John Brotherton (d. 1756; fl. 1716–1753)

BROTHERTON (JOHN), bookseller in London, Bible, Threadneedle Street, near the Royal Exchange, 1718–25. Began publishing about 1718, chiefly novels. [Esdaile, pp. 185, 198, 329.] In 1725 he issued A Short Explication of such Foreign words as are made use of in Musick-Books. [Haz. II. 410.]

BROTHERTON, J. Of The Bible, in Cornhill. He worked for some time in collaboration with W. Meadows (for whom see below). In January, 1720 these two booksellers published conjointly Dennis's 'The Invader of his Country,' a new version of Shakespeare's 'Coriolanus'; and a while later a new edition of D'Urfey's 'Pills to Purge Melancholy' came from the same press. Brotherton continued in business at the Bible until the year 1775 or thereabouts, when he sold his shop, together with the stock, to John Sewell. "He possessed," Nichols tells us, "besides his professional judgment of books, a tolerable knowledge of mechanicks, particularly of ship-building, understood the nature and properties of timber, and was the founder and most zealous promoter of a Society for the Improvement of Naval Architecture" ('Anecdotes' iii. 738).

—Frederick T. Wood, 25 July 1931

BROTHERTON, JOHN (clxi. 63, 98). At the last reference I gave Brotherton as being at the Bible in Threadneedle Street in 1718. The particulars were quoted from Plomer's Dictionary but I think he is not correct. Possibly confusion was made with a John Brotherton who was a bookbinder at this address. Examination of imprints shows that John Brotherton the bookseller was undoubtedly at the Black Bull in Cornhill 1718–20. About the year 1720 he moved to the Bible next the Fleece Tavern in Cornhill (afterwards No. 32); this shop in some advertisements and billheads, is described as "next Tom's Coffee House" which is an equally correct description, for the Bible stood between "Tom's" and the Fleece Tavern. W. Meadows (clxi. 98 and ante p. 47), with whom Brotherton was sometimes in association, was next door at the Angel. The position of these shops is shown in the Plan of Cornhill reproduced in 12 S. ii. 462–3. DR. WOOD has told us that Brotherton remained at the Bible till he handed the business over to his partner Sewell in 1775. A billhead in the Leverhulme Collection of Brotherton and Sewell at this address is dated that year.

—Ambrose Heal, 13 February 1932

BROTHERTON (JOHN), bookseller and bookbinder in London, (1) The Bible, Cornhill, (2) Bible in Threadneedle Street, over against the Merchant Taylors' Hall. 1718–53. See Dictionary, 1668–1725. In 1750 his name is found in a pamphlet by William Richardson, An Essay on the Causes of the Decline of the Foreign Trade, and again in 1753 he sold the Anglo-French Dictionary, [Public Advertiser, January 8th]. Issued a trade card as a bookbinder, on which the second address is found. [A. Heal's Collection.]