When Hotten died suddenly in 1873, Chatto bought the firm from Hotten's widow for £25,000 with money from the Poet William Edward Windus (1828–1910) who became his partner in Chatto & Windus. While Windus provide the finance, he was not an active partner, living for some of the time on the Isle of Man. Windus probably knew Chatto from when Hotten had published his first volume of verse in 1871.
