Author: NEWBERY, Francis
Biography:
NEWBERY, Francis (1743-1818: ODNB)
Born at Reading on 6 July 1743 and baptized there at St Laurence church on 10 July, he was the only son of John Newbery (1713-1767) and his wife, Mary Carnan (1706/7-1780). A seller of patent medicines at the Bible and Sun, 65 St Paul’s Churchyard, London, his father published a daily newspaper, the Public Register, and books by Oliver Goldsmith and Samuel Johnson (qq.v.). He also was a pioneering publisher of children’s books, including The History of Little Goody Two-Shoes (the Newbery medal is named for him). Francis was educated at local schools, at Merchant Taylor’s School, and at Trinity College and Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge (no degree). In 1765 he set up as a bookseller at the Bible and Crown, Paternoster Row (formerly owned by his mother’s first husband). He partnered from 1770 with his cousin Thomas Carnan at the address of his father’s old business. (He is sometimes confused with his cousin Francis Newbery, a bookseller and publisher of children’s books at St Paul’s Churchyard and Ludgate Street.) Following the dissolution of his partnership with Carnan, in July 1799 he commenced business as a seller of patent medicines at 45 St Paul’s Churchyard. His patents included “Dr James’s fever powder,” an overdose of which may have killed Goldsmith. He gained additional income as a tax commissioner and, from Mar. 1810, from his retail-wholesale medicine warehouse at 29 Dame Street, Dublin. At the time of his marriage, on 29 May 1770, to Mary (1748-1820), daughter of the Gloucester Sunday School pioneer Robert Raikes, he was resident in St James’s parish, Bath. They had six sons, John, William, George, Francis, Thomas Raikes, and Charles, and two daughters, Charlotte and Mary. His daughter Mary, who in 1805 died in childbirth, was the second wife of post office administrator Sir Francis Freeling. His sons Francis and George were officers in the British army. From the immense profits of his medicine business, in 1791 he purchased 350-acre Heathfield Park in Sussex and its 1,750-acre estate. He died at Heathfield on 7 Aug 1818 (not 17 July, as in ODNB) and was buried there on 14 Aug. In his will, he left his wife and children a share in GM, his medicinal patents, several properties and businesses, and more than £23,000 in cash and securities. (ODNB 1 July 2023; ancestry.com 1 July 2023; Limerick Gazette, 20 July 1810) JC