Cheap Repository Tracts

Background

During the early 1790s there was widespread concern about the possibility of a popular uprising in Britain following the French Revolution, and the radical ideas which were circulating in popular publications. The English religious writer and philanthropist Hannah More referred to the ‘corrupt and vicious little books and ballads which have been hung out of windows in the most alluring forms or hawked through town and country.’ Following the commercial success of her Village Politics (1792), which was a rebuttal of Thomas Paine's Rights of Man, she decided that an entire series might be undertaken to provide 'religious and useful knowledge, as an antidote to the poison continually flowing thro’ the channel of vulgar and licentious publications. These, by their cheapness, as well as by their being, unhappily, congenial to a depraved taste, obtain a mischievous popularity among the lower ranks. She, drew up her plan for publishing such works in the West Country during 1794 and circulated it among her friends who encouraged her to extend it to cover the whole country and to appoint London distributors. A committee to form the Cheap Repository for Moral and Religious Tracts was established with Henry Thornton as Treasurer. A printed prospectus was issued listing eighteen titles, to secure subscriptions to underwrite the project.

The new tracts were intended to point out the pitfalls of drunkenness, debauchery, idleness, gambling, riotous assembly, and seeking to rise above one's station, whilst simultaneously praising the virtues of honesty, industry, thrift, patience and an acceptance of one's pre-ordained place in society, by means of simple ballads and short instructive tales. They were published as either octavo chapbooks or else as broadside ballads, emulating the traditional forms of Street literature. Approximately one third of them were designated as ‘Sunday Reading’ and contained simplified Bible stories or else a more specifically religious message.

Watson Dublin Series (1796-1800)

In March 1795, Hannah More authorised the Association for the Discountenancing of Vice and Promoting the Knowledge and Practice of Religion and Virtue, in Dublin, (of which she was an honorary member) to reprint her tracts in Ireland. This was undertaken by William Watson, Secretary to the Association, and a printer and bookseller of 7 Capel Street Dublin. He became known as the ‘Printer to the Cheap Repository’ in Ireland. Most of the Irish tracts were reprints of the English equivalents although a few were amended to suit the Irish situation and given new titles. There are also a few tracts that were only issued in Ireland. The Irish editions were also printed more compactly than the English equivalents and so in many cases two of the English titles were combined in one 24-page chapbook. William Watson continued to re-issue tracts until his death in 1805, when he was succeeded by his son, also named William Watson (d. 1818). He was succeeded by his widow, Ann Watson, who continued to issue the tracts well into the 1820s. Further reprints were issued by A. & W. Watson until the early 1830s.

Evans Official Series (1798-1800)

After the resignation of Marshall in December 1797, a further fifteen new titles in the official Cheap Repository Tracts series, written by Hannah More were printed by John Evans. These were issued between December 1797 and October 1798, starting with The fall of Adam, which contained an announcement of the new publishing arrangements.” The new series includes at least one tract, commenting on the Irish Rebellion of 1798, which does not later appear in Hannah More's collected works. These do not appear to have had the same impact as the earlier series of tracts. Nevertheless, reprints of the original individual titles continued to be printed by John Evans and his successors. These included, J. Evans & Co. (1799-1802), Howard and Evans (1802-1811), John Evans (1811), J. Evans and son (c.1812-1817), John Evans and sons (1818–20) and J.& C. Evans (1820-29), and J.E. Evans (1829-1846).

Rivington editions (1798-1851)

In addition to the continuing demand for reprints of individual tracts, there was also a demand for collected editions, aimed at a middle-class audience. In the Spring of 1798 the committee under Henry Thornton sold the copyrights of all the existing titles to Francis and Charles Rivington, printers to the S.P.C.K. This firm published a collected edition of official tracts in three volumes, (also printed by Evans), in the same year. This edition was reprinted in 1799 and 1800, and then at regular intervals until 1830. More later regretted having 'given half the profits' to Rivington. Between 1829 and 1851 the firm published, two series of the existing titles with the imprints J.G. & F. and J.G.F. & J. Rivington on behalf of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. These were printed by R. Gilbert (latterly Gilbert & Rivington), as both individual tracts and in collected editions. Twenty-nine titles are listed on the Copac and WorldCat databases.

Series published in the US (1799-1803)

Individual tract titles were imported to the US soon after their publication in England. From 1797 a few US editions also began to be published in Philadelphia by B. Johnson. Then in 1799 about sixty of the tracts (together with a few other non-Cheap-Repository titles) appeared in two collected volumes of the tracts were published in New York by Cornelius Davis. Then during the course of 1800 a further forty-two of the titles were published in Philadelphia by B. & J. Johnson in a numbered Cheap Repository series. Further American collected editions were published by E. Lincoln of Boston in 1802 and 1803.