Thomas Guy (1645?–1725)

GUY (THOMAS), bookseller in London and Oxford; London, at the Corner shop of Little Lombard Street and Cornhill, 1668–1724. This famous bookseller was the eldest child of Thomas Guy, lighterman and coalmonger, and was born in 1644 or 1645 * n Pritchard's Alley, Fair Street, Horsley Down, Southwark. His father, an Anabaptist, died young, leaving three children, two of whom were boys, Thomas and John. Their mother returned to her native place, Tamworth. Here the children were educated, and the two boys were sent eventually to London and apprenticed to the trade of bookselling, Thomas on September 3rd, 1660, to John Clarke. Thomas, being the elder, was probably apprenticed a few years earlier than his brother John. At any rate Thomas took up his freedom in the Stationers' Company on October 7th, 1668, and shortly afterwards set up in business for himself with a stock worth about 200. Some time about 1675 he was joined by his brother John. It has been erroneously stated by Nichols [Lit. Anecd. ill. 599-600] that Thomas Guy laid the foundation of his bookselling business by engaging in the un- lawful importation of foreign printed Bibles: but what he and his brother did was to buy from the Stationers' Company large stocks of Bibles, &c., which the Company had seized on the wharves. Indeed, the King's printers actually seized these Bibles on the ground that they were illegally imported, then reprinted the first sheet, and issued them again as English Bibles, and thus sought to drive the Universities out of competition. This is made clear by an affidavit by John Guy. [Hist. MSS. Cotnm., Kept, xi, App. p. 274.] Before 1679 Thomas Guy, Peter Parker and Moses Pitt were called in to assist Oxford University in its attempt to put Bibles on the market at a cheaper rate and in better print than the King's printers were then doing. Consequently Pitt was appointed printer and Parker and the Guys managed the selling, with the result that the price of Bibles, Testaments, and Common Prayer Books was reduced very considerably. At the same time it must be confessed that Moses Pitt's earlier attempts at Bible printing were not much better typographically than those that were on the market before. The statement that Guy imported type from Holland is also misleading. It was Bishop Fell who imported Dutch letter, as is well known, for the express purpose of founding the Oxford Press. The assistance of the Guys was not called in until the opposition of the Stationers' Company became so dangerous that the University felt that it should have the help and guidance of some London booksellers, and choice was made of Parker, Pitt, and the Guys. John Guy dropped out of the partnership about 1679 an ^ moved to the Flying Horse in Fleet Street; Thomas Guy's name appears in the Term Catalogues for the last time in 1707. [T.C. ill. 576.] According to Dunton [p. 205] Thomas Guy in 1703 occupied a high position among London booksellers and was an eminent figure in the Stationers' Company. A state- ment that Guy almost starved the bookbinders he employed, may have been only ill-natured gossip. Certainly as early as 1678 Guy had founded at Tamworth an almshouse for six poor women, which he enlarged in 1693 to accommodate fourteen men and women. In 1701 he also built there a town hall, which is still standing. Many of his poorer relations received pecuniary help from him, and in many other ways he showed a generous nature. In 1704 Guy became a governor of St. Thomas's Hospital, and in 1707 built and furnished three new wards. On August 5th, 1717, he offered the Stationers' Company 1,000 to enable them to add to the quarterly charity to poor members and widows. Guy had conceived the idea of providing for the many patients who could not be taken into St. Thomas's Hospital or were discharged thence as incurable. In 1721 he leased from the Governors a piece of ground opposite, and, having pulled down a number of small houses, began the erection of a hospital, ever since known as Guy's. The building, which cost 18,793, was roofed in before the founder's death, which took place on Decem- ber 27th, 1724, in his eightieth year. Guy's will was proved on January 4th, 1724-5. It was afterwards printed and went through three editions in 1725, being reprinted by the governors of the Hospital in 1732. It dealt principally with the government of the Hospital. [Works quoted; D.N.B.]