A celebrated bookseller of Finsbury Square, London, and proprietor of the great bookselling establishment there, which he called the “Temple of the Muses,” was born in 1746, and brought up a shoemaker, at Wellington, in Shropshire. By industry and perseverance he succeeded in the bookselling business, almost beyond precedent. On the publication of the seventh edition of his memoirs, written by himself, in 1794, he had set up his carriage, and his profits in each of the two preceding years, were £5,000 (equal to $24,000). He observes that—
“Cobblers from Crispin boast their public spirit,
And all are upright, downright men of merit.”
Lackington mentions a brother shoemaker, named Ralph Tilney, who died in 1789: “one who had not dignity of birth or elevated rank in life to boast of, but who possessed what is far superior to either, a solid understanding, amiable manners, a due sense of religion, and an industrious disposition. Among other acquisitions, entomology was his peculiar delight—his valuable cabinet of insects, both foreign and domestic, supposed to be one of the completest of a private collection in the kingdom, all scientifically arranged, with peculiar neatness, and in the finest preservation.”
“Honor and shame from no condition rise;
Act well your part, there all the honor lies.”
“You’ll find if once the monarch acts the monk,
Or, cobbler-like, the parson will get drunk,
Worth makes the man, and want of it the fellow,
The rest is all but leather or prunella.”
Lackington’s memoirs bring his life down to 1793. His memoirs abound in severe remarks on the methodists (whom he had joined in early life and afterward left), both as to life, and doctrine; these Lackington subsequently repented having written. Uniting himself again to the Wesleyan society, he endeavored to obviate the injustice of his sarcasms by publishing a confession of his errors. Much of what he had stated, he acknowledged to have taken on trust; and many things he now discovered to have been without a proper foundation. These “Confessions,” which appeared in 1803, never altogether accomplished their purpose; so difficult is it to recall or make reparation for a word lightly spoken. In sincere humiliation of spirit, Lackington retired to Budleigh Sulterton, in Devonshire, where he built and endowed a chapel, and performed various other acts of munificence, and spent the conclusion of his days. He died on the 22d of November, 1815, in the seventieth year of his age.
JOSEPH PENDRELL.
Joseph Pendrell, who died in London about the year 1830, had received at school nothing more than the ordinary education, in English reading and writing. At an early age he was apprenticed to a shoemaker, which business he followed until his death. He had when young a great taste for books. Stopping at a book-stall one day, he laid hold of a an arithmetical work, marked four pence sterling; he purchased it, and availed himself of his leisure hours, in making himself master of the subject. At the end of the volume he found a short introduction to mathematics; this stimulated him to make further purchases of scientific works; and in this way he gradually proceeded from the elements to the highest departments of mathematical learning. When a journeyman, he made every possible saving in order to purchase books. He subsequently acquired a knowledge of French, Greek, and Latin, and formed a large collection of classical books, many of which he purchased at the auction-rooms, always concealing his name as purchaser. The late Bishop Lowth became interested in him, from occasional conversation at the auction sales, but the shoemaker, from extreme diffidence, declined telling his name, although the introduction to the bishop might have drawn him from his obscurity. Pendrell’s knowledge of mathematical science, was profound and extensive, embracing fortification, navigation, astronomy, and various departments of natural philosophy. He was also familiar with poetical literature; and had a thorough acquaintance with most English writers in the department of belles lettres.
THOMAS HOLCROFT.
Thomas Holcroft, an English miscellaneous writer of considerable reputation, was born in Orange court, Leicesterfields, December 22, 1744. His father was a shoemaker in low circumstances, and the son, early in life, was employed in the stables of the honorable Mr. Vernon. He also worked at his father’s business of shoemaking, but being fond of reading, and his fellow-workmen sneering at his efforts to acquire knowledge, he left the trade, and opened a school in London. This not proving successful, he tried his fortune on the stage, but after much suffering, being often almost reduced to starvation, he abandoned the stage as an actor. In the midst of his distresses, however, he retained his love of books, and had made himself extensively acquainted with English literature.