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Notes
See, for example. A. Cecil Piper, "The book trade in Winchester 1549-1789. Extracts from the local records of the city," The Library, 3rd ser., 7 (1916), 191-197.
The documents are in Northamptonshire Record Office (hereafter N.R.O.). Individual documents are cited below, but a complete list of the Clay records, compiled by Professor Jan S. Fergus of Lehigh University, can be consulted at the Office. I should like to thank the staff of the Office for their assistance.
Peter Whalley, The history and antiquities of Northamptonshire (1791), I, 41. Whalley's work was based on that of John Bridges, who collected his materials in the 1720s.
H. McLachlan, English education under the Test Acts (1931), pp. 152-165; and George Baker. The history and antiquities of the county of Northampton (1822-30), I, 335.
He is so described after his death in a Deed of 1741 dealing with the disposal of some property. The Deed is Derbyshire County Library, Derbyshire Deeds 1319.
I am indebted to the invaluable Name Index in the Local Studies Department of Derbyshire County Library for data on the family, and to the staff of the Department for their help. My colleague, R. P. Sturges, drew my attention to the existence of this Index.
John Feather, "Country book trade apprentices 1710-1760," Publishing History, 6 (1980), 85-99, no. 27.
Norman Taylor, "Derbyshire printers and printing before 1800," Journal of the Derbyshire Archaelogical and Natural History Society, 23 (1950), 38-69.
He is probably not to be identified with the John Smith who was a bookseller in Coventry in 1683, for whom see Henry R. Plomer, A dictionary of printers and booksellers . . . 1668 to 1725 (1922), p. 275.
D. F. McKenzie, Stationers' Company apprentices 1641-1700 Oxford Bibliographical Society, new ser., 17 (1974), no. 4474.
H. R. Plomer, E. H. Bushnell, and E. R. McN. Dix, A dictionary of the printers and booksellers . . . 1726 to 1775 (1932), p. 232. The date of burial is from N.R.O. 96P/18, p. 71.
For example, examining a vagrant in 1763 (N.R.O. D.6601), and sharing out the proceeds of a local charitable foundation in 1771-72 (N.R.O. D.6026).
It may be that they married in the bride's parish; certainly there is no record of the marriage in either Derby or Daventry.
N.R.O. D.2929 is Samuel's ledger from Warwick. The stocking-up was between 12 and 27 August 1770. Samuel was also a hatter, according to Mr. R. J. Chamberlaine-Brothers of Warwickshire Record Office to whom I am much indebted for information about Warwickshire booksellers.
For paper names and sizes, see Philip Gaskell, "Notes on eighteenth-century British paper," The Library, 5th ser., 12 (1957), 34-42.
For the importance of part-books to provincial readers, fully borne out by Clay's records, see R. M. Wiles, "The relish for reading in provincial England two centuries ago," in Paul J. Korshin, ed., The widening circle (1976), pp. 85-115.
John Alden, "Pills and publishing: some notes on the English book trade, 1660-1715," The Library, 5th ser., 7 (1952), pp. 21-37. In the 1740s, John Newbery, the pioneer of children's book publishing, laid the foundations of his fortune by a good investment in a medicine patent; see Charles Welsh, A bookseller of the last century (1885), pp. 21-23. The connection arose from the similarity of distribution mechanisms; I have discussed the subject more fully in The provincial book trade in eighteenth-century England (forthcoming).
The only records of Smith's business are in N.R.O. D.4844, which are his binding accounts. Clay revived the use of this ledger when he revived the binding operation.
The latest reference to him in Shorter, Paper mills, p. 225, is in 1778; Clay's accounts show that he was already there in 1746, 10 years earlier than Shorter's first reference to him.
Ibid., p. 247. The Orams had a shop in Coventry, and are rare examples of provincial stationers who became both producers and wholesalers of paper.
Richard W. Goulding, Notes on Louth printers and booksellers of the eighteenth century (1917), p. 2.
For information on Coventry booksellers I am again indebted to Mr Chamberlaine-Brothers. According to him, Clay also had connections with Elizabeth Jopson, Luckman's predecessor and founder of The Coventry Mercury; he was distributor of A book of accounts for the use of surveyors of the highways, which she published in 1767.
In some ledgers (e.g., N.R.O. D.2925, 2926, 2928-31) there are scribbled notes which include bespoke orders.
The first reference to him in Clay's accounts is in 1769; the last so far noticed is in The Universal British Directory in 1792. Mr Chamberlaine-Brothers has noted several references to him in The Coventry Mercury, 1779-88.
Ian Maxted, The London book trades 1775-1800 (1977), p. 141; and D. F. McKenzie, Stationers' Company apprentices 1701-1800, Oxford Bibliographical Society, new ser., 19 (1978), p. 219.
There is no list of distributors, but Clay appears as such in, for example, Public Record Office I.R. 1/45-53, the records of duty paid on apprenticeship indentures.
S. Atkinson. Chitty's Stamp laws (3rd ed., 1850), pp. 1-4; and Edward Hughes, "The English stamp duties, 1664-1774," English Historical Review, 56 (1941), pp. 234-264.
One accuser was Joseph Hume, Radical M.P. for Aberdeen in 1821; Hansard, new ser., 4 (1821), cols. 1401-11.
This is confirmed by the few other businesses whose records have survived, such as the retail business of John Cheney of Banbury (in the archives of Cheney and Sons Ltd., of Banbury, Oxon); and the early 19th-century ledger of John Albin of Newport, Isle of Wight (Humberside Record Office, Beverley, SCR 441).
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