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John Dunton
John Dunton (4 May 1659 – 1733) was an English bookseller and writer. In 1691 he founded The Athenian Society to publish The Athenian Mercury, the first major popular periodical and first miscellaneous periodical in England. In 1693, for four weeks, the Athenian Society also published The Ladies' Mercury, the first periodical published that was specifically designed just for women.
His father, grandfather and great-grandfather were all clergymen. He was born at Graffham, Huntingdonshire, where his father John was rector. The family shortly moved to Ireland, when John Dunton senior became chaplain to Sir Henry Ingoldsby. At the age of fifteen John the son was apprenticed to Thomas Parkhurst, bookseller, at the sign of the Bible and Three Crowns, Cheapside, London. Dunton ran away at once, but was soon brought back, and began to love books.
During the struggle which led to the Glorious Revolution of 1688, Dunton was the treasurer of the Whig apprentices. He became a bookseller at the sign of the Raven, near the Royal Exchange, and married Elizabeth Annesley, daughter of Samuel Annesley, whose sister married Samuel Wesley. His wife managed his business so that he was left free in a great measure to follow his own eccentric devices. He had early success with Thomas Doolittle's The Lord's last-sufferings, the topical Stephen Jay's Daniel in the Den, and a sermon by John Shower.
In 1686, probably because he was concerned in the Monmouth Rebellion, he visited New England, where he stayed eight months selling books and observing with interest the new country and its inhabitants. He sailed from Gravesend in October 1685, and reached Boston after a four months' voyage. He sold his books, and visited Cambridge. In Roxbury he saw the missionary John Eliot and learnt something of Native American customs. He stayed for a time at Salem and Wenham, and returned to England in the autumn of 1686.
Dunton had become security for his brother's debts, and to escape the creditors he made a short excursion to Holland.
On his return to England, he opened a new shop in London in the Poultry, in the hope of better times. Here, he founded in 1691 a new kind of journal, The Athenian Gazette/The Athenian Mercury, with anonymous questions-and-answers, powered by his Athenian Society. His wife died in 1697, and he married a second time; but a quarrel about property led to a separation; and being incapable of managing his own affairs, he spent the last years of his life in great poverty.
Dunton received a rather backhanded compliment from Jonathan Swift in the latter's A Tale of A Tub (see p. 38 of text in 1st edition of 1704).
Dunton both complimented and derided his contemporary Ned Ward, praising him as 'truly born a poet, not made, not form'd by industry' but also criticized him as 'a hardened impudent rake' when Dunton mistakenly thought Ward ridiculed him in print.
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John Dunton
John Dunton (4 May 1659 – 1733) was an English bookseller and writer. In 1691 he founded The Athenian Society to publish The Athenian Mercury, the first major popular periodical and first miscellaneous periodical in England. In 1693, for four weeks, the Athenian Society also published The Ladies' Mercury, the first periodical published that was specifically designed just for women.
His father, grandfather and great-grandfather were all clergymen. He was born at Graffham, Huntingdonshire, where his father John was rector. The family shortly moved to Ireland, when John Dunton senior became chaplain to Sir Henry Ingoldsby. At the age of fifteen John the son was apprenticed to Thomas Parkhurst, bookseller, at the sign of the Bible and Three Crowns, Cheapside, London. Dunton ran away at once, but was soon brought back, and began to love books.
During the struggle which led to the Glorious Revolution of 1688, Dunton was the treasurer of the Whig apprentices. He became a bookseller at the sign of the Raven, near the Royal Exchange, and married Elizabeth Annesley, daughter of Samuel Annesley, whose sister married Samuel Wesley. His wife managed his business so that he was left free in a great measure to follow his own eccentric devices. He had early success with Thomas Doolittle's The Lord's last-sufferings, the topical Stephen Jay's Daniel in the Den, and a sermon by John Shower.
In 1686, probably because he was concerned in the Monmouth Rebellion, he visited New England, where he stayed eight months selling books and observing with interest the new country and its inhabitants. He sailed from Gravesend in October 1685, and reached Boston after a four months' voyage. He sold his books, and visited Cambridge. In Roxbury he saw the missionary John Eliot and learnt something of Native American customs. He stayed for a time at Salem and Wenham, and returned to England in the autumn of 1686.
Dunton had become security for his brother's debts, and to escape the creditors he made a short excursion to Holland.
On his return to England, he opened a new shop in London in the Poultry, in the hope of better times. Here, he founded in 1691 a new kind of journal, The Athenian Gazette/The Athenian Mercury, with anonymous questions-and-answers, powered by his Athenian Society. His wife died in 1697, and he married a second time; but a quarrel about property led to a separation; and being incapable of managing his own affairs, he spent the last years of his life in great poverty.
Dunton received a rather backhanded compliment from Jonathan Swift in the latter's A Tale of A Tub (see p. 38 of text in 1st edition of 1704).
Dunton both complimented and derided his contemporary Ned Ward, praising him as 'truly born a poet, not made, not form'd by industry' but also criticized him as 'a hardened impudent rake' when Dunton mistakenly thought Ward ridiculed him in print.