British Bible monopolies campaigns facts for kids

In the 19th century, from about 1820 to 1860, there were many campaigns in the United Kingdom to end the Bible monopolies. These monopolies were special rights, like patents, given to the King's Printers for England and Wales, and for Scotland. They controlled who could publish the Authorized Version of the Bible in English.

These monopolies were not always complete. They were sometimes shared with other groups. Also, Bibles with extra features like pictures or notes might not be included. But these monopolies made it hard to print Bibles cheaply and in large numbers.

The idea of a Bible monopoly caused arguments from the very beginning. For example, the bookseller Michael Sparke disagreed with the first King's Printer, Robert Barker.

In Scotland, the monopoly was much stricter. This led to a big campaign in the 1830s. By the end of that decade, the King's Printer in Scotland lost their special right. But in England and Wales, even after more campaigns, the monopoly stayed in place.

What Was the Bible Printing Monopoly?

For about 200 years, certain groups had special rights to print the Authorized Version of the Bible in English. These groups were called the "privileged presses". They included the Oxford and Cambridge university presses, and the King's Printer in England.

This was a monopoly, meaning only a few could do it. It wasn't about copyright law, which was still developing. This special right also covered other types of publications. It affected how Bibles were sold across England. The university presses were not originally set up to make a lot of money. So, for a long time, they let other commercial printers use their rights.

By around 1800, things began to change. Britain lost its American colonies. New religious movements, like the Evangelical Revival, grew stronger. Also, new ways of printing were starting to appear.

How the Monopoly Worked in the 1700s

In Great Britain during the 1700s, the main Bible printers were the universities of Cambridge and Oxford, and the royal printers in England and Scotland. In 1636, William Laud advised Oxford University. After that, Oxford often received payments from the Stationers' Company to not compete with them on other printing rights. Oxford used this money to build a strong academic printing press.

In 1724, a royal order tried to fix problems with Bibles. Many Bibles were printed cheaply with lots of mistakes, but they were still expensive. The order even said the wholesale price had to be printed in the book. The main reasons given for the monopoly were to keep the Bible text accurate and to keep prices low. However, during the time of John Baskett as King's Printer, these benefits were questioned.

A court case in 1769, called Millar v Taylor, limited the special rights given by the King. These rights were for printing "Bibles, Testaments, Prayer-books, acts of parliament, proclamations, acts of state, almanacks, and the Latin grammar."

A printer named Thomas Carnan challenged the Stationers' Company's monopoly on almanacs in 1775 and won. But he later tried to challenge the King's Printer's rights in England and failed. In Ireland, a case in 1794, Grierson v Jackson, also dealt with Bible printing rights. But the judge, John FitzGibbon, 1st Earl of Clare, refused to make a ruling.

The Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge (SPCK) worked to give out cheap religious books, including Bibles "for the poor". They even gave Bibles away for free. This made smaller Bibles often linked to charity.

Finding Ways Around the Monopoly

The Family Bible became popular in Britain from the mid-1700s. These were often large Bibles kept as family treasures. Printers found a way around the monopoly by adding notes or illustrations to these Bibles. Many editions were made this way, often sold in parts over time. For example, the Complete Family Bible by Francis Fawkes (1761–1762) was sold outside London and had many pictures.

A Bible commentary could also include the entire Bible text. An example is The Illustration of the Holy Bible (1769) by Robert Goadby. Another way to get around the monopoly was to print a polyglot Bible, which showed the Bible in several languages. Samuel Bagster the Elder used this method starting in 1816. However, the bookseller George Offor later told a government committee that the loophole for annotated Bibles had been closed by new monopoly rules.

The British and Foreign Bible Society

The British and Foreign Bible Society (BFBS) was started in 1804. Its goal was to help distribute Bibles. It grew out of the Religious Tract Society (1798). The main reason for its creation was the Evangelical Revival, a period of renewed religious interest.

At first, the BFBS had Bibles printed by Cambridge University Press in 1805. By 1809, they were also using Oxford University Press and the King's Printers. The BFBS created a network of local groups that sold Bibles at cost price. This system, set up by Charles Stokes Dudley and Richard Phillips, made the Society very strong financially.

In 1810, the BFBS ordered 10,000 Bibles from Oxford using a small font called nonpareil (6 point). By 1812, they were ordering from the King's Printer for England. In 1811, a small nonpareil Bible could be bought for 4 shillings. The BFBS became the biggest customer of the privileged presses in England.

George Browne's 1859 history of the BFBS said that it was not a campaigning group. It focused on supplying Bibles, not on fighting the monopoly. Leaders like Lord Teignmouth, Claudius Buchanan, and John Owen supported this view. David Thompson, in the New Cambridge History of the Bible, noted that the BFBS successfully lowered Bible costs under the monopolies. They did this by working with the existing system in the early 1800s, even importing Bibles. This reduced the profits of the privileged presses. But it also meant that Bibles were mostly produced in a standard, cheap format.

Campaigns in Scotland

In 1823, Sir David Hunter-Blair, 3rd Baronet, who was the King's Printer for Scotland, won a court case. This case stopped Bibles from being imported from England into Scotland. George Buchan of Kelloe, a leading evangelical, appealed this decision to the House of Lords in 1828 on behalf of Scottish Bible societies.

During the Apocrypha Controversy in the 1820s, the Edinburgh and Glasgow branches formally left the BFBS in 1826. Other Scottish branches followed. Another issue related to the monopoly, important in Scotland, was the BFBS's refusal to print a metrical psalter with its Bibles. This was because the psalter's content was not from the Authorized Version and was a monopoly of the Stationers' Company. After the Scottish Bible societies split from the BFBS, they couldn't easily get cheap imported Bibles. This was a reason why the Scottish Bible monopoly was ended in 1839.

One of Hunter's main opponents was John Lee. In 1824, Lee published Memorial for the Bible Societies in Scotland. In his Additional Memorial of 1826, Lee said that the English Bible monopolists were paying the legal costs to defend the Scottish monopoly. He also argued that they would benefit most from limiting trade. At this time, the King's Printer for England was John Reeves (died 1829). He was appointed in 1800 by William Pitt the younger, working with the firm Eyre & Strahan.

A government committee was set up in 1835, led by John Archibald Murray, the Lord Advocate. Its focus was only on the Scottish monopoly. Hearings were held in 1837. William Ellis, a lawyer from the Scottish Supreme Court, spoke for the Edinburgh Bible Society. He talked about their Bible imports in 1821 and how people in Scotland felt. Joseph Parker (died 1850), a wholesale distributor for the Clarendon Press's Bible trade under the English monopoly, said that two-thirds of their business was with Bible societies. Adam Thomson of Coldstream also gave evidence and led a big campaign against renewing the patent.

His efforts were successful. The patent was allowed to expire. So, from 1839, the rules for Bibles in Scotland changed. Imports were allowed, and the monopoly on printing them was removed. John Eadie wrote that ending the Scottish monopoly in 1839 directly cut the price of Bibles in half.

Political Issues and the Monopoly

The universities of Oxford and Cambridge made money from the Bible monopoly. This made them a target for political groups called "Radicals" who fought against "Old Corruption". This term referred to the unfair system of special privileges and jobs given to friends of powerful people. William Cobbett argued that John Reeves was given a very profitable but easy job (a sinecure) when he became King's Printer.

In Scotland, the monopoly went to the Hunter Blair family. This was a political favor given by Henry Dundas to James Hunter Blair, who became the 1st Baronet in 1786. Dundas was a powerful Tory politician in Scotland. When James Hunter Blair died in 1787, the monopoly passed to his family. The right was also shared with John Bruce, who was a tutor to Dundas's son, Robert Dundas, 2nd Viscount Melville.

Concerns About Accuracy

In 1830, a group of nonconformist ministers in London formed a sub-committee to investigate the Bible monopoly. This group included James Bennett, Francis Augustus Cox, and Ebenezer Henderson.

In 1833, Thomas Curtis (c.1787–c.1860), a Baptist minister from this committee, published a pamphlet. He questioned the accuracy of the Bibles printed by the university presses and whether they followed the 1724 requirements. He included a list of printing errors found in Bibles printed "in and since" Benjamin Blayney's 18th-century edition. Curtis also criticized Andrew Spottiswoode, the King's Printer for England, for inaccurate Bible printing. However, the sub-committee quickly distanced themselves from Curtis's publication in March 1833.

Edward Cardwell, who managed the Bible department at Oxford University Press, responded to Curtis's attack in the British Magazine. Curtis's attack was written as a letter to Charles James Blomfield, the Bishop of London. Cambridge University also replied with a book by Thomas Turton, titled The Text of the English Bible, as Now Printed by the Universities.

After the Scottish Monopoly Ended in 1839

After successfully leading the fight against the Scottish monopoly, Adam Thomson started a new campaign in 1839. He wanted to remove the similar monopoly in England and Wales. The British and Foreign Bible Society also faced criticism.

John Campbell, a minister in London, supported Thomson's goal of making Bibles cheaper. Campbell shared his ideas in a book called Jethro (1839), which was published anonymously. He continued to publish more works using "author of Jethro" as his pen name. After this period of criticizing the "Bible monopolists" (those who supported the English monopoly), Campbell stopped his campaign. The monopoly in England and Wales remained, but the price of Bibles did eventually come down.

Government Investigations

Political campaigns against the Bible monopolies often pushed for government committees to look into the issue. In July 1859, Sir George Lewis, the Home Secretary, told Edward Baines in the House of Commons that the government did not support "free and unlicensed printing of the Bible." This was because they wanted to ensure the text was accurate.

A later committee suggested a free trade solution. But Lewis instead renewed the patent in 1860. It was generally agreed that Bible prices were unlikely to drop much further. Soon after, a special tax on paper was removed. At this time, Family Bibles were selling in very large numbers.

In 1832, Robert Besley argued that stereotyping (a printing method) would not make production cheaper for hundreds of thousands of copies. In 1859, Thomas Combe of the Clarendon Press was questioned closely about their actions during a parliamentary inquiry.

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