Johnson begins work on his dictionary

It was in 1735 that Samuel Johnson began work on his famous "Dictionary of the English Language": that eventually appeared in 1755. The dictionary played a crucial role in standardising the English language and remains an influential reference work.

Est 1735 Again

(From Wikipedia)

Amelia County, Virginia. Created by a legislative act in 1734 and 1735 from parts of prince George and Brunswick counties. The County is named for Princess Amelia, daughter of George II.

Blancpain. Swiss luxury pen maker.

Bristol Royal Infirmary. Large teaching hospital. A wealthy city merchant, Paul Fisher, was prominent in its foundation in 1735.

Edial Hall School. Near Lichfield, it was established by Samuel Johnson, who taught Latin and Greek here to young gentlemen. Funds for the school were provided by his wife, "Tetty" Porter. It only had three pupils, one of whom was David Garrick, and it was only open for about a year, after which Johnson was forced to close it due to a lack of funds. (Pic: 1824)

Frederiksberg Palace. Baroque residence, located in Frederiksberg, Denmark, adjacent to the Copenhagen Zoo. It commands an impressive view over Frederiksberg Park, originally designed as a palace garden in the Baroque style. Constructed and extended from 1699 to 1735, the palace served as the royal family’s summer residence until the mid-19th century. Since 1869, it has housed the Royal Danish Army Officers Academy.

Pharmacy Museum, Lviv, Ukraine. The Museum was opened in 1966 in the building of an old drugstore at the corner of the Market Square. The drugstore was established in 1735 by Wilhelm Natorp, a military pharmacist. It was called "Under the Black Eagle". 

The Royal Burgess Golfing Society of Edinburgh. The oldest golfing society in the world, with references to its existence dating back to 1735.

Shepherd Market. A small square in the Mayfair area of central London Located between Piccadilly and Curzon Street, it has a village-like atmosphere. The name Mayfair was itself derived from the 15-day fair that took place on the site that is now Shepherd Market. The fair was banned in 1708 due to disturbances. Subsequently, the local architect and developer, Edward Shepherd, was commissioned to develop the site during 1735–46. The development included paved alleys, a duck pond, a two-storey market, and a theatre.

University of Miskolc, Hungary. The university is the successor of the University of Mining and Metallurgy of Selmecbánya (established in 1735), which was the first school under non-ecclesiastical control in the Habsburg Empire.

Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. A scholarly publishing house based in Göttingen, Germany. It was founded in 1735 by Abraham Vandenhoeck (1700-1750) in connection with the establishment of the Georg-August-Universität in the same city.

Francis Barber

Francis Barber (ca 1735 – 1801) was the Jamaican manservant of Samuel Johnson from 1752 until Johnson's death in 1784. Johnson made him his residual heir, with £70 a year to be given him by Trustees, expressing the wish that he move from London toLichfield, Staffordshire, Johnson's native city. After Johnson's death, Barber did this, opening a draper's shop and marrying a local girl. Barber was also left Johnson's books, papers and gold watch. In later years he had acted as Johnson's assistant in revising hisfamous dictionary and other works.
Barber wasborna slave on a sugarplantation in Jamaica. Around the age of 15 he was brought toEngland by his owner, Colonel Richard Bathhurst, whose son, also called Richard, was a close friend of Johnson. He was sent to school inYorkshire. Johnson's wife Elizabeth Porter died in 1752, plunging Johnson into a depression that Barber later vividly described to Boswell. The Bathursts sent Barber to Johnson as a valet, arriving two weeks after her death. Although thelegal validity of salvery in England was ambiguous at this time (a later legal decision clarified that it did not exist in England), when the elder Bathurst died two years later he gave Barber his freedom in his will, with a small legacy of £12. Johnson himself was an outspoken opponent of slavery, not just in England butin the American Colonies too.
Barber then went to work for an apothecary but kept in touch with Johnson. He later signed up as a sailor, until retrieved, perhaps against his wishes, by Johnson, returning to be his servant. Barber's brief maritime career is known from Boswell's Life of Johnson. “
Later Johnson put Barber, by then in his early thirties, in a school, presumably so that he could act as Johnson's assistant.

Barber is often mentioned in Boswell and other contemporary sources, and there are at least two versions of a portrait, one now in Dr Johnson's House [see pic] which may be of him. Most recent art historians thought it was probably painted by James Northcote (painter of the shark incident I mentioned recently) or perhaps by Northcote's master SirJoshau Reynolds, one of Barber's Trustees under the will (and afriedn of Johnson). An alternative view is that it is by Reynolds himself, but of his own black servant, not Barber.
When making his will, Johnson asked Sir John Hawkins, later his first biographer, what provision he should make for Barber. Sir John said that a nobleman would give £50 a year. Then I shall be "noblissimus" replied Johnson, and give him £70. Hawkins disapproved, and after Johnson's death criticised his "ostentatious bounty and favour to negroes." The bequest was indeed widely covered in the press.
Barber's life in Staffordshire was unsettled and he was apparently given to drinking. He died inStafford; his descendants still farm near Lichfield.

More New Books

Anonymous - The Dramatic Historiographer (attrib. Eliza Haywood)

George Berkeley - The Querist (the same as the work mentioned previously?)

Jane Brereton - Merlin Henry Brooke - Universal Beauty

Robert Dodsley - Beauty

Benjamin Hoadly - A Plain Account of the Nature and End of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper

John Hughes - Poems

Hildebrand Jacob - Brutus the Trojan and Works

Samuel Johnson - A Voyage to Abyssinia

George Lyttelton, 1st Baron Lyttelton - Letters from a Persian in England

William Melmoth - Of Active and Retired Life

John Oldmixon - History of England, During the Reigns of William and Mary, Anne, George I

Alexander Pope - An Epistle from Mr. Pope to Dr Arbuthnot (just after Arbuthnot's death) Of the Characters of Women ("Moral Epistle II") The Works of Mr Alexander Pope Letters of Mr Pope, and Several Eminent Persons (a piracy by Edmund Curll, with forgeries included) Mr Pope's Literary Correspondence for Thirty Years, 1704-1734 (authorised)

Samuel Richardson - A Seasonable Examination of the Pleas and Pretensions of the Proprietors of, and Subscribers to, Play-Houses

Henry St John - A Dissertation upon Parties

Richard Savage - The Progress of a Divine

William Somerville - The Chace 

Jonathan Swift, Pope, Arbuthnot, et al. - Miscellanies in Prose and Verse: Volume the Fifth and Works James Thomson - Ancient and Modern Italy Compared, Greece, Rome

Est. 1735

Amelia County, Virginia – named for George II's daughter
Blancpain – Swiss watch manufacturer
Bristol Royal Infirmary
Edial Hall School - by Samuel Johnson. It had only three pupils. One was the actor David Garrick.
Frederiksberg Palace, Denmark
Order of St. Anna – Holstein then Russian chivalric order. Motto “To those who love justice, piety, and fidelity”
The Royal Burgess Golfing Society of Edinburgh – the world's oldest
University of Miskolc – In Northern Hungary, founded as The University of Mining and Metallurgy of Selmecbánya, the first non-ecclesiastical school in the Habsburg Empire.

Literature

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) marries Elizabeth "Tetty" Porter, 20 years his senior

New books

Le Doyen de Killerine Abbé Antoine François Prévost (1697-1763) The Christian Hero George Lillo (1693-1739) British playwright and tragedian. Very little is known of him except that he was a London jeweller as well as a dramatist Gil Blas (L'Histoire de Gil Blas de Santillana) Alain-René Le Sage (1668-1747) whose four-volume pioneer picaresque novel appeared in its first volume 20 years before and is based in part on the 1618 novel by the late Vicente Espinel Les Memoires de Comte Comminges French courtesan and novelist Claudine-Alexandrine Guerin de Tencin (1682-1749) who came to Paris 1714 after having lived a religious life. She attracted a string of lovers with her wit and beauty and used her influence to further the fortunes of her older brother Cardinal Pierre Guérin de Tencin, who died 1724. Imprisoned briefly in the Bastille after one of her lovers shot himself in her house, 1726, she went on to maintain one of the most glittering salons in Paris.

New drama

The Art of Management Charlotte Charke (née Cibber, also Charlotte Secheverell, aka Charles Brown) (1713–1760) English actress The Toyshop Robert Dodsley (1703-1764) English bookseller and miscellaneous writer Nonfiction A Defence of Free-Thinking in Mathematics George Berkeley (1685-1753) Poetry Liberty James Thomson, whose political poem traces the history of civil and religious freedom The Chace Staffordshire-born poet and country gentleman William Somerville, 59, whose verses trace the history of hunting up to the time of the Norman Conquest, providing information on breeding and training dogs, kennel design and hunting hare, otter, and stag Births Jul 5 - August Ludwig von Schlözer (d 1809) German historian who laid foundations for the critical study of Russian history Dec 31 – Michelle Guyillaume Jean de Crèvecoeur, French-American writer commonly known as Hector St John de Crèvecoeur (d 1813) James Beattie (d 1803) Scottish academic and writer. Charles Joseph, Prince de Ligne, soldier and writer (d 1814) Deaths As mentioned before - John Arbuthnot in London and Samuel Wesley