{{Short description|British publisher}} {{bots|deny=Citation bot}} {{Use British English|date=January 2024}} {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2024}} {{Infobox person | name =William Thomas Pike | image = | alt = | caption = | birth_date = {{Birth date|1838|01|26|df=y}} | birth_place = Hastings, Sussex, England | death_date = {{Death date and age|1924|04|22|1838|01|26|df=y}} | death_place = Hove, Sussex | other_names = | occupation = Publisher, printer and editor, owner of W.T. Pike & Co. | years_active = before 1898 – 1924 | known_for = ''Pike's New Century Series'', 1898–1912 | notable_works = | signature = Signature of William Thomas Pike 1911 (1b).JPG }}
'''William Thomas Pike''' (26 January 1838 – 22 April 1924) was an English publisher, printer, editor and journalist. He is known for his publication of ''Pike's New Century Series'' of the Edwardian era. These are large volumes containing topographies of many of the counties of England and Ireland, and photographic portraits and biographies of many county inhabitants, from accountants and businessmen to bishops and aristocrats, but only rarely including women.
Pike had a modest background, beginning as an errand boy and tailor. His career as publisher, printer and editor was interrupted by imprisonment for embezzlement, but as a newspaperman he had friends. Following his release from jail he quickly revived his career, and continued to publish for many more years.
== Background== By the time Pike was born, his family of tradesmen was based in the south of England. His paternal grandfather was James Pike of Northamptonshire. His father was William Pike, a journeyman baker,<ref name="1851 census" /> and in the 1860s an agent for London Friendly Society,<ref name="1881 census" /> born in Earls Barton, Northamptonshire.<ref name="1881 census" />{{Refn|William Pike (Earls Barton, 24 March 1805 – Hastings 1886)|group=nb}} His mother Elizabeth Pike née Butcher died in December 1841 when he was three years old, while the family was living in Camberwell.<ref>{{cite web |title=1841 England Census. St Giles, Camberwell, Lambeth, district 18.. H107/1050/7. Page 19. Schedule 54.|url-access=subscription |url=https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageviewer/collections/8978/images/SRYHO107_1050_1051-0163?pId=10081623 |website=ancestry.co.uk |publisher=H.M. Government |access-date=26 December 2023 |date=1841 |quote=William Pike 35yrs. Elizabeth Pike 25yrs. William Pike 3yrs. Thomas Pike 4mths.}} There is an error in this source: Pike's younger brother was James (not Thomas, which was Pike's second given name).</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=East Sussex, marriages and banns|url-access=subscription |url=https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageviewer/collections/62126/images/4427616_00142?pId=91005452 |website=ancestry.co.uk |publisher=Ancestry |access-date=26 December 2023 |date=27 November 1834 |quote=Hastings St Clement church. By banns. William Pike bachelor, and Elizabeth Butcher, spinster. Witnessed by Thomas Butcher and Mary Eliza Butcher.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Burials in the parish of St Giles Camberwell. |date=1841 |publisher=Ancestry |location=Camberwell |page=215 |url=https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageviewer/collections/1559/images/31280_199123-00505?pId=9501839|url-access=subscription |access-date=26 December 2023 |quote=Elizabeth Pike of George Street, Camberwell, buried 12 December 1841, aged 26 years.}}</ref>{{Refn|Elizabeth Pike née Butcher (Surrey 1815 – Camberwell December 1841). GRO index: Deaths Dec 1841 Pike Elizabeth Camberwell IV 37. She was buried on 12 December 1841 in the churchyard of St Giles Camberwell. Pike's mother Elizabeth is named in his birth certificate (see below)|group=nb}} Pike's stepmother was Sarah née Dowley, born in Hastings or London,<ref name="1861 census" >{{cite web |title=1861 England census for 11 Shards Road, Camberwell, Surrey. RG9/384. Page 17/59. Schedule 69 |url=https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageviewer/collections/8767/images/SRYRG9_384_387-0020?pId=6496719 |via=Ancestry |url-access=subscription |publisher=H.M. Government |access-date=18 October 2023 |quote=William T. Pike, age 23, a tailor, born in St Leonard's On Sea (bordering Hastings). Sarah, wife of Pike's father William, born in City of London.}}</ref> the seventh child of James Dowley of Surrey and Kent, a corn factor who had the Freedom of the City of London. She married Pike's father in 1846.<ref name="1851 census" >{{cite web |title=1851 England census. Croydon, Surrey.. HO107/1601. Page 68/342. Schedule 219. |url=https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageviewer/collections/8860/images/KENHO107_1601_1601-0683?pId=1278446 |via=Ancestry |url-access=subscription |publisher=H.M. Government |access-date=17 October 2023 |date=1851 |quote=William Pike, errand boy}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Freedom of the City Admission Papers, December 1801 – May 1802. |url=https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageviewer/collections/2052/images/32512_a064034-00617?pId=930765 |via=Ancestry |url-access=subscription |publisher=H.M. Government |access-date=17 October 2023 |date=2 February 1802}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Holden's Triennial Directory 1805–1807, vols 1 and 2 |date=1807 |publisher=Holden |location=London |url=https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageviewer/collections/3145/images/GB1239-00164?pId=10438705 |access-date=17 October 2023 |via=Ancestry |url-access=subscription }}</ref>{{Refn|Sarah Dowley (Camberwell 14 December 1819 – Hastings July 1901). GRO index; Marriages Jun 1846 Dowley Sarah and Pike, William. Greenwich V 299. James Dowley (Southwark 29 June 1775 – Maidstone 1851).|group=nb}}
The eldest of eight siblings and half-siblings, William Thomas Pike was born in St Leonards-on-Sea, Sussex, on 26 January 1838.<ref name="1861 census" />{{Refn|William Thomas Pike (1838–1924) GRO index: Births Mar 1838 Pike William Thomas Hastings 7 326. His birth certificate says: "1838, sub-district Saint Mary in the Castle. 26th January in St Mary Magdalen (district). William Thomas Pike. Father William Pike, baker. Mother Elizabeth Pike formerly Butcher. Informant W. Pike baker, of St Mary Magdalen".|group=nb}} At thirteen years old he was an errand boy, living with his father, stepmother and siblings in Croydon, Surrey.<ref name="1851 census" /> By 1861, at the age of twenty-three, he was living with his father and stepmother at 11 Shards Road, Camberwell, having been apprenticed as a tailor.<ref name="1861 census" />
On 8 November 1869 at St Nicholas Church, Brighton, Pike married Emma Agnes Reading, who was then twenty-five years old. She was born in Brighton, the daughter of butler Joseph Reading.<ref>{{cite web |title=Wedding certificate of W.T. Pike and E.A. Reading. |url=https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageviewer/collections/62126/images/62049_62021000438_1110-00061?pId=4127439 |via=Ancestry |url-access=subscription |publisher=Church of England |access-date=20 October 2023 |quote=St Nicholas Church, Brighton. November 8, 1869. William Thomas Pike, 31, bachelor, publisher, and Emma Agnes Reading, 25, spinster. Groom's father William Pike, commission agent. Bride's father, Joseph Reading, butler, deceased.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=National Probate Calendar 1912 |date=1912 |via=Ancestry |url-access=subscription|publisher=HM Government |location=London |page=395 |url=https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageviewer/collections/1904/images/31874_222951-00404?pId=5238341 |access-date=17 October 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=England and Wales Marriages 1538–1988 |url=https://www.ancestry.co.uk/discoveryui-content/view/1710853:1352?ssrc=pt&tid=52833797&pid=170084813292 |via=Ancestry |url-access=subscription |publisher=Church of England |access-date=17 October 2023 |date=8 November 1869}}</ref>{{Refn|Emma Agnes Reading (Brighton 1844 – Brighton 23 January 1912) GRO index: Births Mar 1844 Reading Emma Brighton VII 320. Marriages Dec 1869 Pike William Thomas, Emma Agnes Reading, Brighton 2b 368. Deaths Mar 1912 Pike Emma A. 68 Brighton 2b 256.|group=nb}} They had no children.<ref name="1911 England census" /> In 1878, they were living at 1 Elphinstone Road, Hastings.<ref name="H & L Observer 22 June 1878" >{{cite news |title=Serious charge of embezzlement against a Hastings man |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000293/18780622/014/0003 |access-date=18 October 2023 |work=Hastings and St Leonards Observer |agency=|via=British Newspaper Archive |url-access=subscription |date=22 June 1878 |page=3 col.3}}</ref> By 1881, Pike and his wife were living at 53 George Street, Hastings, with Pike's parents, and Pike was describing himself as a publisher and commercial traveller.<ref name="1881 census" >{{cite web |title=1881 England census. 53 George Street, Hastings RG11/1023. Page 56. Schedule 284 |url=https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageviewer/collections/7572/images/SSXRG11_1019_1023-0946?pId=21734870 |via=Ancestry |url-access=subscription |publisher=H.M. Government |access-date=17 October 2023 |quote=William Pike (Pike's father), agent for London Friendly Society William Thomas Pike, publisher and commercial traveller.}}</ref> The 1891 census finds Pike and his wife living at 100 Upper North Street, Brighton, with his mother-in-law and a servant.{{Refn|100 Upper North Street, Brighton, can be seen on [https://www.instantstreetview.com/@50.825111,-0.146726,16.07h,5p,1z,HShxBzI9gTIgqQq18TEYtQ Street View].|group=nb}} He describes himself as a publisher of books.<ref name="1891 England census" >{{cite web |title=1891 England census. 100 Upper North Street, Brighton, Sussex. RG12/814. Page 17/89. Schedule 119 |url=https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageviewer/collections/6598/images/SSXRG12_812_814-0588?pId=10757921 |via=Ancestry |url-access=subscription |publisher=H.M. Government |access-date=20 October 2023 |quote=William T. Pike, age 53, publisher of books, born in Hastings. Emma A. Pike, age 41, born in Brighton.}}</ref> By 1901, he and his wife had moved to 19 Grand Parade, Brighton. He was working in the same trade, on his own account.<ref name="1901 England census" >{{cite web |title=1901 England census. 19 Grand Parade, Brighton, Sussex. RG13/922. Page 4. Schedule 29. |url=https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageviewer/collections/7814/images/SSXRG13_920_922-0635?pId=6368162 |via=Ancestry |url-access=subscription |publisher=H.M. Government |access-date=20 October 2023}}</ref> The 1911 census finds them at the same address.<ref name="1911 England census" >{{cite web |title=1911 England census. 19 Grand Parade, Brighton. Schedule 24. |url=https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageviewer/collections/2352/images/rg14_05097_0047_03?pId=51354245 |via=Ancestry |url-access=subscription |publisher=H.M. Government |access-date=20 October 2023}}</ref>
<gallery> St Nicholas' Church, Church Street, Brighton (NHLE Code 1380453) (September 2019) (Interior) (7).JPG|Interior of St Nicholas' Church, Brighton, where Pike married 18 and 19 Grand Parade, Brighton (IoE Code 480757).jpg|19 Grand Parade, Brighton (right), Pike's early 20th-century residence and business address </gallery>
Emma Pike died on 23 January 1912.<ref name="Brighton Argus 24 January 1912" /><ref>{{cite news |title=Death of Mrs W. T. Pike |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000938/19120127/124/0008 |access-date=24 October 2023 |work=Brighton Gazette |agency=|via=British Newspaper Archive |url-access=subscription |date=27 January 1912 |page=8 col.3}}</ref> Pike died on 22 April 1924 at 47 Westbourne Street, Hove, Sussex.{{Refn|William Thomas Pike (January 1838 – 22 April1924). GRO index: Deaths Jun 1924 Pike William T. 87 Steyning 2b 333. 47 Westbourne Street, Hove, where Pike died, can be seen on [https://www.instantstreetview.com/@50.831573,-0.182135,102.74h,5p,1z,sTMlJzyKOZyuDNrn_wc_mg Street View].|group=nb}} He left £138 13s 3d; ({{Inflation|UK|138.7|1924|fmt=eq|r=2|cursign=£}}). His will was proved in London on 3 July 1924, his sister Fanny being named executrix.{{Inflation-fn|UK|df=y}}<ref>{{cite book |title=England and Wales National Probate Calendar, 1924 |date=1924 |publisher=HM Government |location=London |page=587 |url=https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageviewer/collections/1904/images/31874_222557-00596?pId=2513565 |access-date=20 October 2023 |via=Ancestry |url-access=subscription}}</ref>
==W. T. Pike & Co.== For some time until March 1877, Pike and his colleague John Ivimy were joint proprietors of ''Brighton Fashionable Visitors' List'', a publication known as ''The List'' run by Pike from 1866,<ref name="H & L Observer 22 June 1878" /><ref name="The Era 21 July 1878" >{{cite news |title=Embezzlement from Messrs Cramer's manager at Brighton |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000053/18780721/021/0006 |access-date=18 October 2023 |work=The Era |agency=|via=British Newspaper Archive |url-access=subscription |date=21 July 1878 |page=6 col.2}}</ref><ref name="Post Office Directory 1874" >{{cite book |title=1874 Post Office Directory, for Brighton, Sussex |date=1874 |page=2597 |via=Ancestry |url-access=subscription|url=https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageviewer/collections/3145/images/GB0671-00128?pId=7563163 |access-date=20 October 2023 |quote=Pike, Wm Thos, publisher of the visitors' list, 55 West Street}}</ref> and the newspaper ''Hastings and Eastbourne Chronicle and Record of Local Events''. Pike was publisher and printer, and his brother James was editor.<ref name="Brighton Gazette 20 June 1878" /><ref>{{cite news |title=Action for libel. George Watts v. Curtis Brothers and Towner |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000257/18790121/055/0005 |access-date=19 October 2023 |work=Sussex Advertiser |agency=|via=British Newspaper Archive |url-access=subscription |date=21 January 1879 |page=5 col.6}}</ref> "Some difficulties arose",<ref name="H & L Observer 22 June 1878" /><ref name="H & SL Times" /> when Pike and Ivimy were facing receivership, having been fined £50 ({{Inflation|UK|50|1877|fmt=eq|r=2|cursign=£}}) in respect of a libel case brought by W. Kuhe in February 1877 against ''The List''.<ref name="Brighton Gazette 20 June 1878" /><ref name="The Era 23 June 1878" /><ref name="Brighton Guardian 28 February 1877" >{{cite news |title=Action for libel. Brighton. Kuhe v. Pike and Ivimy |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001641/18770228/157/0008 |access-date=19 October 2023 |work=Brighton Guardian |agency=|via=British Newspaper Archive |url-access=subscription |date=28 February 1877 |page=8 col.6}}</ref> The business was purchased for £735 ({{Inflation|UK|735|1877|fmt=eq|r=2|cursign=£}}) on 12 April 1877 by George William Watts the junior partner and manager of a piano-manufacturing firm, J.B. Cramer & Co., in Brighton.<ref name="H & L Observer 22 June 1878" /><ref name="H & SL Times" >{{cite news |title=The charges of embezzlement against Mr W. T. Pike. Heavy sentence. |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0003441/18780720/094/0006 |access-date=18 October 2023 |work=Hastings & St. Leonards Times |agency=|via=British Newspaper Archive |url-access=subscription |date=20 July 1878 |page=6 col.3}}</ref>{{Refn|Newspapers report various versions of the sum paid by Watts for ''The List'', ranging from £700 to £750, but £735 is quoted in several sources.|group=nb}} Watts, a regular advertiser in Pike's newspaper, knew about the business being at risk of foundering, and took advantage of that.<ref name="Brighton Gazette 20 June 1878" />
Although Watts became sole proprietor, the business was at that point named for the first time as W. T. Pike & Co. On 28 May 1877, under a written agreement, Pike became manager, being paid £3 10s per week ({{Inflation|UK|3.5|1877|fmt=eq|r=2|cursign=£}}) plus between twenty and fifty percent of net profits, by Watts, who also allowed him the use of accommodation above the works at 35 East Street, Brighton, in the town centre. Pike kept the firm's cash book, but was not permitted to handle cheques, which were to be passed directly to Watts.<ref name="H & L Observer 22 June 1878" /><ref name="H & SL Times" /><ref name="Brighton Gazette 20 June 1878" >{{cite news |title=An ex-newspaper proprietor charged with embezzlement |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000938/18780620/089/0006 |access-date=19 October 2023 |work=Brighton Gazette |agency=|via=British Newspaper Archive |url-access=subscription |date=20 June 1878 |page=6 cols.2–4}}</ref>{{Inflation-fn|UK|df=y}}
On 18 December 1877, Pike "in a passion" gave a verbal notice to quit,<ref name="Brighton Gazette 20 June 1878" /> because Watts had dismissed Pike's brother James from the post of editor, and Watts countered by giving Pike three months' notice to leave. Thereafter, Pike did no work for Watts, who claimed that his former employee was "playing billiards all day", so that a distress warrant was issued against Pike. He left in January 1878, after which cash-book discrepancies were discovered. According to Watts, Pike had been cashing cheques without permission, and had not been entering all payments from advertisers into the cash book.<ref name="H & L Observer 22 June 1878" /><ref name="H & SL Times" /><ref name="Brighton Gazette 20 June 1878" />
===Embezzlement trial and imprisonment=== On 18 or 19 June 1878 at Brighton Police Court,<ref name="The Era 23 June 1878" >{{cite news |title=The Brighton Visitors' List |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000053/18780623/005/0003 |access-date=18 October 2023 |work=The Era |agency=|via=British Newspaper Archive |url-access=subscription |date=23 June 1878 |page=3 col.4}}</ref> Pike was bailed for £200 ({{Inflation|UK|200|1878|fmt=eq|r=2|cursign=£}}) on committal for "embezzling and stealing the sum of £4 ({{Inflation|UK|4|1877|fmt=eq|r=2|cursign=£}}) on 6th October, 1877, £13 18s ({{Inflation|UK|13.9|1877|fmt=eq|r=2|cursign=£}}) on the 26th October, 1877, and £3 5s ({{Inflation|UK|3.25|1878|fmt=eq|r=2|cursign=£}}) on 11th January, 1878, the moneys of his employer, George William Watts, at Brighton".<ref name="H & L Observer 22 June 1878" />{{Inflation-fn|UK|df=y}}<ref name="Calendar for Prisoners 1878" /> He was tried by jury in a 6.5-hour session at the quarter sessions at Brighton Town Hall on 16 July 1878,<ref name="The Era 21 July 1878" /><ref>{{cite news |title=Brighton |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0005049/18780717/023/0003 |access-date=19 October 2023 |work=London Daily Chronicle |agency=|via=British Newspaper Archive |url-access=subscription |date=17 July 1878 |page=3 col.6}}</ref> convicted of embezzlement "with a strong recommendation to mercy on account of the prisoner's previous good character", and committed to 6 months' imprisonment at Lewes, with hard labour.<ref name="H & L Observer 22 June 1878" /><ref name="H & SL Times" /><ref name="Calendar for Prisoners 1878" >{{cite web |title=Calendar for Prisoners, 1878, Brighton: In her Majesty's Prison at Lewes, felonies. |url=https://www.ancestry.co.uk/discoveryui-content/view/869259:61808?tid=&pid=&queryId=018c8db048f774d096d48bab0868b236&_phsrc=kwN99&_phstart=successSource |via=Ancestry |url-access=subscription |publisher=H.M. Government |access-date=18 October 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Criminal Register for Sussex, 1878 |date=15 July 1878 |publisher=HM Government |location=Brighton, Sussex |page=159 |url=https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageviewer/collections/1590/images/31251_A006181-00161?pId=499495 |access-date=20 October 2023 |via=Ancestry |url-access=subscription}}</ref> When asked whether he had anything to say, Pike spoke in a "rambling" manner, claiming innocence and asserting that, "the whole of the book was not in his handwriting", and that he was "justified" in taking the money. "He concluded by forgiving the jury, and saying that he should not like to stand in Mr Watts' shoes".<ref name="H & SL Times" /> The sentence was explained by the deputy recorder as follows:<ref name="H & SL Times" />
<blockquote>William Thomas Pike, you have been found guilty of this charge upon evidence which can leave no doubt on the mind of any reasonable man. If any other verdict had been returned, it would not have been a satisfactory verdict, but a verdict contrary to the evidence. With regard to the sentence, the Court can take into consideration the recommendation which the jury has made to the Court, and in which Mr Watts, the prosecutor, has joined. Any sentence which I should pass upon you would be felt to be severe to a man in your position. But on the other hand I must observe, in passing sentence upon you, that a man in your position knows perfectly well the consequences of his acts; and in the interests of society, I must remember that no business man in Brighton would be safe if such a thing as appears to have taken place in this business were passed over without due punishment. Looking at others, at the great confidence reposed in you, and taking into consideration the recommendation of the jury, the sentence is that you will be imprisoned, with Hard Labour, in the House of Correction at Lewes for the space of six calendar months.<ref name="H & SL Times" /></blockquote>
There was "a sensation in Court ... The prisoner, who appeared dazed at the sentence, was then led from the dock".<ref name="H & SL Times" /> However, as a newspaperman, Pike had friends in and around Brighton. Another journalist commented:<ref name="H & SL Observer 20 July 1878" />
<blockquote>Mr Pike, a gentleman well known in Hastings, Brighton and Eastbourne, ''received it heavily'' from the Deputy Recorder ... The case was a painful one. I have reason to believe that the prisoner felt confident of the prosecution falling through. And now! ... The man appeared dazed on receiving the sentence. And no wonder. In a moment, so to speak, the prospects of a life are blighted. Mr Pike was a smart business man, and might have achieved a satisfactory future through his enterprise and industry. But it is all over ... I say only that the issue is a sad one.<ref name="H & SL Observer 20 July 1878" >{{cite news |title=Our neighbours |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000293/18780720/030/0006 |access-date=19 October 2023 |work=Hastings and St Leonards Observer |agency=|via=British Newspaper Archive |url-access=subscription |date=20 July 1878 |page=6 col.3}}</ref></blockquote>
By January 1879, Watts was losing credibility, having begun various suits for libel and lost, leaving local newspapers free to comment negatively against him, his treatment of Pike, and his treatment of his colleagues in the music and entertainment world.<ref>{{cite news |title=A recent case |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000938/18790123/075/0005 |access-date=19 October 2023 |work=Brighton Gazette |agency=|via=British Newspaper Archive |url-access=subscription |date=23 January 1879 |page=5 cols 1,2}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=A Hastings, Eastbourne and Brighton libel case |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000293/18790118/037/0010 |access-date=19 October 2023 |work=Hastings and St Leonards Observer |agency=|via=British Newspaper Archive |url-access=subscription |date=18 January 1879 |page=10, cols 5,6}}</ref>
<gallery> Brighton Town Hall, Bartholomews, The Lanes, Brighton (NHLE Code 1379974) (July 2014) (4).jpg|Brighton Town Hall, where Pike was indicted and convicted Lewes House of Correction (1).jpg|Lewes House of Correction, where Pike served his term </gallery>
===Re-establishment of W.T. Pike & Co.=== Following Pike's release from prison, events made clear that it was not "all over" for him. A new publishing company was founded in Brighton, Sussex, as Robinson, Son & Pike. The firm was a "pioneer in the production of guide books and brochures for tourists, illustrated by photographs".<ref name="Bibliographical aids" >{{cite journal |title=Bibliographical aids to research: Pike's New Century Series |journal=Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research |date=May 1961 |volume=34 |issue=89, 90 |pages=60–62 |url=https://archive.org/details/dli.calcutta.05059/page/59/mode/2up |access-date=16 October 2023}}</ref>
By August 1881, Pike had published his ''Directory for Hastings and St Leonards, 1881–1882'', to good reviews, and it was not his first issue of that work. The ''Hastings and St Leonards Observer'' said it was, "in every way worth the money ... It cannot fail to be of the greatest use to tradesmen ... We have on previous occasions spoken very highly of this work, but the present issue is far more perfect than any of its predecessors".<ref>{{cite news |title=Hastings and St Leonards Directory |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000293/18810827/008/0003 |access-date=19 October 2023 |work=Hastings and St Leonards Observer |agency=|via=British Newspaper Archive |url-access=subscription |date=27 August 1881 |page=3 col. 6}}</ref>
The company was renamed as W.T. Pike & Co., and it expanded, with Pike as the proprietor. In 1898 Pike "hit upon a format for a national series", titled, ''Pike's New Century Series''. The series was produced until 1912, and one source says that the company closed in the same year,<ref name="Bibliographical aids" /> the year in which Pike's wife died,<ref name="Brighton Argus 24 January 1912" >{{cite news |title=Obituary |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000618/19120124/099/0003 |access-date=24 October 2023 |work=Brighton Argus |agency=|via=British Newspaper Archive |url-access=subscription |date=24 January 1912 |page=3 col.6 |quote=Mre Pike, wife of W.T. Pike, Grand Parade, Brighton, aged 62.}}</ref> and that the "premises were taken over by Garnett, Mepham and Fisher".<ref name="Bibliographical aids" /> Other sources show that in 1913 the firm had not yet closed; it was still publishing books.<ref>{{cite news |title=Just published. The Pictorial Record for Northampton |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0002129/19130814/096/0002 |access-date=24 October 2023 |work=Northampton Chronicle and Echo |agency=|via=British Newspaper Archive |url-access=subscription |date=14 August 1913 |page=2 cols 3,4}}</ref>
== Pike's New Century Series, 1898–1912== {{Main|William Thomas Pike bibliography}}
''Pike's New Century Series, 1898–1912'' is a series of quarto volumes, published at 19 Grand Parade, Brighton, and paid for by subscription. The first two volumes concerned the city of Bristol, which set the basic format of combining topography and biographies of noted contemporary figures associated with particular cities or county of England or Ireland.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Pike |first=William Thomas |url=https://archive.org/details/bristol-biographies-1898-1 |title=Bristol in 1898: Contemporary Biographies, Vol. 1 |date=1898 |publisher=W. T. Pike & Co. |location=Brighton}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Pike |first=William Thomas |url=https://archive.org/details/bristol-biographies-1898-2 |title=Bristol in 1898: Contemporary Biographies, Vol. 2 |date=1898 |publisher=W. T. Pike & Co. |location=Brighton}}</ref> Named authors, and occasionally Pike himself, were responsible for the topography sections, Pike's team edited and expanded the biographies supplied by the subjects who were also the subscribers, and Pike edited the whole.<ref name="Bibliographical aids"/>
<blockquote>[The series combined] a text with the qualities of a high-grade guide-book, printed on art paper and copiously illustrated with half-tone plates, with an illustrated biographical dictionary, the whole bound in good-quality imitation morocco.<ref name="Bibliographical aids" /></blockquote>
The local authors who contributed the topographical sections were sometimes "distinguished antiquarians", but otherwise those sections do "vary greatly in quality". The way in which the order of the biographical section follows established tradition, and its almost total exclusion of women, indicates the social hierarchy of the pre-First World War era. In the biographical section of each volume, the "lord lieutenant, bishop and sheriff" are first illustrated and described, with larger photographic portraits than the rest. Following those, there are biographies and photographic portraits of "the nobility and gentry, the gentry and magistrates, the clergy, the legal, medical, dental, ''scholastic, literary and musical'' professions, engineers, architects and surveyors, auctioneers, estate agents and accountants, veterinary surgeons, and businessmen" — in that order.<ref name="Bibliographical aids" /> The London volume includes a portrait and biography of the Lord Mayor of London.<ref name="Bibliographical aids" /><ref>{{cite book |last1=Welch |first1=Charles |editor1-last=Pike |editor1-first=W. T. |title=Vol. 15. London at the Opening of the Twentieth Century |date=1905 |publisher=W. T. Pike & Co. |location=Brighton, Sussex|page=98}}</ref><ref name="Wikisource 1" >{{cite web |title=Pike's New Century Series |url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Portal:Pike%27s_New_Century_Series |website=Wikisource |publisher=Wikisource |access-date=22 October 2023}}</ref>
The 1912 East Anglia volume was reviewed by the newspaper, ''Truth'', in 1913:<ref name="Truth 16 April 1913" >{{cite news |title=Among those literary productions |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0002961/19130416/033/0017 |access-date=24 October 2023 |work=Truth |agency=|via=British Newspaper Archive |url-access=subscription |date=16 April 1913 |page=17 col.1}}</ref>
<blockquote>Among those literary productions which appeal to parochial patriotism and the simple vanity of the undistinguished, is one entitled ''East Anglia in the Twentieth Century'' ... One feature was to be a full account of all the East Anglian churches, and another was to be the usual biographical list of celebrities. The price was £5 5s ({{Inflation|UK|5.25|1912|fmt=eq|r=2|cursign=£}}). A subscriber interested in churches complains that so little space is devoted to them, while, on the other hand, the list of nobility and gentry is so complete that even the name of the manager of a Cambridge brewery, who is now a guest of H.M. prisons, is included in it. That is the worst of being a five-guinea celebrity. You never know who is going to share the honour with you.<ref name="Truth 16 April 1913" />{{Inflation-fn|UK|df=y}}</blockquote>
<gallery> W.T. Pike Contemporary Biographies West Riding of Yorkshire 1902, book cover (4).JPG|Cover of volume.6 of ''Pike's New Century Series'' W.T. Pike Contemporary Biographies Sussex 1910 (40).JPG|Title page of the Sussex volume of the series Mrs William Henry Vaudrey (2a).jpg|Eleanor Florence Vaudrey, a rare example of a female portrait in ''Pike's New Century Series'' </gallery>
==Notes== {{Reflist|group=nb}}
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== {{Commons category-inline|William Thomas Pike}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pike, William Thomas}} Category:1838 births Category:1924 deaths Category:People from St Leonards-on-Sea Category:English newspaper editors Category:English editors Category:Writers from Hastings Category:19th-century British publishers (people) Category:20th-century British publishers (people) Category:English printers Category:Prisoners and detainees of England and Wales Category:English prisoners and detainees Category:English journalists Category:English male journalists