History of Reading News. Vol.XXIII No.2 (2000:Spring)
by Frances Austin

Among the early spelling books used in America was Daniel Fenning's Universal Spelling Book (London, 1756)¹. This was first published in Boston, Massachusetts in 1769² but imported English editions were available before then. Although it was no rival to Thomas Dilworth's A New Guide to the English Tongue (London, 1740), which was already established, there were at least nine American editions of Fenning and it was still being printed in America as late as 1828.³ Another of Fenning's textbooks to reach America was his less known A New and Easy Guide to the Use of the Globes (2nd ed. 1760).⁴ Fenning wrote at least ten textbooks, and collaborated on several more, on various subjects, including arithmetic, algebra and geography, as well as different aspects of the English language. A curious one, is The method of calculating an Eclipse geometrically with an example of the great eclipse of the sun which will happen on April the 1st 1764 (1764). One wonders if this was an April Fool's joke! Altogether, Fenning's name is associated with some seventeen textbooks,⁵ the most remembered being those on the English language. Alston says that Fenning was "a tireless worker in the promotion of English language teaching in schools during his lifetime and produced a number of works (some elementary, some more advanced) which enjoyed immense popularity."⁶

On the Trail of Fenning

In spite of his prolific output, little has been known hitherto about Fenning himself, except that, like both Dilworth and Thomas Dyche, who wrote another spelling book that was imported from England, he was at some time a schoolmaster. The title pages of several of his books say that he had taught at Bures, a village in Suffolk, and in the preface to the fourth edition of The Universal Spelling Book he affirmed that he had taught in a school for fifteen years. Only recently, however, has more of his personal history been discovered.⁷ The unforeseen existence of his will started off a trail to other public records, from which, together with information taken from prefaces, dedications and supplementary matter in the textbooks themselves, has emerged a relatively clear, if brief, outline of his life.

The one important detail still missing is Fenning's date and place of birth, but he was probably of Suffolk origin, as the name Fenning is fairly common in that part of England. The first definite fact known about him to date is that in 1735 he married Mary Mott in Great Cornard, a village a few miles from Bures. She was born in 1710, which may be a rough clue to an approximate date for Fenning's own birth. Whether Fenning was living in Bures at the time of his marriage or already teaching is not certain. The next mention of his name that has come to light is an entry in the Subscription Books of the Diocese of Norwich, which shows that on the 25th of October 1740 he was licensed to teach at Bures.⁸ From 1581 it had been compulsory for teachers to be licensed by the bishop of the relevant diocese to ensure that they were of sound Anglican persuasion, rec-

ognized the supremacy of the monarch, and subscribed to the thirty-nine articles of the Church of England. Licensing often went by default, however, and the fact that Fenning was licensed at a particular date does not necessarily mean that he had not been teaching before. A school had been in existence in Bures since 1662. It was not a Grammar School, which would have had a graduate as master and probably one who was in orders. Fenning was not a graduate and there is no record that he went up to either university at Oxford or Cambridge. Other masters licensed to teach at Bures have "r.w.a." after their names in the Subscription Books, which indicates that they basically taught the three Rs. Fenning's textbooks suggest that he may have included some geo-graphy and algebra in his syllabus.

In 1739, Fenning started to compile his Universal Spelling Book although it was not to be published for nearly another twenty years.⁹ While they were at Bures, seven children were born to Fenning and his wife and it may have been his growing family, with its ever-increasing demands on his purse, that caused him to move to London in 1747/8. He established himself in Whitechapel, where he was to spend the rest of his life. After arriving in London, Fenning seems to have given up schoolmastering and became associated with the Royal-Exchange Assurance Company. Perhaps he secured a more lucrative post than was afforded by teaching in a school, although quite what his position was is not known. His family continued to increase: a further five children were born in London.

Fenning and his Textbooks

Two years after settling in London, Fenning published his first textbook that can be dated with any certainty. This was The Young Algebraist's Companion (1750), and it was dedicated to the "Governors and Directors of the Royal-Exchange Assurance Company." Fenning himself is described on the title page as being "of the Royal-Exchange Assurance Company" (my italics). His next book was an arithmetic textbook: The British Youth's Instructor (2nd ed. 1754), published later in America under the title The American Youth's Instructor. Fenning then published the book for which he was to become best known in his lifetime: The Universal Spelling Book; or, a new and easy guide to the English language (1756). This enjoyed greater popularity in the UK than it did in America, and there are some ninety known English editions up to 1860.¹⁰

The Universal Spelling Book was rather more than simply a spelling book for teaching children to read. The first part follows more or less the conventional pattern for the time, although Fenning introduces his own ideas on the teaching of reading and the way in which children learn. There are three more sections, however, and these include a brief grammar of English, a selective dictionary of useful words intended to be of use in "School, Shop, or Compting-House" and, finally, a section of miscellaneous information with such things as recipes for making ink, alphabet copies and instructions for writing, and passages in prose and verse, "not only diverting to the Mind, and improving to the Morals, but a great Help to prevent Youth from falling a Sacrifice to the common Temptations of Life, and their own un-

guarded Passions." The fourth edition of 1760 added a further section on history.

Like his later works on the English language, then, English grammar formed part of Fenning's spelling book. Both The Royal English Dictionary or Treasury of the English Language (1761), which was dedicated to George III and published by his "authority, " and The New and Complete Spelling Dictionary and Sure Guide to the English Language (1767) contained grammars. All three of these grammars are different and perhaps each represents Fenning's changing ideas about the English language, which culminated in the work for which he is usually remembered today: A New Grammar of the English Language (1771).

The Mystery of the Posthumous Grammar

With this last publication, however, there is a problem: it was not published until some four years after Fenning's death. Hitherto, it has not been known when Fenning died and the grammar has been accepted as his work without question. Now, it seems, there must be at least some doubt. Six books are named in his will, the income from which he left in trust to his wife, Mary, to go after her death to one of his daughters. A New Grammar is not named in Fenning's will and no mention is made of a work in preparation.

It can, perhaps, never be known for certain if Fenning was responsible for this grammar or not. There are, however, some indications that it probably was his. An "Advertisement by the Editor" at the front of the book reads: "The following Grammar was put into my hands, in manuscript, by the Bookseller, with a request, that I would examine it carefully, and prepare it for the Press, but not make any alteration in it without an evident necessity." It appears that the editor, whoever he or she was, did not find it necessary to alter anything and was not, in any real sense, an editor at all. The very fact that the book should need an editor to prepare it for the press indicates that the original author was probably not on the scene. Presumably, the intended readership (or much of it) would have known that Fenning had died some years earlier and, although no mention is made of this fact, the "Advertisement" may have been meant to reassure readers that the book was genuinely Fenning's and not by anyone else.

The usual preface by the author follows the "Advertisement" and begins: "When I had the honour of being a Schoolmaster...I drew up several works for the instruction of Youth in the English tongue, and, among others, the substance of the following Grammar," which, the writer says, he used in his own school. This is consistent with what we know about Fenning's method of writing textbooks while he was still teaching, many years before they were published. The ideas in the preface about the chastisement of children and the best way of encouraging them to learn are much the same as those in the earlier prefaces, notably The Universal Spelling Book.

That Fenning added to the grammar later is clear from his references to the works of Priestley and Lowth, neither of whose grammars he believes suitable for school use. This, again, is typical of the way Fenning continued to revise his ideas and keep abreast of recent developments. The bookseller mentioned in the advertisement is S. Crowder of

Paternoster Row, Fenning's usual publisher. Details of Fenning's contract with Crowder for the profits from the sale of his books are set out in his will.

The close of Fenning's preface to The Universal Spelling Book shows him as both modest and realistic in his attitude towards his writings, and not without a sense of humor:

I naturally expect the common Fate of every Author, to be approved and disapproved of; so I naturally expect to have justice done me in considering the Size and Price; and then, if upon the whole it appears to be more serviceable for Children and adult Persons than Spelling Books in general, a candid Reader will wink at a few Imperfections, and as for the whimsical and censorious Critic, whose whole Search and Labour is to find Fault upon the least Occasion, and as often without any just Reason at all, it is quite reasonable he should have some Reward for his Trouble, which he certainly will . . .

Fenning died sometime in late August or early September 1767 at Great Gurven Street in the parish of St. Mary Whitechapel. He gave instructions that he was to be buried "in as plain a manner and with as little expense as possible." He was survived by several of his children and his widow, who lived on until 1780.

NOTES

1. The date of first publication is sometimes given as 1755, but the earliest edition in the British Library is dated 1756.

2. Roger Patrell Bristol, The American Bibliography of Charles Evans, vol. 14, index (Worcester, MA; 1959; Gloucester, MA: Peter Smith, 1967).

3. An edition of 1828 (Baltimore, MD: Fielding Lucas, Jr.) is in the private collection of Charles and Jennifer Monaghan.

4. Clifton Johnson, Old-Time Schools and School-Books (New York: Dover Publications, 1963), p. 68. 1st published Macmillan, 1904. The Use of the Globes does not appear to have been printed in America. Johnson also deals at some length with The Universal Spelling Book, pp. 53-60. Other textbooks by Fenning to be published in America include his Ready Reckoner (with various titles and in both English and German editions); and The American Youth's Instructor, with the title appropriately adjusted from The British Youth's Instructor.

5. Source: British Library catalogue.

6. Daniel Fenning, A New Grammar of the English Language, 1771: Prefatory note to facsimile edition in English Linguistics, 1500-1800, No.19, ed. Robin C. Alston (Menston: Scholar Press, 1967).

7. This is a result of the decision to give Fenning an entry in the New Dictionary of National Biography, at present being compiled by the Oxford University Press.

8. E. H. Carter, The Norwich Subscription Books: a Study of the Subscription Books of the Diocese of Norwich 1637-1800 (London: Thomas Nelson & Sons Ltd., 1937), pp.185-6.

9. In the preface to A Universal Spelling Book, Fenning says that he began the work in 1739 and was advised to publish it in 1742. By 1747, the time when he moved to London, it was virtually complete and there was no real reason for his not publishing at that time.

10. Alston records 84 editions in his A Bibliography of the English Language from the Invention of Printing to the Year 1800, vol. 4, corrected reprint (Ilkley: Janus Press, 1974). Since 1974, Alston has located some 12 further editions and has now reached a total of 96 known editions (personal information from R. C. Alston).