University of Virginia Library

Provincial Bookselling in Eighteenth-Century England: The Case of John Clay Reconsidered
by
Jan Fergus and Ruth Portner

In a recent article, "John Clay of Daventry: the business of an eighteenth-century stationer" (Studies in Bibliography 37 [1984]: 198-209), John Feather analyzed some of the voluminous business records of John Clay and his sons, booksellers in Daventry, Rugby, Lutterworth, and Warwick at various times between the 1740's and the 1780's. One of Feather's major conclusions is that the business of a provincial bookseller like Clay depended on sales of stationery far more than on sales of books and other printed matter. A related conclusion is that, "apart from schoolbooks . . . and part books and magazines, his book trade was chiefly in chapbooks and ballads" (p. 205). If correct, these conclusions would have serious implications for the study of the provincial book trade and of provincial readership as well. If sales of stationery were of much greater importance in volume and profit than sales of books, then provincial stationers would have had little incentive to develop the bookselling portion of their trade. If provincial readers could be generally satisfied with schoolbooks, part books, and magazines printed in London, along with chapbooks and ballads from "local sources" (p. 205), then they were largely cut off from the cultural life represented by the hundreds of books published every year in London.[1] The London book trade, consequently, would have had little reason to consider provincial readers in calculating what to publish, how many copies to print, and where to distribute them, and provincial booksellers would have had correspondingly little inclination to arrange for frequent orders and deliveries of books from London. In other words, the division between "town" and "country" in eighteenth-century England would be quite as severe culturally as it often was politically and socially, if Feather is right in attributing so small a volume and proportion of book sales to a bookseller whose main shop, in Daventry, was located only seventy-two miles from London by contemporary roads.

Feather's conclusions are mistaken, however. The mistakes arise primarily from his misreading of the records, especially of one day book analyzed in his study, and secondarily from his methodology. A more accurate investigation of the Clay business records reveals that, if the Clay records are at all

representative, then the provincial book trade and provincial culture were in a very lively and flourishing state between 1746 and 1780.[2]

In his article, Feather tabulated the business transactions recorded in day books by John Clay in October, 1768 (Northamptonshire Record Office [hereafter NRO] D2925) and by his son Thomas in October, 1778 (NRO D2926). He has, however, misidentified the first of these day books. Eighteenth-century shopkeepers like the Clays used day books to record every day's credit transactions, as well as orders for items not in stock. The Clays kept both ledger accounts and day books. Once a month or so, all credit purchases listed in the day book but not yet paid were posted to each individual customer's account in a ledger. Day books were thus organized by date, ledgers by customers' names. Feather takes day book D2925 to be a record of transactions at the Clays' main shop in Daventry. But it does not record Daventry transactions; it is a record of purchases made at their small market shop in Rugby.

The evidence for considering D2925 a Rugby day book is so overwhelming that we can include only the most telling arguments here. First, evidence external to the day book indicates its use in Rugby. The customers and the transactions entered in D2925 correspond almost perfectly with those recorded in John Clay's ledger for Rugby, NRO ML691 (1764-74). The latter is one of a continuous series of four ledgers which list the credit purchases of individual boys and masters at Rugby School between 1744-88 (see Table 1).[3] In fact, these four ledgers represent the only surviving bookselling ledgers in all the Clay records. Two of them are clearly labelled Rugby records: D3412 has "Rugby July 1744" on the front cover; D2932 likewise has "Rugby" on the cover and also "Rugby Ledger" in faded letters on the spine. Even without such labels, however, the ledgers' application to customers at Rugby school would be evident. The boys' and masters' names in NRO ML691, for example, together with the dates of their purchases, correspond to the names and dates of entrance recorded in The Rugby School Register for this period.[4] Thus, John Clay noted in day book D2925 that "Mr. Watts at ye School" bought the two-shilling "Compleat Lr. Writer" on credit on October 15, 1768, and later posted this transaction to the Watts account in ledger ML691, p. 76, as "1 Complete Letter Writer" bought for two shillings on October 15, 1768. Moreover, the Rugby School Register indicates that a Thomas Watts entered Rugby in 1768. Most of the transactions in D2925 found their way to ML691 in this fashion, and most of the customers can be identified by reference to the Rugby School Register. The remaining entries in D2925 generally consist of credit transactions made by other residents of Rugby and its surrounding parishes. These residents can be identified in Warwickshire parish records and in other documents as well.

The second argument depends upon internal evidence. Transactions are generally entered in D2925 only at weekly intervals: several orders on October 1, 1768, several on October 8, on October 15, and so forth. These dates fell on successive Saturdays in 1768, and Rugby held its market day on Saturday.[5] The Rugby shop, in fact, like the Lutterworth shop, was peripheral to the main shop in Daventry. Although some evidence exists that assistants may have kept the Rugby and Lutterworth shops open for cash sales during the week, generally John Clay visited these shops to take orders once or twice a week, on the market day and sometimes another day as well. In addition, Clay kept a horse to ride the eleven miles from Daventry to Rugby or the seventeen miles from Daventry to Lutterworth, and these long rides made a small, portable day book very desirable.[6] Both D2925 and D2926 are quite small. The Rugby book, D2925, is about six inches wide and eight inches high. The Lutterworth book, D2926, is even smaller: less than five inches wide and seven and a quarter inches high. Both day books were equipped with a flap and strings so that they could be sealed against the weather. They were thus quite convenient for travelling. By contrast, the Daventry day books have no flaps or strings and are about twice as large: they all measure approximately six by sixteen inches.

Such combinations of internal and external evidence have made it possible to identify the surviving records listed in Table 1 with some confidence.[7] Feather's error in assigning day book D2925 to Daventry probably stems from the entry in John Clay's handwriting on the endleaf: "John Clay Bookseller | at Daventry—Northamptonshire." It is, however, much more likely that such clear identification would be made in a book destined to travel to a shop in another town and county rather than in one confined to the main shop. In fact, the surviving Daventry day books lack any identification at all.

Feather's misidentification of D2925, coupled with his decision to tabulate the transactions of only two months, means that he has drawn conclusions from skewed data. First, the misidentification causes him to omit all Daventry records from his analysis. John Clay and later his son Thomas Clay lived in Daventry and kept the shop open six days a week, not one or two as in Rugby or Lutterworth. Daventry was also a considerably larger town than the others: it had a population of 2,582 in the 1801 census, compared to 1,487

in Rugby and 1,652 in Lutterworth.[8] As a consequence of such differences, the records of any month's business in Daventry include far more transactions from a wider variety of customers than do the records of a comparable month in either the Rugby or Lutterworth shops. Indeed, as Table 2.1 shows, the Daventry day books record sales of £51.13.8 for October, 1747, and a very comparable figure for October, 1779, over thirty years later: £57.7.8½. Each of these figures amounts to more than double the sales tabulated by Feather: £18.19.7 for October, 1768, in Rugby, and £16.19.10½ for October, 1778, in Lutterworth (reproduced in Tables 3.1 and 3.2). His figures, however, include charges for stamp duty on both "skins" (parchment for legal documents) and paper. Since such charges tend to be quite large and to vary a good deal in quantity from month to month, they are likely to distort the monthly figures. We have therefore excluded them from our own totals although we have indicated them separately. Accordingly, Table 2.1 shows that stamp duty adds another £21.8.3 to the October 1747 figures and £20.4.0 to those for October 1779. In our own calculations, at least £8.19.6 of the sales recorded in October 1768 (Rugby) and £7.8.0 of those in October 1778 (Lutterworth) represent the cost of the stamps themselves. By excluding such costs, we have arrived at total sales of £11.6.10 in Rugby and £11.11.6 in Lutterworth for the months investigated by Feather—each about one-fifth the sales in Daventry for October 1747 and 1779 (see Tables 3.1 and 3.2).[9] All these figures confirm the centrality of the Daventry shop to the Clays' business and document a far healthier income for the Clays than Feather indicates.

Table 2 also suggests the major problem in Feather's methodology: to draw conclusions from isolated months is likely to produce misleading results. Feather's major errors—the conclusions that Clay was primarily a stationer and that his book trade was principally in schoolbooks, part books, chapbooks, and ballads—arise in part from his willingness to consider the two months he chose to investigate as representative. In fact, as Table 2.1 indicates, no "typical" month can be identified. In December of both 1747 and 1779, for example, sales were poor compared to the October figures: in 1747, sales in December amounted to little more than half those for October, and in 1779, December sales came to about 65% of October's. By contrast, December

was the busiest month in the last quarter of 1746, with sales of £47.10.7 compared to £24.18.12 in October of that year. The stamp duties collected in 1746 reflect this discrepancy: £10.17.0 was collected in December, compared to only 4s6d in October. The large sales figure for December 1746, however, is itself somewhat skewed: one customer, a Mr. Brice of Leicester, was responsible for ordering £17.5.6 worth of stationery during that month. These large orders are at once quite common and quite unpredictable. In short, it is not possible to arrive at a "'normal' month's sales" by ignoring large orders, as Feather does (p. 202). It is equally impossible to analyze "two typical months," as Feather claims to have done, simply because a normal or typical month cannot be reliably established without extensive computer-based analysis of the voluminous records.

In the absence of such analysis, we have compiled information in Table 2.1 about sales in Daventry from October through December of the first two years available in the records—1746 and 1747, with John Clay as proprietor—and for the same three-month period in 1779, the last such period recorded in Daventry, when the shop was operated by Thomas Clay. With liberal doses of caution, some interesting preliminary conclusions can be drawn from the information compiled in this table. Generally, these conclusions contradict those of Feather.

First of all, bookselling—including sales of all printed matter—was clearly extremely important throughout the period covered by the Clay records, particularly in Daventry. The Daventry day books do not support Feather's conclusion that "primarily, Clay was a stationer, dealing in paper and printed forms" (p. 202) or that bookselling "in these small market towns, was economically of far less importance" than sales of stationery goods (p. 204). John Clay was a bookseller who sold stationery, not the reverse; so was his son Thomas, although sales of stamps and stationery may have been somewhat more central to his business than to John's. In any case, both seem to have sent weekly book orders to London to various dealers, and apparently had little trouble in obtaining most books that their customers wanted. Partly as a result of their efficient arrangements to obtain deliveries from London, sales of books and other printed matter in Daventry came to nearly £48 in the last three months of 1746, nearly £84 for the comparable period in 1747, and just over £90 for that in 1779; these figures represent about 50%, 70%, and 58% respectively of total sales—excluding charges for stamp duty—for the threemonth periods (Table 2.1). If stamp duty is included, then sales of print come to 42%, 56%, and 40% of total sales in Daventry during the same period, by far the largest proportion of the sales. Thus, a fairly high demand for printed matter seems to have persisted in Daventry. Selling books and other publications clearly remained the most substantial and important part of the credit portion of the business while the Clays were operating.

Admittedly, sales of printed matter in Lutterworth and Rugby were smaller in both volume and proportion, but not as much so as Feather suggests. His figures assign about one-third of the sales in Rugby and Lutterworth to bookselling. Our own sampling suggests that the monthly totals for

the peripheral shops varied, with sales of books and other printed matter accounting for one-third to one-half of each month's credit receipts, excluding stamp duty (see Table 3.1 and 3.2). Furthermore, a number of customers at both Rugby and Lutterworth were very eager to buy books and pamphlets, not merely part books, schoolbooks and chapbooks; Mr. Grundy, for example, a dissenting minister at Lutterworth, bought more than fifty publications between July 1776 and February 1781.

An important qualification to these figures must be noted here. The day books do not tell the whole story of the Clays' trade in their shops. They omit nearly all cash transactions. Day books recorded and dated all credit purchases and included, in a "Bespoke" section, those orders that the Clays could not immediately fill or deliver. Small transactions—purchases of a sheet or two of paper, for example—were probably paid for in cash as a rule. This is especially true of chapbook purchases, which rarely appear in the records, except among the Rugby schoolboys (who usually bought on credit).[10] Thus, the Clay day books cannot indicate the nature of cash purchases by provincial customers, particularly by those customers unwilling or unable to establish credit. Such cash purchases are generally unrecoverable. Although one of Thomas Clay's cash books survives (in two parts, NRO X7555 and NRO D6133), and although it records each week's receipts and expenses, it does not clearly indicate which of these receipts came from cash sales in the shop and which came from customers paying their accumulated bills. In the day books of William Huntley's business in colonial Williamsburg, recently analyzed by Cynthia Z. and Gregory Stiverson, totals of cash sales are recorded and amount to "26.8 percent of the nonbook sales and 31.4 percent of the book sales" between October 1750 and June 1752.[11] That is, proportionally more printed matter was sold for cash than were other items and services (paper, stationery, binding, printing, advertisements in the Virginia Gazette, etc.). If the Clays' cash sales were at all comparable, then total sales of books and other printed matter would comprise an even larger proportion of the business than the credit sales indicate.

Table 2 offers no hint of the kinds of books sold by the Clays over the five decades that the records cover, but these varied enormously. Obviously, Feather's misidentification of the Rugby day book invalidates his conclusion that "books sold at Daventry were mainly schoolbooks in use at the Academy" (p. 202). These schoolbooks were bought by boys and masters at Rugby School, not the Daventry Dissenting Academy. Indeed, the purchases of boys at these two institutions are quite different, and deserve study by historians of eighteenth-century education.

More important, however, the books sold at Daventry were extremely

diverse, and testify to the ease with which the Clays were able to obtain publications from London for their customers. Not surprisingly, Bibles, books of common prayer, sermons, and devotional books were especially popular throughout the period, as were reference books, histories, schoolbooks, belles lettres, and so forth.[12] Although Feather believes that Clay "never really had a stock of books at all, except for chapbooks . . . ballads . . . and school textbooks" (p. 208), in fact the Clays stocked various works. Samuel Clay obtained a number of books from his father when he opened his Warwick shop. Day book D2930 shows that on August 21, for example, John sent Samuel the following books, among others:

• Patrick . . . Lowth 4 Vol. new 2.18.0
• Doddridge Expositor 6 V: D° 2.9.0
• Abernethys Ser. 2 V: 4.4
• Drelincourt on Death 3.4
• Ansons Voyage 2.4
• Hist. Mildmay or Magdalen 2 V. 2.—
• Peerage of Engld 6 V. 13.—
• Hawkins Works 3 Vol. 3.—
• Eachards Ecclesiat: Hist. 2 V: 2.—

Samuel Clay's Warwick day book (NRO D2929) indicates that he sold none of these books on credit between August 1770 and March 1772, although he made 8d by circulating Hugh Kelly's Memoirs of a Magdalen, or the history of Louisa Mildmay and Anson's Voyages to three customers.[13] Clearly, however, he considered that he ought to stock such works, especially at such discounted prices; equally clearly, his father had them in stock. In fact, various references in the day books reveal that John Clay had a catalog of his stock to distribute to customers; for example, on July 7, 1759, he noted that he "lent [Mr. Earnsby of Hillmorton] my Catalogue" (NRO D2931). Other provincial booksellers also circulated catalogs: on March 1, 1759, John Clay received from "Mr. Calcott at Banbury" some books that Clay had ordered "out of his Catalogue"; Clay was charged £1.13.0 for the books and 3s6d for carriage (NRO D2931). Frequent notes made in the "Bespoke" sections of the day books to reorder various titles also indicate that all the Clays stocked popular works such as (to cite D2929) Leybourne's "Trader's Guide," "Herveys Meditations," Goody Two Shoes, Pilgrim's Progress, and "New Weeks Preparation to the Altar" (a devotional work), as well as the "ballads" and "histories" or chapbooks that Feather emphasizes. In sum, his assertion that such ballads and chapbooks constituted the chief part of the Clays' trade, apart from schoolbooks, part books, and magazines, is simply untenable upon closer examination of the records.

Although the main business of the Daventry shop was to satisfy customers' demands for printed matter, then, the nature of those demands changed markedly over the four decades recorded, as Table 2.2 illustrates. Interestingly, whereas in all but one of the months examined, well over half the Daventry sales came from printed matter in general,[14] the shop experienced a decline in demand for printed books. During the last three months of 1747, sales of books alone (as opposed to other printed matter) came to £64.10.3½, or over half the total sales of £119.17.10¼ (excluding stamp duty). By contrast, during the comparable period in 1779, book sales came to £47.18.3, less than one-third of the total sales of £154.14.0. In 1747, sales of other printed matter accounted for a further £19.7.5 of sales between October and December, about one-sixth of the total (and including 3s3d for reading books from the circulating library). Overall, sales of print came to £83.17.8½, or about 70% of total sales for the last three months of 1747. In 1779, other printed matter absorbed a higher proportion of sales than it did in 1747: £42.5.½ or about 27%. Sales of printed matter altogether fell, however, to about 58% of the total sales over the three-month period. Feather's analysis of the Rugby and Lutterworth day books led him to conclude that provincial customers may have bought more books in the later decades of the Clays' operations than earlier (p. 207); in fact, they bought fewer. They turned their attention to various cheaper or more ephemeral productions.

As Table 2.2 shows, declining sales of books were accompanied by increased sales of ephemeral material. Magazines enjoyed more than a fivefold increase, from £2.8.0 for the last three months of 1746 (or £2.9.6 for 1747) to £13.10.6 for the comparable period in 1779. These sales, though recorded exclusively in the Daventry day books, actually include subscriptions from customers who patronized the Rugby and Lutterworth shops as well.[15] Sales of almanacks skyrocketed from totals of £2.7.3 in the last three months of 1746 and £1.11.3 in the same period in 1747 to £22.13.0 between October and December 1779. Three wholesale customers, however, accounted for an enormous proportion of the 1779 total sales of almanacks (£18.10.33, or over 80%). Even if we choose to disregard these large wholesale purchases, retail purchases still doubled. Sales of songs and music books increased as well.

Serial publications are the only form of printed matter apart from books

whose sales seem to decrease during this period: from £12.3.0. between October and December 1747 to £3.16.3 in 1779. The figures for 1747 are inflated, however, by a total of £11.6.0 for successive volumes of the Universal History, usually charged at five shillings each. Possibly these purchases should be considered books rather than serials. If we examine the figures of the previous year, we find £3.6.6 spent on serials during the last quarter. In any case, the relatively slight demand for serial publications among the Clays' customers over these decades is striking in the light of R. M. Wiles' documentation of the enormous range and availability of books published serially.[16] Between 1746 and 1779, as Table 2.2 shows, magazines became far more attractive than serial publications to the Clays' customers, although both appealed to a variety of readers—from the rare servant or even laborer to the gentry. At Daventry, the largest proportion of the Clays' customers for these and other publications, however, were drawn from families whose breadwinner belonged to the professions. Clergymen were particularly good customers throughout the four decades, but some evidence indicates that from about 1770, magazines and serials became increasingly popular among farmers and tradesmen.[17] Feather's contention that most customers "were either the gentry of the locality or Clay's fellow tradesmen" (p. 208) is inaccurate with regard to Rugby and Lutterworth as well as Daventry, unless he is using the term "gentry" loosely, to refer to the professional classes as well.

Changes over time in the demand for stationery are almost as revealing as the changed demand for books and other publications. Sales of blank books —primarily day books, ledgers, and other account books—tripled between 1747 and 1779, and sales of copybooks used in schools almost quadrupled. These figures suggest an increasingly prosperous economic life in the areas served by the Clays, as well as increased numbers of children who were given instruction in writing. Sales of paper alone show less dramatic gains: from £16.6.9½ for the last three months of 1747 to £19.19.6 for the same period in 1779. These figures do include a £6.0.0 wholesale order for paper by Mr. Brice; if it is disregarded, then retail sales of paper appear to double over the period. But it is misleading to disregard such orders. The totals for the last quarter of 1746 are similarly inflated by two wholesale orders totalling £19.13.5 altogether; the retail sales for 1746 actually come to £13.4.10½. Such "inflation" seems to be common in the 1740's.

More impressive than the small growth in retail sales of paper is the rise in demand for "skins," the parchment and vellum used by lawyers: from about £2.0.0 in the last three months of 1746 and 1747 to £10.12.5 in 1779. This more than fivefold increase bears witness to the rising numbers and prosperity of provincial members of the legal professions. The rise in duty paid for stamps over the same period, from £12.9.0 in 1746 (or £29.1.3 in 1747) to

£70.19.6 in 1779 partially reflects this increase in lawyers' activities, though at least half arises from increases in the stamp duty. By the end of the 1770's, a great proportion of Thomas Clay's revenue came from sales of legal stationery. A bill made out to one of his legal customers, Charles Simon Oakden of Daventry, survives for the year 1778: it comes to £118.3.5 for stamp duty, stationery (including "skins"), and writing implements (NRO D6786). This enormous sum almost exactly equals the amount spent by all Thomas Clay's customers at Daventry (including Oakden) on the same goods between October and December 1779 (£118.0.8½; see Table 2.1). Interestingly, however, these huge sales of legal stationery seem to be a development of the late 1760's and the 1770's. Earlier, lawyers absorbed a much smaller proportion of John Clay's sales of stationery. Feather exaggerates, then, when he asserts that John Clay was "typical of country stationers" in building his business "around the supply of law stationery" (p. 208). Before the 1770's, the receipts of the Daventry shop depended very little on sales of legal stationery, although a number of lawyers were customers.[18]

The Clay business records, then, provide firm evidence that bookselling could be a thriving trade in the provinces in the second half of the eighteenth century. Although the demand for various kinds of publications underwent some important changes, it remained high during the period covered by the records. The profitability of the Clays' shops in Daventry, Rugby, and Lutterworth is clear; John Clay was able to raise, educate, and provide for a family of nine children (four others died in infancy). Throughout his career, his day books show that he was able to make loans to various customers and friends. In 1770, he was even able to lend his brother-in-law Charles Watkins, a prosperous draper in Daventry, the sum of £353.[19] Similarly, although Samuel Clay abandoned his shop in Warwick in June 1772 when his brother William died, and took over William's Rugby-based grocery and ironmongery business, he resumed bookselling in Rugby on the death of his brother Thomas in 1781. The Daventry business was sold on Thomas's death to William Culling-worth, a surveyor, but Samuel Clay operated the Rugby shop until at least

1789,[20] and probably until 1794. By then he had become a banker as well. Samuel Clay's willingness to remain a bookseller in Rugby despite his other lucrative ventures testifies to the profitability of the Rugby shop. Admittedly, Rugby offered a particularly attractive market during this period. Thomas James, the headmaster of Rugby School from 1778, apparently increased the number of boys at the school from fifty-two in 1778 to two hundred forty-five by 1794.[21] Finally, perhaps the most interesting evidence of the profitability of selling books to provincial customers comes from a deposition taken from Benjamin Kite at Peterborough in 1794. He had "travelled the Country & maintained himself by selling second hand Books & c." (NRO PSJ 225/12).[22] Kite was literate and had been a Clay customer, in fact: he paid 1s3d cash on April 12, 1770 (D2930), for unnamed items that he had received earlier—perhaps old books, which Clay sometimes bought and sold by the pound, or possibly almanacks for resale. That Kite could support himself, however minimally, in this way within the Clays' area offers further testimony to the healthy demand for reading matter among these provincial customers.

The profitability of commercial bookselling in the midlands arose, then, from the hearty provincial appetite for books. A history of this demand offers important insight into the social history of reading. The substantial and increased sales of ephemera like almanacks and magazines in the 1770's may seem to suggest that by then a "reading revolution" was taking place, of the sort postulated by Rolf Engelsing and others. But at the same time, there was a substantial trade in "classics," or reprints of all kinds, from devotional works to children's books. These were bought by new generations of those groups which had traditionally been readers—the gentry and the professional classes—as well as by new readers from the "middling classes": farmers, yeomen, tradesmen, apprentices, servants and the like. Here we have evidence that "intensive reading"—or the rereading of a small group of "classics"—was not necessarily abandoned as "extensive" reading increased. They coexisted and still do.[23] The relatively slight interest of customers in obtaining books from the Clays' circulating library also suggests, in fact, that the notion of extensive reading—a quick perusal for pleasure—was not very attractive among these provincial customers. More attractive was the notion of sharing books. Book clubs, which allowed members both to share and to own books,

were very popular among the Clays' customers; at least nine existed between 1746-81, a few of them for decades. Similarly, a number of customers shared magazine subscriptions; they also ordered and delivered books for one another.

Generally, then, the Clay records bear witness to a flourishing provincial reading community, some of whose members kept in close touch with publishing activity in London largely through advertisements in newspapers. Many of those customers who took the Monthly Review and the Critical Review, for example, did not wait to receive their reviews before ordering books and pamphlets advertised in the Northampton Mercury and elsewhere. Indeed, our preliminary survey suggests that less than half of the books bought by subscribers to the reviews in 1758-59 and 1764-66 were actually reviewed at all during the twelve months before they were purchased. Such subscribers may have used their reviews primarily to keep in touch with informed opinion in London, rather than to guide their purchases of books. In a similar manner, many of the Clays' medical customers—physicians, apothecaries, surgeons, and so forth—obtained medical books almost immediately upon publication in London.[24] What the Clay records show, then, is a provincial community whose links with the London book trade were firm and lively. At a distance of seventy-two miles, the division between town and country was not too great to be crossed. Certainly, the provincial reading public, and the Clay booksellers, behaved as if that distance were negligible.

TABLE: 1: CLAY BUSINESS RECORDS DEPOSITED IN NORTHAMPTONSHIRE RECORD OFFICE

I. DAY BOOKS: Bookselling

                         

PROPRIETOR	DAVENTRY	RUGBY	LUTTERWORTH	WARWICK
John Clay	D64 30 Sep 46-25 Mar 48
bur. 18 Nov 75	D2931 1 July 58-28 Sep 59
	ML692 5 Dec 64-22 Mar 66
	D2930 26 Jan 70-21 Mar 71	D2925 9 Apr 68-11 Aug 70		D2929 8 Aug 70-7 Mar 72
	D7719 28 July 71-5 Feb 72**			(Proprietor, Samuel Clay)
	ML699 11 Mar 73-5 Jan 74
	ML89 4 Jan 74-16 Feb 75
Thomas Clay	ML88 29 Jan 77-18 Dec 77	D4843 1 Mar 77-20 Mar 77	ML694 11 Jul 76-7 Aug 77
bur. 26 Jul 81	ML10 31 Mar 79-12 Sep 80	D7938 7 Aug 79-5 Aug 80	D2926 27 Aug 77-25 Feb 79
		D3400 12 Aug 80-Aug 81	D2928 ?5 Mar 79-22 Feb 81
Samuel Clay		D3400 Aug 81-29 Oct 81
d. 6 Mar 1800		ML478 29 Oct 81-12 Jun 84

II. LEDGERS: Bookselling; Rugby only

• John Clay D3412 1744-64
• John Clay ML691 1764-74
• John and Thomas Clay D2932 1774-81
• Samuel Clay D10297 1781-88[**]

III. OTHERS

• A. Bookselling:
• John and Thomas Clay: D2927, "Country Chapmen," 1742-76; ML689, London Suppliers, 1742-81
• John and Samuel Clay: D2820, Bookbinding, 1763-65
• Thomas Clay: X7555, Cash Book, 1775-80; D6133, Cash Book, 1780-81
• B. Rugby Grocery, Ironmongery:
• William Clay: D3411, Day Book, 1771-72; D5226, Day Book, 1772; ML1247, Ledger, Jan. 71-June 72
• Samuel Clay: ML484, Day Book, 1774-75; ML482, Day Book, 1780-81; D10114, Day Book, 1781-83; D7481, Day Book, 1783-85
• C: Rugby Bank:
• Samuel Clay: D2820, Cash Book, 1788-92

TABLE 2.1: DAVENTRY SALES, TOTALS

                                                               

	OCTOBER	NOVEMBER	DECEMBER	THREE-MONTH TOTALS
GOODS SOLD	£ S D	£ S D	£ S D	£ S D
I. D64: 1746
Printed Matter	13.12. 6	13.12. 7	20.12. 1½	47.17. 2½
Stationery	5.18.11½	8.12. 1	22.17. 8[(a)]	37. 8. 8½[(a)]
Writing Implements	10.11	2. 7	7.10	1. 1. 4
Binding	10. 5	10. 6	14. 3½	1.15. 2½
Medicine	1. 3		1. 3	2. 6
Miscellaneous	4. 4. 1½	3. 8. 8½	2.16. 5	10. 9. 3
Unidentified		1. 6	1. 0	2. 6
TOTAL	24.18. 2	26. 7.11½	47.10. 7[(a)]	98.16. 8½[(a)]
(Stamp duty)	4. 6	7. 6	10.17. 0	12. 9. 0
II. D64: 1747 [(b)]
Printed Matter	38.18. 1[(c)]	25. 8.11	19.10. 8½	83.17. 8½[(c)]
Stationery	5. 4. 2	12. 7. 0	4. 9. 0½	22. 0. 2½
Writing Implements	6.10	10. 3½	7. 7½	1. 4. 9
Binding	2. 7. 4	2. 0	14. 9	3. 4.11
Medicine		1. 3		1. 3
Miscellaneous	4.17. 3	2. 7. 5	2. 4.14¼	9. 9.10¼
Unidentified
TOTAL	51.13. 8[(b)] [(c)]	40.16.10½	27. 7. 3¾	119.17.10¼[(b)] [(c)]
(Stamp duty)	21. 8. 3	7.11. 6	1. 6	29. 1. 3
III. ML10: 1779
Printed Matter	33. 5. 8½	35.15.11[(d)]	21. 1. 8	90. 3. 3½[(d)]
Stationery	16.12. 0½	13.12. 5	12. 3. 5½	42. 7.11
Writing Implements	1.10. 8½	2. 1. 5	1. 1. 2	4.13. 3½
Binding	1. 2. 5	5. 2	1. 5. 6	2.13. 1
Medicine	2. 0		1. 2	3. 2
Miscellaneous	4.14.10	8. 2. 8	1.15. 9	14.13. 3
Unidentified
TOTAL	57. 7. 8½	59.17. 7[(d)]	37. 8. 8½	154.14. 0[(d)]
(Stamp Duty)	20. 4. 0	11. 3. 0	39.12. 6	70.19. 6

TABLE 2.2: ANALYSIS PRINTED MATTER AND STATIONERY SALES, DAVENTRY

                                                               

	OCTOBER	NOVEMBER	DECEMBER	THREE-MONTH TOTALS
GOODS SOLD	£ S D	£ S D	£ S D	£ S D
I. D64: 1746
Books	10.11. 3[(a)]	11.11. 7[(a)]	16. 0. 8½	38. 3. 6½[(a)]
Almanacks		11. 8	1.15. 7	2. 7. 3
Magazines	16. 0	16. 0	16. 0	2. 8. 0
Serials	1.12. 6	5. 0	1. 9. 0	3. 6. 6
Prints, Maps	5. 0	5. 0		10. 0
Printed Forms	4. 6	3. 4	6.10	14. 8
Songs/Music Books			4. 0	4. 0
Reading	3. 3			3. 3
Printed Matter	13.12. 6[(a)]	13.12. 7[(a)]	20.12. 1½	47.17. 2½[(a)]
Paper	4. 4. 9½	7. 2. 1[(b)]	21.11. 5[(c)]	32.18. 3½[(b)] [(c)]
Blank Books	1. 1. 1	15. 4	11. 9	2. 8. 2
Copybooks	1. 6		1. 6	3. 0
Skins	11. 7	14. 8	13. 0	1.19. 3
Stationery	5.18.11½	8.12. 1[(b)]	22.17. 8[(c)]	37. 8. 8½[(b)] [(c)]
II. D64: 1747
Books	30.15. 9	22. 3. 4	11.10.14½	64.10. 3½
Almanacks		8. 1	1. 3. 2	1.11. 3
Magazines	14. 6	14. 6	1. 0. 6	2. 9. 6
Serials	4.10. 0	2. 2. 0	5.11. 0	12. 3. 0
Prints, Maps	2. 4. 0	. 6	1. 6	2. 6. 0
Printed Forms	5.10	. 6	3. 4	9. 8
Songs/Music Books	8. 0			8. 0
Reading
Printed Matter	38.18. 1	25. 8.11	19.10. 8½	83.17. 8½
Paper	4. 8. 3	9. 0. 9[(d)]	2.17. 9½	16. 6. 9½[(d)]
Blank Books	8. 6	1. 0.11	1. 3. 6	2.12.11
Copybooks	1. 6	18. 0	1. 0	1. 0. 6
Skins	5.11	1. 7. 4	6. 9	2. 0. 0
Stationery	5. 4. 2	12. 7. 0[(d)]	4. 9. 0½	22. 0. 2½[(d)]

                             

III. ML10: 1779
Books	26. 3.11	10. 5. 4	11. 9. 0	47.18. 3
Almanacks		18.14. 9[(e)]	3.18. 3	22.13. 0[(e)]
Magazines	4. 9. 0	4. 9. 6	4.12. 0	13.10. 6
Serials	1. 6. 3	1.17. 6	12. 6	3.16. 3
Prints, Maps	1. 6			1. 6
Printed Forms	7. 5	2. 1	5. 3	14. 9
Songs/Music Books	17. 7½	5. 0	4. 8	1. 7. 3½
Reading		1. 9		1. 9
Printed Matter	33. 5. 8½	35.15.11[(e)]	21. 1. 8	90. 3. 3½[(e)]
Paper	6.12.11½	7.18. 6½	5. 8. 0	19.19. 6
Blank Books	2.11. 6	16. 7	4.12. 9	8. 0.10
Copybooks	2. 1. 0	1.10. 0	4. 2	3.15. 2
Skins	5. 6. 7	3. 7. 3½	1.18. 6½	10.12. 5
Stationery	16.12. 0½	13.12. 5	12. 3. 5½	42. 7.11

TABLE 3.1: RUGBY SALES, COMPARISON OF DATA, D2925

                                                   

	FEATHER:		FERGUS AND PORTNER:
	OCTOBER	1768	OCTOBER	1768	DECEMBER	1768
	subtotal	totals	subtotal	totals	subtotal	totals
GOODS SOLD	£ S D	£ S D	£ S D	£ S D	£ S D	£ S D
Books	3.13. 6		4. 1. 1		18. 8
Almanacks	n/a				11. 7
Magazines	n/a
Serials	n/a		12. 6		9. 6
Prints, Maps	4. 0		4. 0
Printed Forms	1. 1. 4		1. 0
Songs	n/a
Reading	n/a		0. 3
Printed Matter		4.18.10		4.18.10		1.19. 9
Paper	11.12. 0		1.17. 2		15. 0
Blank Books	1.11		1.11		17. 6
Copy Books	n/a				3. 0
Skins	n/a		2. 4. 5		1.13. 9
Stationery		11.13.11		4. 3. 6		3. 9. 3
Writing Implements		10. 8		15. 9		5. 1½
Binding		12. 4		12. 4
Medicine		3. 2		7. 0		4. 9
Miscellaneous		13. 5		8. 2		2. 2
Unidentified		7. 3		1. 3
TOTAL		18.19. 7		11. 6.10		6. 1. 0½
Stamps		n/a		8.19. 6		4. 0. 0
GRAND TOTAL		18.19. 7		20. 6. 4		10. 1. 0½

TABLE 3.2: LUTTERWORTH SALES, COMPARISON OF DATA, D2926

                                                   

	FEATHER:		FERGUS AND PORTNER:
	OCTOBER	1778	OCTOBER	1778	DECEMBER	1778
	subtotal	totals	subtotal	totals	subtotal	totals
GOODS SOLD	£ S D	£ S D	£ S D	£ S D	£ S D	£ S D
Books	5.17. 0		5. 4. 6		2.17. 7
Almanacks	n/a				2. 1
Magazines	n/a
Serials	n/a		12. 6		9. 6
Prints, Maps	0. 7		0. 7
Printed Forms	2. 4. 0		2. 0		5. 2
Songs	n/a		0. 1½		4. 6
Reading	n/a		0. 6
Printed Matter		8. 1. 7		6. 0. 2½		3.18. 0
Paper	6. 8. 2		1.18. 3		1. 3. 3
Blank Books	6. 2				5. 0
Copy Books	n/a		6. 0		1. 5
Skins	n/a		1. 5. 8		1. 9. 6
Stationery		6.14. 4		3.10. 7		2.19. 2
Writing Implements		2. 1½		4. 7½		9. 7½
Binding		2. 0		0. 2		6. 9
Medicine		7. 6				1. 0
Miscellaneous		1.10. 5		1.15.11		4. 3
Unidentified		1.11				5. 3
TOTAL		16.19.10½		11.11. 6		8. 4.10½
Stamps		n/a		7. 8. 0		5. 6. 6
GRAND TOTAL		16.19.10½		18.19. 6		13.11. 4½

Notes