Robert Kemp Philp

Robert Kemp Philp(1819–1882) was an English journalist, author, andChartist.

Early life

Born atFalmouthon 14 June 1819, he was son of Henry Philp (1793–1836) of Falmouth. His grandfather Robert Kemp Philp (1769–1850), aWesleyanand thenUnitarianminister of Falmouth, was one of the earliest supporters ofragged schoolsand city missions.

Chartist

On leaving school Philp was placed, in 1835, with a printer atBristol,and then was a newsvendor inBath, Somerset.For selling a Sunday newspaper, he was fined, and, on refusing to pay, was condemned to thestocksfor two hours. He joined the Chartist movement, and edited a paper calledThe Regenerator,and, withHenry Vincent,The National Vindicator,a Bath weekly newspaper, which appeared from 1838 to 1842. In 1839 Philp began lecturing as a Chartist, of moderate opinions. After theNewport Rising(November 1840) he collected evidence for the defence ofJohn Frost(d. 1877) [q. v.], and was arrested atNewport, Monmouthshire,on suspicion of complicity, but was released on bail. He joined on the executive committee of the Chartists in 1841.

In the spring of 1842 Philp signed the declaration drawn up byJoseph Sturge,and was appointed a delegate to the conference called by Sturge atBirminghamon 27 December 1842. As a result, Philp was ousted from the Chartist committee by the "physical force" group, led byFeargus O'Connor.He was a member of the national convention which sat in London from 12 April 1842, and is credited with having drawn up the monster petition, signed by 3,300,000 persons, and presented on 2 May, in favour of the confirmation of the charter. Philp was a contributor toThe Sentinelfrom its launch on 7 January 1843.

Later life

In 1845 Philp settled in Great New Street,Fetter Lane,London, as a publisher, and was sub-editor of thePeople's Journalfrom 1846 to 1848. He published, on his own account, theFamily Friend,successively a monthly, fortnightly, and weekly periodical. He acted as editor from 1849 to 1852. It had an enormous sale. Similar serials followed: theFamily Tutor(between 1851 and 1853), theHome Companion(from 1852 to 1856), and theFamily Treasury(in 1853–4). He also editedDiogenes,a weekly comic paper (1853–4).

Philp died at 21Claremont Square,Islington,on 30 November 1882, aged 64, and was buried in acommon grave(no.25301) on the eastern side ofHighgate Cemetery.He left an only son.

Works

Philp compiled cheap handbooks on the practical topics of daily life. In many cases they were issued in monthly numbers at twopence. The most popular,Enquire Within upon Everything,appeared in 1856; a sixty-fifth edition followed in 1882, and in 1888 the sale had reached a total of 1,039,000 copies. By 1900 it had sold almost 1.3 million and remained in print until 1973A supplement,The Interview,appeared in 1856; republished asA Journey of Discovery all round our House,London, 1867. Similar compilations were:Notices to Correspondents: Information on all Subjects, collected from Answers given in Journals,1856, andThe Reason Why: a careful Collection of some hundreds of Reasons for Things which, though generally believed, are imperfectly understood(1856, tenth thousand 1857). The last heralded aReason Whyseries of volumes dealing with general science (1857, forty-fifth thousand 1867); domestic science (1857, 1869); natural history (1860); history (1859); the Bible (1859); Christian denominations (1860); the garden and farm (1860); and physical geography and geology (1863).

Philp's dictionaries of daily wants (1861), of useful knowledge, 1858–62 (issued in monthly parts), of medical and surgical knowledge,The Best of Everything,andThe Lady's Every-day Book,1873, were all popular. He also published aHistory of Progress in Great Britain,in sixpenny monthly parts, June 1859 to July 1860, which was reissued in two volumes (1859–60). The portions dealing withThe Progress of Agricultureand theProgress of Carriages, Roads...,were printed separately (London, 1858).

Philp was responsible for many further similar works. He also compiled guides to theLake districtandWales,and to the Great Northern, the Midland (1873), London and North-Western (1874), London and South-Western (1874), Great Eastern (1875), London, Brighton, and South Coast (1875), and South-Eastern railways (1875). At least five songs by him were set to music, and he wrote a comedy, in two acts,The Successful Candidate(1853). His portrait was in vol. i. of theFamily Treasury.

References

Attribution

This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain:Lee, Sidney,ed. (1896). "Philp, Robert Kemp".Dictionary of National Biography.Vol. 45. London: Smith, Elder & Co.

External links

• Works by Robert Kemp PhilpatProject Gutenberg
• Works by Robert Kemp PhilpatFaded Page(Canada)
• Works by Robert Kemp PhilpatLibriVox(public domain audiobooks)