William Rushton and Ann Rushton gave birth to a son on 26 September 1836, and another on 13 August 1840. They possibly also gave birth to a daughter, but this is not recorded. William Rushton donated in 1834 the sum or Rs. 10 to the Baptist Missionary Society.
He was a printer of some note, based at 2 Vansittart Row. He was responsible for the publication of the The Bengal and Agra Annual Guide and Gazetteer for 1841. Along with George Pritchard he was co-editor of the Oriental Observer: or, General Record of News and Literature (1827). He was also the publisher of The Bengal Sporting Magazine. He was one of those who exploited a lack of copyright protection that British authors had in countries outside of England enabling editions to be printed and sold in English or in translation. He brought out an edition of Pickwick Papers with lithographic impressions of the original illustrations, sold in two volumes. William Rushton became proprietor of The Bengal Sporting Magazine that was founded in 1833 by Joachim Stocqueler; and the publisher of the weekly paper, The Oriental Literary Observer.
On 1 February 1845 William Rushton, aged 40 years, married Augusta Mary Schneider, a spinster of 25 years. Both were residents of Kyd Street at the time. William Rushton’s father’s name was Thomas Rushton.
An in-exhaustive list of his publications follows:
Alexander Duff, Mr. Scott and the Calcutta Mission Library and Apparatus: Being a series of remarks on a statement inserted by Mr. Thomas Scott…(Calcutta; William Rushton, 1845)
R. Shelton Mackenzie, The Dramatic Works of James Sheridan Knowles (Calcutta: William Rushton, 1838)
Alfred Wallis Street, Details Explanatory of the Minutes of the Managing Committee of Calcutta High School, at their Meeting of June 15, 1842 (Calcutta: William Rushton, 1842)
Robert Bruce Boswell, Sermon Preached on Behalf of the Calcutta Infant School Society (Calcutta: William Rushton, 1836)
Report of the local Directors made to the shareholders, at a general meeting, held at Calcutta, 30th November 1844 (Calcutta: William Rushton, 1844).
Sujaan Mukherjee
