The turn of the new century brought with it a transformation of Hone's
personal and professional prospects. In the later months of 1799, a
long-time acquaintance with Sarah Johnson, his landlady's daughter, blossomed
into a full-scale attachment; on 19 July, 1800, in St. Anne's, Westminster, the
two were married. Unfortunately, not much is known about either Sarah
Johnson or her mother. From various, usually glancing references in the
surviving Hone letters, one senses that Sarah Johnson Hone was a practical,
industrious, and persevering woman whose level-headedness was all that kept the
large family together during numerous periods of insolvency. It is
certainly true that Hone's correspondents greatly admired her. Indeed, in
1818 Alexander Galloway paid her a "compliment" that he was not
accustomed to "shew to many ladies"; that is, he deigned to have a cup
of tea with her in his own house because, in his view, "her worth and
firmness demand this respect from all those who have had an opportunity of
appreciating in its proper character her high merit."[1]
The occasional letter from one of the Hones' children also suggests—albeit
indirectly—that her demeanor within the family was warm and affectionate.
Both William and the children looked to Sarah for practical advice and emotional
support, and she was by all appearances generous and helpful on all counts.
About Sarah's mother, information is even more scarce. She had been a
widow at least since 1789, when Hone's father had come to Lambeth to preach and
she invited him (and his son William) to dine with her.[2] She was also
comfortably well-off, for she owned a relatively spacious house which more than
once became the refuge for her daughter's family during periods of financial
strain. Sarah was her only child.
For the first few months after they were married, William and Sarah Hone lived
with Sarah's mother in the Lambeth house. Thanks to a gift of £100 from
his new mother-in-law, William was able finally to give up his work as a legal
copyist and set out on his own with a small stationery shop and circulating
library. The enterprise enabled him to immerse himself in his first
love—books and prints—and the bookselling trade offered the hope of a far more
satisfying career than he had dared to imagine for himself as a mere copyist.
Sadly, however, it also revealed for the first time a fact that would torment
the Hone family repeatedly for the rest of their years—as an entrepreneur,
William was both unlucky and inept. Soon after opening his first shop, for
instance, he discovered that, as Hackwood puts it, "book and print buyers
were somewhat rare in the locality of Lambeth Walk."[3] Consequently, Hone
moved the shop to a more promising location in St. Martin's Lane. But
here, though the book trade was more vibrant, his landlord revoked the lease,
forcing the shop to move once again. Soon after setting up in yet another
location, a wall gave way in his new premises, and Hone had to carry his family
and his small bookselling stock back to the house in Lambeth once again.
It was something of an understatement then when, writing to Hone in September of
1802, Venning claims that "Providence does not think itself under any
obligation to bestow undeserving favours on you[.]"[4]
In the meantime, the Hone family had begun to grow. Sarah gave birth to
the couple's first child, a daughter, also called Sarah, on 20 July 1801, just
one year after her marriage to William. A second daughter, Fanny, was born
on 5 April 1803. Clearly, the increasing number of little Hones led
William to feel an increasing pressure to make something of himself financially,
and he began to seek out other opportunities. Thus, in 1804, Hone edited a
recipe book called Millington's Cookery, much to the amusement of his friend
Venning, but not much to the profit of the editor.[5]
And in 1805, Hone was apparently driven to the point of giving up entirely on
the book trade as he took what seemed to be more stable, reliable employment as
a bookkeeper for a local hop factor. Even this was an unlucky situation,
however, since his employer, a Mr. E. Lowton of Southwark, was both dishonest
and bankrupt, and Hone's "bookkeeping" involved mainly a settlement of
Lowton's assets upon his numerous creditors. Finally, in 1805 or perhaps
early 1806, after this long series of unprofitable enterprises, Hone entered
into a partnership with the veteran reformer John Bone—a partnership that would
dominate his professional life for the next several years, first in the
"Tranquillity" project and later in a joint bookselling operation.
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