might interest the Johnsons -

An account of shop and his son are to be found in Manchester City News Notes & Queries

15 Oct 1879 p25 - part of article on Old Manchester Booksellers by J T. Slugg

In 1829 there was a bookseller named Samuel Johnson between the ends of Mosley street and Fountain street. He had not been there long, as I am told he had been a weaver living in Tasey street Ancoats, and had opened a shop in Ancoats lane first and then in Market street. He afterwards kept a shop in the Isle of Man, his Manchester business being carried on by his son after the removal to Corporation street.

Feb 3 1883 p15

DEATH OF AN OLD MANCHESTER BOOKSELLER

On Friday in last week, Thomas Johnson, the well-known bookseller of Corporation-street, died in his seventy-third year. His last months were marked by a lingering and painful illness, from which medical aid could afford him little or no relief. His career as a bookseller is notable and interesting. At a very early age he was assistant to his father, whose premises were situated on the site now occupied by Hyam's clothing establishment in Market-street. The chief bookseller at that day was Mr. Charles Amberry, and his shopman was Mr. Henry Whitmore, who subsequently started a successful business on his own account. When Mr. Thomas Johnson married he went to Liverpool and opened a shop in Dale-street, in 1829, at a rental of fifty pounds per annum-considered at that time an enormous rent. His beginning was humble ; a few books åt the bottom of the shopwindow, and a bed at the end of the shop, were about all the worldly goods with which he made his start in life. One of the Liverpool merchants, on the occasion of the sale of a bookseller's stock, observing that Johnson did not buy, asked him the reason, and on being told that he had no money, requested him to bid to the extent of £100 or £150, and he would find the money. This kindness to one who was almost a stranger enabled Johnson very shortly to accumulate a large stock of books, ultimately the largest stock in the country. He published a periodical catalogue, extending to 300 pages, which was sold at one shilling.

After a career of almost unexampled success, he was induced to begin as a publisher, which necessitated the removal to large premises. His first publishing enterprise was an edition of the collected works of Jacob Abbott, the American author, which had an extensive sale. This was followed by Finney's , Lectures on Revivals and Lectures to Professing Christians, of which more than 150,000 copies were sold. It is calculated that during the period he was a Liverpool publisher he sent into the market more than one million books. He had the reputation, and it was perfectly well founded, of being one of the largest Bible dealers out of London. Ireland was the chief source of his supply. He paid periodical visits to Dublin to purchase at the pawn shops the Bibles presented to the poor (who were chiefly Catholics), by the agents of the Bible Society, receipt of alms was required to pay two shillings for and which were nearly always pledged immediately after presentation.

Notwithstanding his great and deserved success he ultimately became a bankrupt owing to accepting duplicate bills to a large amount for a firm with which he had had extensive dealings. His father, Mr. Samuel Johnson, then a large publisher in Manchester, purchased the whole of the plant and stock from the trustees of the estate, and had it removed to Manchester, when he took him into partnership. For several years the firm was known as " Samuel Johnson and Son," but when his father retired to the Isle of Man, where he died in his eightieth year, Thomas had sole possession of the business. After a few years, however, he again came to grief, and the whole of his stock and plant was sold by auction. Johnson then began as a second-hand bookseller in Corporation-street, in a wooden building erected on a piece of waste ground, upon which the Trevelyan Hotel now stands. When the land was taken for building purposes Johnson removed to the shop in Corporation-street which he occupied for a number of years, amid varying and not always successful fortunes. However smooth and successful his first business years were, his latter ones were considerably disturbed by want of trade and ill-health. Prior to his death he had left his business for some time, and it is now carried on by his youngest son. He leaves a widow, four daughters, and two sons.