Samuel Rousseau
Born1763
Died4 December 1820(1820-12-04) (aged 57)
Ray Street, Clerkenwell, London
NationalityBritish
Known forArabic – English dictionary

Samuel Rousseau (1763–1820) was a British Oriental scholar and printer. He compiled very early Arabic-English and Persian-English dictionaries, and translated and printed the first English-language editions of several important Arabic and Persian works.

Family background

Samuel Rosseau was the eldest son of Phillip Rousseau[1], a printer working for William Bowyer, and his wife Susannah[a].

Phillip died in 1814 and was buried at St Bride's Church, Fleet Street. He was the beneficiary of a fund established by Bowyer's will[6], and was described by John Nichols as 'the father and grandfather of several worthy printers'[7]. Samuel Rousseau's brother James was also a printer, and in his later years oversaw the printing of the Votes and Proceedings of the House of Commons[8].

Early Life

Samuel was baptised as Samuel Kent Rousseau in St Andrew-by-the-Wardrobe, under the auspices of St Ann Blackfriars, on 20 November 1763. St Ann's had been destroyed by the Great Fire of London, and the parish united with St Andrew's, but the congregation retained a distinct identity, and separate parish registers were kept[9].

Bowyers, which was later taken over by John Nichols, took on Samuel as an apprentice[7] in 1778. He was later joined by his younger brother, James[8], but whereas James spent the rest of his working life as a compositor and editor for Nichols, Samuel preferred to set up his own business, although he was occasionally employed by Nichols in collecting epitaphs[10], and other historical records for The Gentleman's Magazine[7].

According to Timperley, Samuel Rousseau was "a singular instance of patient perseverance in the acquirements of the ancient languages"[11]. Whilst working as an apprentice and journeyman, he taught himself Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Persian, Arabic, and the Syriac language. To these he added French and several other modern languages[7].

On 27 May 1787, he married Mary Silvester at Tottenham. They had two daughters, one called Elizabeth.

Translator, printer and publisher

After his apprenticeship, he was for a brief time Master of Joye's Charity School (see List of former schools in the City of London) in St Ann's, Blackfriars[7][11] But in 1798, it was announced in the Gentleman's Magazine that he was to leave this line of work and start his own printing business[3].

He contributed to a number of scholarly works on Middle-Eastern languages, including the expanded edition of John Richardson's Arabic and Persian Dictionary. He set up his own printing business in Leather Lane, Holborn, and later moved to Wood Street, Spa Fields, Clerkenwell, where he established the Arabic Press, sometimes also called the Arabic and Persian Press[12]. He commissioned the making of Arabic type by Vincent Figgins[12][13] and set about translating and printing several classic works of Arabic literature, including "The Flowers of Persian Literature" [1], which he dedicated to Mirza Abu Taleb Khan[14]. This was the first work to be printed in nastaliq script in England[15].

Other works he published included tracts for the Religious Tract Society[16], and patriotic songs for the Napoleonic Wars[17], and the prophetic writings of Joanna Southcott. Of Southcott, it was even claimed by George Smeeton that Rousseau had found, in a rubbish heap in Clerkenwell, the seal which was subsequently adopted by her for her followers, and used to seal their 'passports to Heaven'[18]. While working as a printer, he also taught Persian[7].

Despite the expertise of Rousseau and his colleagues, the Arabic Press was not a commercial success, and although it was still open in 1811[19], it closed after a few years of operation[7]. Thereafter, Rousseau edited a variety of works for booksellers and, as he was more interested in raising money to support himself and his family rather than achieve literary fame, most of his works appeared under a range of pseudonyms. Rousseau's obituary in the Gentleman's Magazine said that "they have, however, proved generally successful to the publishers, as their objects were useful; and nothing ever appeared in them contrary to good morals, or the established religion and government"[20].

Death

Around 1817 he suffered a paralytic stroke whose effects worsened with time. Combined with a facial cancer, this illness eventually made him incapable of holding a pen or even of feeding himself. In dire poverty, and with two daughters wholly dependent on him, he was supported by a large grant from the Royal Literary Fund. He died at his home in Ray Street, Clerkenwell, on 4 December 1820, at the age of 57[20]. The remains of the grant enabled his daughters to give him a decent burial in the churchyard of St James Church, Clerkenwell[7].

Legacy

Rousseau's works were immediately influential, especially among the employees of the East India Company[15]. A list of recommended publications accompanying the second volume of the East India Vade-Mecum in 1810 including Rousseau's Flowers of Persian Literature and Dictionary of Mahomedan Law, along with Balfour's Forms of Herkern, which Rousseau had published[21][7]. Apart from a small entry in the Dictionary of National Biography, the legacy of Samuel Rousseau is virtually unknown today and he lacks any serious attempt at a biography. Some writers have noted the possibility for further research into his life and connections[5][4].


Bibliography

Under his own name

Pseudonymously

Notes

  1. ^ The suggestion that Samuel Rousseau was related to the French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau was raised during the former's lifetime, in the anonymous Literary Memoirs of Living Authors of Great Britain[2]. This claim was promptly rebutted by Samuel's former master, and his brother's employer, John Nichols, in the pages of the Gentleman's Magazine[3], but nevertheless later found its way into the Dictionary of National Biography[1]. This was subsequently identified as an error, in the Annales de la Société Jean-Jacques Rousseau[4] Ritter, in the Annales, shows that the 'good parent and honest man' referred to in J J Rousseau's letter to Hume was Jean Rousseau, a known blood relative of the philosopher, rather than Samuel Rousseau. Both Ritter and Van Staen conjecture a possible connection to J J Rousseau's great-uncle Jacob Rousseau, who lived in London in the late 17th century, but report the suggestion as unproven at best[4][5].

References

  1. ^ a b Lee, Sidney (1897). Dictionary of National Biography, Volume 49. London: Smith, Elder & Co. p. 323. Retrieved 23 February 2023.
  2. ^ Literary Memoirs of Living Authors of Great Britain: Arranged According to an Alphabetical Catalogue of Their Names; and Including a List of Their Works, with Occasional Opinions Upon Their Literary Character, Volume 2. New Bond Street, London: R. Faulder. 1798. p. 226. Retrieved 23 February 2023.
  3. ^ a b Urban, Sylvanus (May 1798). "Review of New Publications". The Gentleman's Magazine. 68 (5): 414. Retrieved 23 February 2023.
  4. ^ a b c Ritter, Eugène (1911). "Jean-Jacques Rousseau (Notes diverses)". Annales de la Société Jean-Jacaques Rousseau. 7: 91–94. Retrieved 23 February 2023.
  5. ^ a b c d e f Van Staen, Christophe AJD (2006). "Conjecture sur le séjour d'Isaac Rousseau en Orient (1705-1711)". In Dumont, Paul; Hildebrand, Rémy (eds.). L'horloger du Sérail: aux sources du fantasme oriental chez Jean-Jacques Rousseau (in French) (Electronic, 2016 ed.). Istanbul: Institut français d’études anatoliennes. pp. 85–102. ISBN 9782706819315. Retrieved 23 February 2023.
  6. ^ Nichols, John (1812). Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century, Volume 3. London: Nichols, Son, and Bentley. p. 288. Retrieved 23 February 2023.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Nichols, John Bowyer (1858). Illustrations of the Literary History of the Eighteenth Century, Volume 8. Westminster: J B Nichols and Sons. pp. 494–495. Retrieved 23 February 2023.
  8. ^ a b Nichols, John Bowyer (1858). Illustrations of the Literary History of the Eighteenth Century, Volume 8. Westminster: J B Nichols and Sons. p. 511. Retrieved 23 February 2023.
  9. ^ "SAINT ANN, BLACKFRIARS: CITY OF LONDON | London Metropolitan Archives". search.lma.gov.uk. London Metropolitan Archives. Retrieved 24 February 2023.
  10. ^ Chambers, S Allen (2017). History of St Mary Islington (PDF). London: St Mary Islington. p. 60. Retrieved 23 February 2023.
  11. ^ a b Timperley, Charles Henry (1839). A Dictionary of Printers and Printing. London: H Johnson. pp. 878–879. Retrieved 23 February 2023.
  12. ^ a b Green, Nile (2009). "The Development of Arabic-Script Typography in Georgian Britain". Printing History New Series. 5: 22–24. Retrieved 23 February 2023.
  13. ^ Roper, Geoffrey (1989). "Review: Oriental Presses in the World; Nazir Ahmad" (PDF). British Society for Middle Eastern Studies. 16 (1): 94. Retrieved 23 February 2023.
  14. ^ Garcia, Humberto (2020). England Re-Oriented: How Central and South Asian Travelers Imagined the West, 1750-1857. Cambridge University Press. p. 156. ISBN 978-1-108-49564-6. Retrieved 23 February 2023.
  15. ^ a b Roper, Geoffrey (1988). "Arabic printing in Malta 1825-1845" (PDF). Durham E-Theses: 37–38.
  16. ^ Mathison, John; Mason, Alexander Way, eds. (1804). [ancestry.co.uk "An East-India Register and Directory"] (1804). London: Cox, Son, and Baylis. Retrieved 24 February 2023. ((cite journal)): Check |url= value (help); Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  17. ^ "Printer/Publisher: Rousseau, S". Broadside Ballads Online. Bodlein Library, Oxford. Retrieved 23 February 2023.
  18. ^ Fairholt, F W (1851). "The Curiosities of Eccentric Biography". The Eclectic Magazine (March 1851): 406. Retrieved 23 February 2023.
  19. ^ Holden, William (1811). [ancestry.co.uk London and Country Directory, Volume 1] (Facsimile, 1996 ed.). London: W Holden. Retrieved 24 February 2023. ((cite book)): Check |url= value (help)
  20. ^ a b Urban, Sylvanus (December 1820). "Obituaries". The Gentleman's Magazine. 90 (12): 569–570. Retrieved 23 February 2023.
  21. ^ Williamson, Thomas (1810). The East India Vade-Mecum, Volume 2. London: Black, Parry, and Kingsbury. Retrieved 23 February 2023.
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