Henry S. King & Co.

Henry Samuel King (1817-1878)

Henry Samuel King started a bookselling business, with a Brighton imprint, with his brother, Richard, in 1838. Henry S. King married Ellen Blakeway  in 1850, and George Smith married her sister, Elizabeth Blakeway, in 1854. In 1953, Henry became partner with George Smith in the firm of Smith, Elder & Co., that lasted until 1868. The deed of separation said they should not interfere with each other's business for three years.  In 1863, King married his second wife Harriet Eleanor Baillie-Hamilton(1840–1920), a poet.  In 1871, Henry started publishing under Henry S. King & Co. He wanted to lure away from the Religious Tract Society one of their popular authors, Hesba Stretton, and did publish severalof her works. In 1878 he was bought out by C. Kegan Paul & Co.

Charles Kegan Paul's background was as a clergyman and  he was a manger working for King. In 1877, Paul bought out King and the company became C. Kegan Paul & Co. When Alfred Chenevix Trench joined in the business in 1881 it became Kegan Paul, Trench & Co.

Source:

Howsam, Leslie.  Kegan Paul, a Victorian imprint: publishers, books and cultural history. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1998.)