Samuel Rousseau

Samuel Rousseau (1763–1820) was a British Oriental scholar and printer. He compiled very early Arabic-English and Persian-English dictionaries, and translated and printed the first English-language editions of several important Arabic and Persian works.

Family background

Samuel Rosseau was the eldest son of Phillip Rousseau, a printer working for William Bowyer, and his wife Susannah (The suggestion that Samuel Rousseau was related to the French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau was raised during the former's lifetime, in the anonymous Literary Memoirs of Living Authors of Great Britain.) This claim was promptly rebutted by Samuel's former master, and his brother's employer, John Nichols, in the pages of the Gentleman's Magazine, but nevertheless later found its way into the Dictionary of National Biography. Ritter, in the Annales, shows that the 'good parent and honest man' referred to in Jean-Jacques Rousseau's letter to David Hume was Jean Rousseau, a confirmed second cousin of the philosopher, rather than Samuel Rousseau. Both Ritter and Van Staen conjecture a possible connection to Jean-Jacques Rousseau's great-uncle Jacob Rousseau, who lived in London in the late 17th century, but report the suggestion as unproven at best. and was described by John Nichols as 'the father and grandfather of several worthy printers'. Samuel Rousseau's brother James was also a printer, and in his later years oversaw the printing of the Votes and Proceedings of the House of Commons.

Early life Samuel was baptised as Samuel Kent Rousseau in St Andrew-by-the-Wardrobe, under the auspices of St Ann Blackfriars, on 20 November 1763. St Ann's had been destroyed by the Great Fire of London, and the parish united with St Andrew's, but the congregation retained a distinct identity, and separate parish registers were kept.

Bowyers, which was later taken over by John Nichols, took on Samuel as an apprentice and other historical records for The Gentleman's Magazine. Whilst working as an apprentice and journeyman, he taught himself Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Persian, Arabic, and the Syriac language. To these he added French and several other modern languages.

Translator, printer and publisher After his apprenticeship, he was for a brief time Master of Joye's Charity School (see List of former schools in the City of London) in St Ann's, Blackfriars Here, he contributed to a number of scholarly works on Middle-Eastern languages, including the expanded edition of John Richardson's Arabic and Persian Dictionary. He commissioned the making of Persian type by Vincent Figgins and set about translating and printing several classic works of Middle-Eastern literature. He compiled a wide range of these in The Flowers of Persian Literature , which he dedicated to Mirza Abu Taleb Khan. This was the first work to be printed in nastaliq script in England, and was intended as a companion to Sir William Jones' Grammar of the Persian Language. The work includes a long essay on Persian language and literature, and demonstrates the dramatic growth in Persian study and translation in the last quarter of the eighteenth century.

Rousseau's press also published an expanded version of Richardson's Odes of Hafiz with additional material by Rousseau himself and notes by his fellow Gentleman's Magazine contributor Stephen Weston. Weston's own work also featured in the output of the Arabic Press, including his philological account of Remains of Arabic in the Spanish and Portuguese languages.

Other works he published included tracts for the Religious Tract Society, patriotic songs for the Napoleonic Wars, and texts by the self-styled prophetess Joanna Southcott. Of Southcott, it was even claimed by George Smeeton that Rousseau had found, in a rubbish heap in Clerkenwell, the seal which was subsequently adopted by her for her followers, and used to seal their 'passports to Heaven'. While working as a printer, he also taught Persian. it closed after a few years of operation. The remains of the grant enabled his daughters to give him a decent burial in the churchyard of St James Church, Clerkenwell.

Legacy Rousseau's works were immediately influential, especially among the employees of the East India Company.