Francis Newbery (6 July 1743 – 17 July 1818) was an English publisher and businessman.

Life

Born on 6 July 1743, he was son of

John Newbery John Newbery (9 July 1713 – 22 December 1767), considered "The Father of Children's Literature", was an English publisher of books who first made children's literature a sustainable and profitable part of the literary market. He also supported ...

the publisher, of

St. Paul's Churchyard St Paul's Churchyard is an area immediately around St Paul's Cathedral in the City of London. It included St Paul's Cross and Paternoster Row. It became one of the principal marketplaces in London. St Paul's Cross was an open-air pulpit from whi ...

; alone of his brothers he survived his father. After schooling at

Ramsgate Ramsgate is a seaside resort, seaside town in the district of Thanet District, Thanet in east Kent, England. It was one of the great English seaside towns of the 19th century. In 2001 it had a population of about 40,000. In 2011, according to t ...

and

Hoddesdon Hoddesdon () is a town in the Borough of Broxbourne, Hertfordshire, lying entirely within the London Metropolitan Area and Greater London Urban Area. The area is on the River Lea and the Lee Navigation along with the New River. Hoddesdon is ...

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...

, he entered Merchant Taylors' School in 1758, and matriculated at

Trinity College, Oxford (That which you wish to be secret, tell to nobody) , named_for = The Holy Trinity , established = , sister_college = Churchill College, Cambridge , president = Dame Hilary Boulding , location = Broad Street, Oxford OX1 3BH , coordinates ...

, on 1 April 1762. Four years afterwards he migrated to

Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge Sidney Sussex College (referred to informally as "Sidney") is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in England. The College was founded in 1596 under the terms of the will of Frances Sidney, Countess of Sussex (1531–1589), wife ...

, but he took no degree in either university. On the death of his father, in 1767, Newbery abandoned plans of a professional career, on the advice of his father's friends

Samuel Johnson Samuel Johnson (18 September 1709 – 13 December 1784), often called Dr Johnson, was an English writer who made lasting contributions as a poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. The ''Oxford ...

and Robert James. He went into the business his father had created, both publishing and selling patent medicines. In 1779 he transferred the patent-medicine part of the business to the northeast corner of St. Paul's Churchyard, leaving the book publishing at the old spot. The firm was subsequently known as Newbery & Harris, for the partner John Harris (1756–1846); in 1865 it became Messrs. Griffiths & Farran. Newbery in 1791 purchased

Heathfield Park Heathfield Park is an English country house and walled park in the village of Old Heathfield in East Sussex. History Originally called Bayley Park, the mansion was begun by James Plummer in 1677 and continued by Raymond Blackmore in the early ...

, the estate of

Lord Heathfield Lord Heathfield, Baron Heathfield of Gibraltar, was a title in the Peerage of Great Britain. It was created on 6 July 1787 for George Augustus Eliott, 1st Baron Heathfield, General Sir George Augustus Eliott in recognition of his defence of Gib ...

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

. He died on 17 July 1818, aged 75.

Works

Oliver Goldsmith Oliver Goldsmith (10 November 1728 – 4 April 1774) was an Anglo-Irish novelist, playwright, dramatist and poet, who is best known for his novel ''The Vicar of Wakefield'' (1766), his pastoral poem ''The Deserted Village'' (1770), and his pl ...

died after overdosing on "James's fever powder", the patent of which belonged to Newbery. He published a statement on the case, to defend the reputation of his medicine. Newbery made translations from classical authors, particularly

Horace Quintus Horatius Flaccus (; 8 December 65 – 27 November 8 BC), known in the English-speaking world as Horace (), was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus (also known as Octavian). The rhetorician Quintilian regarded his ' ...

. They are in the work ''Donum Amicis: Verses on various occasions by F. N.'', printed by Thomas Davidson, Whitefriars, 1815. Verse written by Newbery was set to music, by

William Crotch William Crotch (5 July 177529 December 1847) was an English composer and organist. According to the American musicologist Nicholas Temperley, Crotchwas "a child prodigy without parallel in the history of music", and was certainly the most disti ...

and others.

John Wall Callcott John Wall Callcott (20 November 1766 – 15 May 1821) was an eminent English composer. Callcott was born in Kensington, London. He was a pupil of Haydn, and is celebrated mainly for his glee compositions and catches. In the best known of his ...

, a good friend, set as a

glee Glee means delight, a form of happiness. Glee may also refer to: * Glee (music), a type of English choral music * ''Glee'' (TV series), an American musical comedy-drama TV series, and related media created by Ryan Murphy * ''Glee'' (Bran Van 30 ...

''Hail all the dear delights of home'', a poem by Newbery.

Family

Newbery married Mary, daughter of

Robert Raikes Robert Raikes ("the Younger") (14 September 1736 – 5 April 1811) was an English philanthropist and Anglican layman. He was educated at The Crypt School Gloucester. He was noted for his promotion of Sunday schools. Family Raikes was born at ...

Cousin of the same name

Newbery must be distinguished from his first cousin, also Francis Newbery, of

Paternoster Row Paternoster Row was a street in the City of London that was a centre of the London publishing trade, with booksellers operating from the street. Paternoster Row was described as "almost synonymous" with the book trade. It was part of an area cal ...

, bookseller and publisher, and who was in business with John Newbery. This Francis Newbery was the original publisher of ''

The Vicar of Wakefield ''The Vicar of Wakefield'', subtitled ''A Tale, Supposed to be written by Himself'', is a novel by Anglo-Irish writer Oliver Goldsmith (1728–1774). It was written from 1761 to 1762 and published in 1766. It was one of the most popular and wid ...

''. He also published the ''

Gentleman's Magazine ''The Gentleman's Magazine'' was a monthly magazine founded in London, England, by Edward Cave in January 1731. It ran uninterrupted for almost 200 years, until 1922. It was the first to use the term ''magazine'' (from the French ''magazine'' ...

'' from 1767 till his death on 8 June 1780.

Notes

;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Newbery, Francis 1743 births 1818 deaths Publishers (people) from London Patent medicine businesspeople People educated at Merchant Taylors' School, Northwood