[30] Hints of Prefaces, p. [12], 11.
[31] Familiar Letters between the Principal Characters in David Simple (London, 1747), Vol. I, ix.
[32] Hints of Prefaces, p. [13], 13.
[33] Postscript (fourth edition), p. 365.
HINTS OF PREFACES FOR CLARISSA
APPENDIX: Philip Skelton and Joseph Spence
Philip Skelton (1707-1787) was an Irish divine who could well have served as a model for Parson Adams, for in his life he exhibited a vigorous combination of good humour, physical bravery, quixotic gallantry and practical Christianity. The article in the DNB records that 'he studied physic and prescribed for the poor, argued successfully with profligates and sectaries, persuaded lunatics out of their delusions, fought and trounced a company of profane travelling tinkers, and chastised a military officer who persisted in swearing.' During famine he gave liberally to sustain his poor parishioners, on one occasion selling his library to help them. The Life of Philip Skelton, by Samuel Burdy, first published in 1792, still makes entertaining and interesting reading. Richardson met Skelton when he visited London in 1748 to publish Ophiomaches, or Deism Revealed. On David Hume's recommendation Andrew Millar published the work; and Richardson also seems to have played some part in getting the book accepted (Forster MSS, XV, f 34).
The author of Spence's Anecdotes needs no special introduction, although some aspects of his relationship with Richardson are of interest. He apparently first met the novelist late in 1747 or early in 1748. Richardson sought his opinion on Clarissa before the final volumes of the first edition had appeared: his letter discussing the novel [The Correspondence of Samuel Richardson, edited by Anna Laetitia Barbauld (London, 1804), Vol. II, 319-327], which emphasizes Richardson's truth to 'Nature' and lack of 'Art', makes an interesting contrast with the more considered verdict delivered in his contribution to Hints of Prefaces. Before writing this he had almost certainly read Tom Jones. In a letter, dated April 15, 1749, he says: 'Tom Jones is my old acquaintance, now; for I read it, before it was publisht: & read it with such rapidity, that I began & ended with in the compass of four days; tho' I took a Journey to St. Albans, in ye same time. He is to me extreamly entertaining....' He seems to have contemplated writing a memoir of Richardson after the novelist's death in 1760.
[See Austin Wright, Joseph Spence: a critical Biography (Chicago, 1950), 120-123, 232 n.]