DUNTON, John (1659-1735) an eccentric bookseller, publisher, and author, was born at Graffharn, in Huntingdonshire, May 4, 1659. In his boyhood he showed great fondness for adventure, and a faculty for getting into and out of scrapes. At the age of fifteen he was apprenticed to Thomas Parkhurst, bookseller, at the sign of the Bible and Three Crowns, Cheapside, London, whose strictness had full exercise in the endeavour to keep in check his wayward tendencies. During the struggle which led to the Revolution, Dunton joined the Whig apprentices, and became the treasurer of that body. In 1685 he became bookseller at the sign of the Raven, near the Royal Exchange, having, after much consideration as to the lady he should select, married a sister of Samuel Wesley. His wife managed his business, so that he was left free in a great measure to follow his own eccentric devices, which now took the form chiefly of writing and rambling. In 1686, probably because he was concerned in the Monmouth rising, he visited New England, where he stayed eight months selling books and observing with interest the new country and its inhabitants. He then made a short excursion to Holland; after which, returning to England, he opened a new shop in the Poultry, in the hope of better times. Here he published weekly the Athenian Mercury, which professed to answer all questions on history, philosophy, love, marriage, and things in general. It enjoyed considerable popularity for some time, but he discontinued it, after a course of six years, in 1696. His wife died some time after this. He married a second time; but a quarrel about his wife’s property led to a separation, and, having no one to manage his affairs, he spent the remainder of his life in great poverty. He died in 1735. He wrote a great ...