Richard Phillips (publisher)

Phillips was born in London on 13 December 1767. He attended schools in Soho Square and Chiswick; in ''A Morning's Walk From London to Kew'', Phillips reminisces on his time at Chiswick, noting the distinctive school bells. Phillips' education was funded by his uncle, and he was initially encouraged to take over his uncle's proprietorship of the Lion Brewery in Soho. Unfortunately, due to poor economic and trade conditions in London, Phillips ended his stay and moved back home to his parents' farm. Phillips then moved out of his family's farm and into his own ground floor room in Leicester. From there, Phillips worked as schoolteacher where he taught children spelling, reading, writing, and arithmetic. Eventually, Phillips became unsatisfied with the profits and general expectations with his role as a teacher and quit to set up a hosiery line in a small shop. Phillips began The Leicester Herald in May 1792 after concluding that politics was a profitable sector due to its widespread appeal; the herald continued until April 1795. ==Trial and imprisonment==

On 6 December 1792, a copy of Thomas Paine’s Rights of Man, Part Second, was sold at Phillips’ Leicester bookshop by his shopman, Henry Popplewell. The book was sold to a shoemaker, James Jackson, who had been contracted by the Leicester prosecution and the town-clerk William Heyrick to purchase a copy of Rights of Man specifically from Phillips’ shop. On 18 December 1792, Thomas Paine underwent trial, in absentia, for seditious libel and was found guilty. At the 18 January 1793 session of the Leicester Borough Court, three different indictments were brought against Phillips, including one for the sale of Charles Pigott's Jockey Club and two for the sale of Paine's Rights of Man. Phillips was taken to the court by a warrant and made to pay £1200 bail. Phillips’ trial began on 12 April 1793, and concluded with his sentencing at the Leicester Borough Court on 13 April 1793. Phillips was found guilty of selling the second part of Rights of Man and the second part of Jockey Club, but he was acquitted on his third indictment due to a defect in the evidence. According to Phillips’ and Popplewell's affidavits from 13 April 1793, both men maintain that they were not aware of any legal notice or proclamation that Paine's Rights of Man or Pigott's Jockey Club were considered libellous. Phillips and Popplewell both stated that they believed Rights of Man could be easily found and purchased at all other Leicester book sellers until after Paine's 18 December verdict. Phillips enjoyed a friendly relationship with Lambert, and as a result was permitted to continue with his work and receive several notable visitors, including Lord Moira and Charles Howard, 11th Duke of Norfolk. ==Return to London and publishing career==

On 18 November 1795, a nearby fire on Gallowtree Gate reached Phillips' property, destroying all of his books and papers. Following the fire and experiencing some political difficulties in Leicester (being imprisoned in 1792 for selling Thomas Paine's Rights of Man), he returned to London, established premises in Paternoster Row, St. Paul's Churchyard, and founded The Monthly Magazine in 1796; its editor was Dr. John Aikin, and among its early contributors were fellow radicals William Godwin and Thomas Holcroft. In 1796, Phillips married Elizabeth Griffiths, a milliner's employee and the daughter of Captain John Griffiths of Tenby. The couple had several children together, including their sons Alfred and Richard, and their daughters, Elizabeth, Laura, and Emily. Phillips built up a prominent fortune based on the speculative commission of newly revised textbooks and their publication, in a competitive market that had been freed by the House of Lords' decision in 1777 to strike down the perpetual copyright asserted by a small group of London booksellers to standard introductory works. His Juvenile Library published in 1800–03 provided the steady returns of all successful children's books. By 1807, Phillips was in sufficient standing to serve as a Sheriff of London, and was knighted on 30 May 1808 on the occasion of presenting an address to King George III. In 1808, Phillips and his co-Sheriff, Christopher Smith, founded the Sheriff's Fund to provide financial and material assistance to prisoners and their families or dependents. Donations were primarily collected through poor boxes and allowed prisoners to purchase clothing, food, coal, candles, and other necessities. In the early hours of 29 July 1810, a fire was discovered in Hanging Sword Alley at the printing office of Mr. Thomas Gillet, which printed and housed some of Phillips stock. Flames destroyed five homes in the surrounding alley, as well as the entirety of Phillips’ valuable stock of books and documents. Popular periodicals such as The Satirist, or Monthly Meteor and The Scourge, or, Monthly Expositor of Imposture and Folly discussed the Gillet fire and its connection to Phillips; one of Phillips’ creditors anonymous submitted a letter to The Scourge detailing his suspicion that Gillet orchestrated the fire to commit insurance fraud. Another of the contributors to Phillips's Monthly Magazine was the Scottish novelist John Galt. Angela Esterhammer has suggested that the character Masano, an irascible Italian printer in Galt's Andrew of Padua, the Improvisatore (1820), is based on Phillips. ==Retirement and death==

. In 1823, Phillips sold one third of his successful literary properties, retired to Brighton, and continued to work on several reference books. His Million of Facts was published in 1825, followed by the commencement of his Golden Rules of Social Philosophy series in 1826. Phillips overextended himself and was declared bankrupt in the Bank Panic; two different banks, both with connections to Phillips, collapsed on the same day, resulting in a devastating financial loss for Phillips between £40-50,000. Although Phillips swiftly traveled to London in an attempt to mitigate his loss, it is understood that he mainly blamed the Ministry and Parliament rather than his debtors. Phillips died in Brighton on 2 April 1840, The following is inscribed on his tomb: ==Vegetarianism==

Phillips was a vegetarian beginning at age nine and practiced the lifestyle for upwards of sixty-six years until his death. In an 1837 letter written for a friend in Yorkshire, Phillips describes that his apprehension for animal foods began when he accidentally witnessed a public slaughterhouse in 1780 around age nine. Phillips' family was not receptive to his new diet, and though futile, had attempted to coerce him into eating animal foods by depriving a young Phillips of many things. This list would be republished in other texts, notably Phillips' The Monthly Magazine, and an expanded twenty-two reasons in his Golden Rules of Social Philosophy (1826). According to his list of reasons, Phillips advocated for vegetarianism due to the suffering and cruelty against animals at the hands of humans, especially since he considered animals as sentient beings equal to humans. In line with his politics of progress, Phillips additionally considered that the killing and consumption of animals posed as a barrier to the growth of a civilised society, because he associated the consumption of animal products with barbaric and uncivilised peoples. Phillips believed a plant based diet was a just alternative to eating animals as he did not consider plants to be sensitive beings which could feel pain when harvested. Further, Phillips recommended the consumption of plant foods for health benefits and because it emphasised one's self-control and morality. Vegetarianism in the Romantic-era was a growing movement and Phillips involved himself in the same social circle of prominent vegetarian figures such as Percy Shelley. As a publisher, Phillips contributed to the movement by publishing notable works of vegetarian authors such as Joseph Ritson's An Essay on Abstinence from Animal Food, as a Moral Duty in 1802. Phillips' own works on vegetarianism were taken seriously and often quoted by other vegetarians, as seen in an article by William Alcott in The American Vegetarian and Health Journal. Phillips’ belief that vegetarianism could solve the United Kingdom's concern towards food supply and overpopulation was also quoted in multiple articles written for publications such as The Aberdeen Journal and The Westmorland Gazette. On the contrary, Phillips’ friend William Cobbett criticised Phillips and the vegetarian movement primarily due to the hypocrisy of those who claimed to be against animal suffering. Cobbett highlights that despite Phillips’ strict diet abstaining from animal flesh, Phillps still participated in animal cruelty by making use of animal skins for his shoes and the books he sold, as well as the feathers of a fowl to write with a quill. == Reputation ==

Phillips was widely recognised as a prolific publisher who received support, but also controversy for his radical politics. Phillips was labelled as a "dirty little jacobin" and was often the target of conservative competitors. Despite his political controversies, Phillips’ work and literary contributions earned him a fair reputation as a person of importance, who has yet to receive the recognition he deserves. As a publisher, Phillips was known for the large output of books he printed yearly, particularly in the school market where multiple editions of books were sold. Following his accomplishments, some developed the opinion that Phillips’ great qualities had become spoiled by his success. While Phillips received recognition and praise for his impactful work as a publisher, his personal written works, such as attempts in expanding scientific theories, faced some criticism. Responding to Phillips’ scientific effort and anti-Newtonian theories, mathematician Augustus De Morgan notes that in spite of Phillips' honesty, zeal, ability, and courage, his uninformed ideas will leave him poorly remembered. ==Works==

Phillips was the author, under his own name, of On the Powers and Duties of Juries, and on the Criminal Laws of England, 1811; ''A Morning's Walk from London to Kew, 1817; A Personal Tour Through the United Kingdom'', 1828. Many of his further works were published under at least five pseudonyms including, as Rev. David Blair for An Easy Grammar of Natural and Experimental Philosophy (first ed. 1807) and A Grammar of Chemistry (first ed. 1810). Due to his radical and controversial reputation, Phillips had to utilize pseudonyms to publish many of his school books. Phillips also contributed anti-government pieces to The Monthly Magazine under the pseudonym Common Sense, following his release from prison for selling Thomas Paine's Rights of Man. Additionally, under the pseudonym Common Sense, Phillips published multiple attempts to confute Newton's theory of gravity in The Monthly Magazine. Phillips was responsible for publishing The Juvenile Library (1800-1803), a periodical which was also published under the names The Monthly Preceptor and the Juvenile Encyclopedia. The periodical aimed to provide useful information for school-age children, covering a range of subjects including—but not limited to—natural philosophy, ancient and modern history, and botany. While not all of Phillips’ school books were explicitly political, the contents of The Juvenile Library was deliberately organized to include a liberal voice. The publication had a cost of one shilling and sixpence per number, limiting it to a middle-class readership, as well as to tutors and governesses for the wealthy. A notable feature of the periodical was the involvement of children, specifically through their essays in response to prize questions, translations of various prose, and submissions of original poetry. The magazine also received submissions from children who would later become notable figures, such as Leigh Hunt, George Ormerod, and Thomas De Quincey. His own political leanings, evinced in Golden Rules of Social Philosophy, Or, A New System of Practical Ethics (1826) encouraged him to publish works by the radical jobbing writer of educational texts, Jeremiah Joyce, though often under pseudonymous disguises; Rees and Britten asserted in their Reminiscences of Literary London that many works were written by Phillips and attributed to well-known writers, who oversaw the proofs and put their names to the manuscripts, for remuneration. Joyce was the actual author of Gregory's Encyclopedia published by Phillips. • ''Sir Richard Phillips's Reasons for Not Eating Animal Food, Or Any Thing that Has Enjoyed Sensitive Life'' (1814) • Golden Rules of Social Philosophy, Or, A New System of Practical Ethics (1826) • A Million of Facts: Connected with the Studies, Pursuits, and Interests of Mankind, Serving as a Common-place Book of Useful Reference on All Subjects of Research and Curiosity (1835) • A Million of Facts of: Correct Data and Elementary Information Concerning the Entire Circle of the Sciences, and on All Subjects of Speculation and Practice (1839) Selected works published by Phillips • The British Nepos (1798) by William Fordyce Mavor • Pizarro (1799) and The Virgin of the Sun (1799) by August von Kotzebue • An Historical Account of the Discovery and Education of a Savage Man (1802) by Jean Marc Gaspard Itard • A Tale of Mystery (1802) and Hear Both Sides (1803) by Thomas Holcroft • Poems (1805) by Laura Sophia Temple • Virtuous poverty (1804) and The maid, wife, and widow (1806) by Henry Siddons • The Novice of Saint Dominick (1805) and The Wild Irish Girl (1806) by Sydney Owenson (Lady Morgan) • ''The Farmer's Calendar'' (1809) by Arthur Young • A voyage of discovery to the Strait of Magellan (1820) by José de Vargas Ponce • A voyage round the world, between the years 1816-1819 (1823) by Camille de Roquefeuil ==References==