PRINCE, John Henry. The Life, Pedestrian Excursions and singular opinions of J.H. Prince, bookseller. London, printed for J.H.Prince, Red Lion Square Holborn. 1806 First edition. Stipple engraved portrait frontispiece. Large 12 mo. Collates [xii] 13-240 (complete). Some offsetting on to title, some foxing and staining, lightly browned, grey paper covered boards and paper spine and label in imitation of original publisher’s boards. Apparently rare in commerce, and not common elsewhere with Library hub listing two holdings at Edinburgh and Liverpool University Libraries , WorldCat adds the British Library and only seven copies in Canada and U.S.A.
DNB has the following :
“PRINCE, JOHN HENRY (fl. 1818), author, born on 21 May 1770 in the parish of St. Mary, Whitechapel, was son of George Prince, originally of Dursley, Gloucestershire, by his wife, Dorothy Dixon. He was educated in the charity school of St. Mary's, Whitechapel; he started life as errand boy to a tallow-chandler, and eventually, about 1790, became clerk to an attorney in Carey Street, Lincoln's Inn. Dismissed after three years' service, he entered another office, and a year later became secretary to a retired solicitor, who gave him access to an excellent library. His weekly salary was only half a guinea, but he deemed it sufficient to maintain a wife, and was married on 29 May 1794. One child, a daughter, was the fruit of this union. From 1796, when an essay from his pen ‘On Detraction and Calumny’ appeared in the ‘Lady's Magazine,’ he began to turn out articles and pamphlets on the most varied subjects. He left his patron in 1797, and served with several firms of solicitors. Besides his literary and legal work, he found time to act for a while as minister of Bethesda Chapel—a methodist congregation—and was prominent in debating societies, such as the London and Westminster Forums. A religious organisation of his own, of a methodistical type, had a short-lived existence. In1813 he was living at Islington (Gent. Mag. 1813, ii. 18), and in 1818 he published a small legal treatise on conveyancing. The date of his death is unknown. He wrote, besides ephemeral tracts including three letters (1801–2) attacking Joseph Proud [q. v.]: 1. ‘A Defence of the People denominated Methodists,’ London, 1797, 8vo. 2. ‘Original Letters and Essays on moral and entertaining Subjects,’ 1797, 8vo. 3. ‘Observations on the Act for Incorporating the London Company, including Remarks on the Dearness of Bread, and on Monopoly, Forestalling, and Regrating,’ 4th edit. 1802, 8vo. 4. ‘The Christian's Duty to God and the Constitution at all Times, but especially at this critical Juncture,’ 1804, 8vo, 3rd edit. 5. ‘Remarks on the best Method of barring Dower,’ 1805, 8vo (republished, with additions, 1807). 6. ‘The Life, Pedestrian Excursions, and singular opinions of J. H. P., Bookseller… Written by himself,’ 1806, 8vo. 7. ‘Original Precedents in Conveyancing, with Notes and Directions for drawing or settling Conveyances,’ 1818, 8vo.”.
