THE RIVINGTONS. 297 with a Mr. Matthews, he was, in 1711, made free of the city, preparatory to entering into business on his own account, and, bearing the date of that year, bill- heads are still existing to which his name is affixed. In 1718 we find him, in conjunction with other firms, issuing proposals to print by subscription Mason's " Vindication of the Church of England, and the Ministry thereof," a principle that the family has steadily adhered to ever since ; for though Rivington published one of Whitfield's very earliest works, " The Nature and Necessity of a New Birth in Christ," preached at Bristol in September, 1737, the author was then a young Oxford student, who had been but just ordained ; and Wesley, too, the other great religious mover of the day, was still a fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford, when Rivington brought out his edition of Thomas a Kempis' " Imitation of Christ," a book that has, after the Bible, gone through more editions than any other. About 1719, an association of some half-a-dozen respectable booksellers entered into partnership for the purpose of printing expensive books, and styled themselves the printing Conger* and, in 1736, another similar company was started by Rivington and Bettes- worth, who termed themselves the " New Conger." Much of Rivington's business consisted in the pub- lication of sermons, which, as a simple commission trade, was profitable without risk. An amusing story is told, which proves that the ponderous nature of his trade stock did not prevent Charles Rivington from being a man of kindly humour. A poor vicar, in a
- The term Conger is ingeniously said to be derived from the eel,
meaning that the association, r collectively, would swallow all smaller fry. 19
