adverse trial undismay’d,
A seaman’s zeal and courage he display’d;
For honour firmly stood, at honour’s post,
And gain’d new glory when his life he lost!”
A fourth son John, a printer in St. John’s Square, had died previously in 1785.
The first important event in the new publishing house was the establishment of the British Critic, in which Nares and Beloe were conjoint partners with Francis and Charles Rivington. The British Critic was started in January, 1793, in monthly numbers of two shillings each, and by the end of the century attained a circulation of 3500. The editorship was entrusted to Nares, and with the assistance of Beloe it was conducted down to the forty-second volume in 1813. William Beloe was some time librarian of the British Museum, but a stranger who had been admitted to the print-room, having abused his confidence, and stolen some of the pictures, the librarian was somewhat unjustly asked to resign. Among the other contributors to the British Critic were Dr. Parr—of whom Christopher North says, not unfairly, “in his character of a wit and an author one of the most genuine feather-beds of humbug that ever filled up a corner of the world”—and Whittaker, author of the “History of Manchester.” In 1813, the second series of the Critic was commenced, under the editorship of the Rev. W. R. Lyall, afterwards Dean of Canterbury; in 1825 the publication was made quarterly, and a third series began, which, however, only reached three volumes.
Of all the literary men connected with the Rivingtons of this era, none were more useful, and few deserve more grateful remembrance from posterity, than George Ayrscough—-facile princeps of index makers. Originally a miller’s labourer, he obtained a situation in the Rivingtons’ shop, and was afterwards promoted to a clerkship in the British Museum; soon after his further rise to the position of assistant librarian he took orders; but it is as a maker of catalogues and indexes that he is still known; and how great the labour and patient skill needful in compiling the indexes to the Gentleman’s Magazine, the Monthly Review, and the British Critic must have been, all students can approximately guess from the immensity of labour saved individually by their use.
John, the eldest son of Francis, was admitted a partner in 1810, and in 1819 they took a lease of No. 3, Waterloo Place; and so popular were they at the time that it is said Sir James Allen Park, one of the judges, came down to the new house before nine o’clock on New-year’s Day, that he might enrol himself as their first customer. In 1820 they determined to start a branch house for the sale of second-hand books and general literature, and John Cochrane was placed at the head of this establishment. He collected one of the finest stocks ever gathered, and published the best and most carefully compiled catalogue that had then been issued, extending to 815 pages, and enumerating 17,328 articles, many of the rarest kind. The business, however, entailed considerable losses, and was abandoned in 1827.
On October 18, 1822, Francis Rivington, the senior partner, died, earning a character for high probity and sincere and unaffected piety. Like his father he had been a governor in many charitable institutions. “Such a man,” says the author of his obituary notice, “cannot go unwept to the grave; and the writer of this article, after a friendly intercourse of sixty years, is not ashamed to say that at this moment his eyes are moister than his pen”—a quaint but sincere tribute. He had married Miss M. Elhill, sister of an eminent lead merchant, and four of his sons survived him.
In 1827 George and Francis, sons of Charles, joined the firm; and in 1831, Charles, the younger of the two original brothers, was found dead on the floor of his dressing-room. In social life he was distinguished by the mildness and complacence of his temper; and his conversation was invariably enlivened with anecdotes and memories of the literary men and clergymen with whom he had come in contact.