The William Hone BioText

a biography, bibliography, and etext archive

• Early June, Gordon House Riots
• Major Cartwright founds Society for Constitutional Information

• 3 June, Hone born in Bath
• 26 August, Hone baptized, parish of St. James, City of Bath

• Sister born to William Hone; she died in infancy

• 2 April, Fox-North Coalition formed under Duke of Portland
• 15 August, Duke of Richmond's letter to Sharman (a blueprint for parliamentary reform), later republished by Hone

• Hone family moves to London, taking lodgings in Grafton Street; Hone begins his London childhood and his reading.
• 30 December, Joseph Hone (William's brother) born

• Wilberforce establishes the Proclamation Society, precursor to the Society for the Suppression of Vice
• Committee for the Abolition of the Slave Trade established

• 14 July, Fall of the Bastille signals start of the French Revolution

• Hone hears of French Revolution, but doesn't know what "revolution" means

• In France, Robespierre and the Jacobins in power; royal family captured in escape attempt

• Anti-Jacobin riots in Birmingham

• In France, Royal family arrested; September massacres; Abolition of monarchy and trial of Louis XVI.

• Hone takes first "job" as "factotum" for solicitor in Bishopsgate Street, beginning a stressful entry into public and political life.
• Hone has broadsheet called "The Contrast" privately printed, with poem on the English Constitution.
• 6 December, Hone watches as bookseller Thomas Spence is arrested on charges of sedition.

• 23 January, Luis XVI executed
• France declares war on England
• 16 October, Marie Antoinette executed
• Reign of Terror lasts into 1794

• Hardy, Horne Tooke, and Thelwall on trial for High Treason
• Habeas Corpus suspended in Britain

• Directory established as new government in Paris
• Speenhamland Act provides poor relief in Great Britain, linking relief to price of bread

• Napoleon consolidates power, marries Josephine, and begins Italian campaign.

• Hone's reading of Watson's Apology generates (or at least confirms) his growing religious skepticism.
• Hone's increasingly radical political leanings lead him to join the London Corresponding Society.

• At his father's urging, Hone moves to Chatham, where he takes position as clerk in a solicitor's office
• Hone publishes a sonnet in a style reminiscent of Charlotte Smith.

• Nelson defeats French fleet in Battle of the Nile
• Irish Rebellion--as many as 25,000 dead as British forces crush the rebellion.
• Wordsworth and Coleridge publish Lyrical Ballads.

• Hone returns to London; takes lodgings in Southwark

• Stanhope patents iron-frame printing press

• 19 July, Hone marries Sarah Johnson, the daughter of his landlady.
• Hone opens small stationery shop and circulating library in Southwark

• 1 January, Union with Ireland takes effect
• 1 October, Truce with France initiates the 14-month "Peace of Amiens"

• 20 July, daughter Sarah born

• 5 April, daughter Fanny born

• April, Pitt once again established as Prime Minister
• 18 May, Napoleon declares himself Emperor
• 12 December, Spain declares war on England

• Hone edits Charles Millington's The Housekeeper's Domestic Library, published by M. Jones, 1805

• Austria, Russian, Sweden, and Britain form coalition against France and Spain
• 21 October, Battle of Trafalgar, Nelson defeats Franco-Spanish fleet

• Hone working as bookkeeper for E. Lowton, a hop factor in Southwark
• 26 July, daughter Matilda born

• French wars against Prussia, Russia; Napoleon puts European Continent off-limits to British trade

• With John Bone, a former LCS operative, Hone establishes a combination savings bank and annuity plan called "Tranquillity". The two publish an account of the plan.

• Slave trade banned throughout British empire

• "Tranquillity" plan collapses
• Hone and Bone take over J. S. Jordan bookshop, 331 Strand
• Son William born (possibly 1808)

• French invasion of Spain leads to Peninsular War between British and French
• Convention of Cintra; French leave Portugal
• Leigh and John Hunt establish The Examiner

• 28 December, Bone and Hone augment their book stocks with a £233 purchase at bookseller's auction at Queen's Arms.

• Byron, English Bards and Scotch Reviewers
• Quarterly Review established

• Bone and Hone issue catalogue of over 2400 older books, some dating from 16th century

• Wellesley (the Duke of Wellington) defeats French at Salamanca

• 2 January, son Alfred born
• June, working with Francis Place and others, Hone helps organize celebration of Sir Francis Burdett's release from prison
• 16 October, Bone and Hone declared bankrupt

• Regency begins as Prince of Wales assumes throne due to George III's insanity
• Luddite riots in Nottingham

• Hone becomes an "auctioneer to the book trades" with premises in Ivy Lane.

• French invasion of Russia proves disastrous for both sides
• War of 1812 between Britain and U.S.
• Perceval assasinated
• Byron, Childe Harold, I and II

• 2 April, son John born

• Austen, Pride and Prejudice
• Southey becomes poet laureate
• Leigh and John Hunt imprisoned for libel against the Prince Regent
• P. B. Shelley, Queen Mab

• June, Through the Spectacle Makers' Company, Hone purchases his Freedom of the City, listing profession as "Ivy Lane Bookseller"
• Working with Robert Waithman, James Bevans, and Edward Wakefield, Hone devises plan for the improvement of insane asylums.

• Defeat of France; Napoleon banished to Elba
• Treaty of Ghent ends War of 1812

• January, Hone begins editorship of Critical Review
• 14 March, daughter Emma born
• December, Hone family move into small house adjoining Hone's bookselling shop at 55 Fleet Street

• Passage of Corn Laws in England, amidst considerable public unrest
• Napoleon enters Paris, beginning the "Hundred Days" 
• 18 June, Napoleon's forces defeated at Waterloo by Allied forces under Wellesley (Duke of Wellington)

• March, Hone witnesses shooting of Edward Vyse in Old Burlington Street; later he publishes an account of the inquest.
• Hone publishes broadside version of Buoneparte-phobia, a satirical attack on Robert Stoddart of The Times.
• June, Hone removed from position as editor of Critical Review
• August, Hone publishes several accounts of the trial of Elizabeth Fenning. La Pie Voleuse, often called The Maid and the Magpie, sells very well.

• Post-war economic depression in Britain (through 1820)
• 2 December, Spa Fields Riots

• 14 June, daughter Charlotte born (dies 1817)
• Publishes Hone's Interesting History of the Memorable Blood Conspiracy..., which sets forth the rationale for Hone's radical publishing.
• Autumn, Hone publishes several satirical accounts of Prince Regent's extravagance—e.g. Hone's View of the Regent's Bomb and A Yacht for the R____t's B_M_.
• October, Opens bookselling shop at 67 Old Bailey; Hone also maintains shop at 55 Fleet Street
• December, Hone publishers journalistic reports of the Spa Fields uprising.

• 4 March, Suspension of Habeas Corpus initiates government crackdown on radical activity
• 27 March, Home Secretary (Lord Sidmouth) issues "circular letter" encouraging vigilance over and summary arrests of radical publishers
• June, T. J. Wooler, publisher of Black Dwarf, tried on libel charges
• 6 November, Death of Princess Charlotte
• November, Portsea printer James Williams tried and found guilty of libel for issuing Hone's parodies

• Late January, early February, Hone publishes four liturgical parodies: The Bullet Te Deum, The Political Litany, The Sinecurist's Creed, and The Late John Wilkes's Catechism
• Late January, with assistance from Francis Place, begins publication of The Reformists' Register which continues weekly until October.
• 3 May, arrested and held in prison on blasphemous and seditious libel charges.
• 2 July, released from prison.
• Late November, notified of forthcoming trials by the Attorney General.
• 18, 19, 20 December, three consecutive trials lead to three consecutive acquittals; Hone becomes celebrity as a result.

• 28 January, Habeas Corpus restored 
• 1 June, Motion for Parliamentary Reform defeated

• With moneys raised by public subscription, Hone takes new premises at Ludgate Hill; publishes little more than accounts of his trials.
• Announces plans to compile and write a History of Parody, a project that occupied Hone for several years but that never came to fruition.
• 27 August, daughter Rose born
• Hone spends much time reading antiquarian materials in British Library.

• 16 August, "Peterloo" massacre in Manchester
• November, Prince Regent calls special session of Parliament to pass the "Six Acts"—a set of restrictive measures on public meetings, radical publishers, etc.
• Keats writes several of his celebrated Odes

• February: Hone and Cruikshank publish the Bank Note—Not to be imitated! and the Bank Restriction Barometer.
• February: Hone publishes Hazlitt's Political Essays.
• In response to John Murray's anonymous publication of the first two cantos of Byron's Don Juan, Hone writes and publishes 'Don John,' or Don Juan Unmasked (an attack on Murray) and Don Juan, Canto the Third! (a spurious continuation of Byron's poem).
• Hone and Cruikshank publish The Political House that Jack Built in response to Peterloo. The pamphlet is extremely popular, running through many editions.

• 29 January, at the death of George III, the Prince Regent becomes King George IV.
• February: Cato Street Conspiracy results eventually in several executions.
• August: Trial of Queen Caroline begins in Parliament. She becomes a symbol of anti-monarchy sentiment (and the focus of several Hone publications) and is largely cleared of the charges.

• Hone and Cruikshank produce several popular illustrated pamphlets, including The Man in the Moon (January), The Queen's Matrimonial Ladder, Non Mi Ricordo!, and others.
• 9 May, son Samuel Parr Hone is born.
• Hone publishes The Apocryphal New Testament, a work that was very harshly criticized in the conservative press, particularly in Murray's Quarterly Review.

• 23 February, Keats dies in Rome.
• 7 August, Queen Caroline dies.

• February: Hone publishes The Right Divine of Kings to Govern Wrong!, an abbreviated, and often re-written version of Defoe's Jure Divino (1706) and The Spirit of Despotism, a political work by Vicesimus Knox orginally published in 1795.
• Hone and Cruikshank publish two more illustrated satires: The Political Showman--At Home! and A Slap at Slop and the Bridge Street Gang.

• July: Leigh Hunt goes to Italy to join Byron and Shelley, but Shelley drowns on 8 July.

• 31 March, daughter Ellen born.

• Lamb publishes his Essays of Elia.

• Hone publishes his Ancient Mysteries Described, an antiquarian work focusing on mystery plays.

• Byron dies in Greece.

• Hone publishes two polemical works defending his antiquarian publications (Apocryphal New Testament and Ancient Mysteries Described) from scurrilous reviews in The Quarterly: Aspersions Answered and Another Article for the Quarterly.
• Hone begins to collect materials in preparation for the Every-Day Book.

• January 1: Hone begins publication of the Every-Day Book in weekly numbers. Sales quickly exceed supplies; Hone working feverishly to supply the copy for each week, but falls increasingly behind.
• 8 December, daughter Alice born.

• Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge is founded.
• Amid nation-wide economic difficulties, the Liverpool administration collapses.

• April: Hone declared bankrupt, but manages to protect copyrights of the Every-Day Book from creditors.
• Hone remanded to the Rules of King's Bench prison until his debts are paid.
• Weekly numbers of the Every-Day Book end with December 31.

• Canning becomes Prime Minister; instability in government makes parliamentary reform look like a possibility.

• Publishes Facetiae and Miscellanies, essentially left-over stock from his publishing business bound together into a single volume.
• Publishes The Table Book, another antiquarian miscellany, with remaining materials from the Every-Day Book and many contributions from Charles Lamb.
• William Hone(son, b. 1807), a member of the royal Navy, found dead in his bunk. Alfred Hone (son, b. 1810) was run over by a carriage in the Strand—fractured skull, but, against all odds, gradually recovered.

• April: Repeal of Corporation and Test Acts—loosened constraints so that dissenters and Catholics could hold public office.

• Hone editing Strutt's Sports (published in 1830).

• Roman Catholic Relief Act passes parliament.

• April: Hone offers assistance to Southey who is engaged in writing a Life of Bunyan; Southey, appreciative, later thanks Hone in acknowledgements.
• November, December: Hone traveling in the midlands, Manchester, Liverpool, and elsewhere hoping to raise enough money for his planned coffeehouse.

• William IV becomes king.
• Tennyson publishes Poems, Chiefly Lyrical.

• January/February: Hone visits John and Robert Childs in Bungay (a frequent occurence from the 1820s through the '30's).
• June: Grasshopper Coffeehouse finally opens in Gracechurch Street.

• 12 February, William Hone, Hone's father, dies; buried Bunhill Fields.
• October-December: Hone in Warwickshire visiting Joseph Parkes and other Birmingham activists.
• Hone busy with materials for the Year Book.

• Great Reform Act passes parliament, greatly expands electorate and diminishes influence of the "rotten boroughs." Though the Act confirms many of his earlier political stands, Hone indifferent.

• The Year Book, the last of Hone's antiquarian miscellanies, is published by Thomas Tegg.

• Slavery Abolition Act made slavery illegal throughout the British Empire--following a period of forced "apprenticeship" that would last until 1838.

• 22 April, Frances Maria (Stawell) Hone, Hone's mother, dies; buried Bunhill Fields.
• July: After another debilitation stroke, Hone closes The Grasshopper coffeehouse, moves to small cottage at Peckham Rye Common.
• Hone increasingly interested in formal religion. Begins attendance at Weigh House Chapel.

• 3 June: Hone writes lyric about his religious conversion: "The proudest heart."
• 30 December: Hone, together with many members of his family, admitted to the congregation of the Weigh House Chapel.

• Hone spends February with Childs trying, at Binney's request, to write autobiographical pamphlet.
• Hone begins work as sub-editor for The Patriot, a prominent national newspaper for the dissenters.

• Church Rates controversy reaches a crisis among the dissenters.

• Hone surreptitiously using his position at The Patriot to publicize dissenters' view of the Church Rates controversy. Materials supplied by John Childs.

• 20 June: Victoria becomes Queen on the death of William IV.

• Dickens publishes Oliver Twist.
• Chartist movement established.

• Robert Childs commits suicide.
• Hone suffers another in series of "paralytic attacks"—he is housebound and unable to write.
• Autumn: Hone opens brief correspondence with Shakespeareans John Payne Collier and Joseph Severn.

• Rift between Hone and John Childs.

• Hone, whose deteriorating health makes him unable to continue at The Patriot, moves to small house near Bruce's Castle in north London/Tottenham.

• The Early Life and Conversion of William Hone. Edited by his Son—a short account of Hone's father's life which had originally appeared in The Year Book—is published as a separate work by T. Ward.

• November: Hone dies quietly at home, having been visited by family and friends. Buried in Abney Park cemetary; funeral attended by George Cruikshank and Charles Dickens, among others.