Benjamin Guild

Last updated

Advertisement for Benjamin Guild's Boston Book-Store, Cornhill, Boston, Massachusetts, 1787 1787 BenjaminGuild BostonBookStore MassachusettsCentinel 29Aug.png
Advertisement for Benjamin Guild's Boston Book-Store, Cornhill, Boston, Massachusetts, 1787

Benjamin Guild (1749-1792) was a bookseller in Boston, Massachusetts, in the late 18th century. [1] He ran the "Boston Book Store" and a circulating subscription library in the 1780s and 1790s at no.59 Cornhill, "first door south of the Old-Brick Meeting-House." [2] [3]

Contents

Biography

Coat of Arms of Benjamin Guild Coat of Arms of Benjamin Guild.svg
Coat of Arms of Benjamin Guild

Born in 1749 to Benjamin Guild and Abigail Graves, Benjamin attended Harvard College (class of 1769); classmates included Theophilus Parsons, Alexander Scammel, Peter Thacher, William Tudor, and Peleg Wadsworth. [4] [5] He later tutored at Harvard, 1776-1780, [5] and travelled abroad. [6] In 1784 he married Betsey Quincy (1757-1825). [7] [nb 1] He served as a charter member and an officer of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, [8] [9] [10] and on the editorial committee of the Boston Magazine . [11]

Guild sold books from his shop at no.8 State Street from around 1785 until 1786, when he moved to Cornhill (1786-1792). [12] In addition to the bookshop, he ran a circulating library, one of the first in post-war Boston. The library contained "several thousands" of volumes, which, according to its 1787 newspaper advertisement "will furnish such a fund of amusement and information as cannot fail to entertain every class of readers ... whether solitary or social -- political or professional -- serious or gay." [13] Subscribers paid eight dollars per year, or "two dollars per quarter -- to have the liberty of taking out two books at a time and no more -- to change them as often as the subscriber pleases -- and no book to be retained longer than one month." [14] Guild stipulated that "any book lost, abused, leaves folded down, writ upon or torn, must be paid for." [14] After his death in 1792, Guild's bookshop and library were taken over by William P. Blake. [15]

Among the titles in Guild's circulating library in 1789: [16]

See also

Notes

  1. Elizabeth Quincy was the daughter of Josiah Quincy I. [5]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Bulfinch</span> American architect (1763–1844)

Charles Bulfinch was an early American architect, and has been regarded by many as the first American-born professional architect to practice.

This article presents a timeline of events in the history of the United Kingdom from 1700 AD until 1799 AD. For a narrative explaining the overall developments, see the related history of the British Isles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Isaiah Thomas (publisher)</span> American printer, newspaper publisher and author (1749–1831)

Isaiah Thomas was an early American printer, newspaper publisher and author. He performed the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence in Worcester, Massachusetts, and reported the first account of the Battles of Lexington and Concord. He was the founder of the American Antiquarian Society.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Theophilus Parsons</span> American judge

Theophilus Parsons was an American jurist based in Massachusetts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Dawes</span> American judge

Thomas Dawes was a patriot who served as a Massachusetts militia colonel during the American Revolution and afterward assumed prominent positions in Massachusetts's government. His positions included membership and chairmanship of the Massachusetts Governor's Council and representative in both the House and Senate. As chairman of the Governor's Council, Dawes served briefly as the de jure presiding officer of the executive branch of Massachusetts' state government for ten days – May 20, 1800 to May 30, 1800 – following the death of first Governor Increase Sumner and then Lieutenant Governor Moses Gill.

Angelo Tarchi was an Italian composer of numerous operas as well as sacred music. Between 1778 and 1787, he worked primarily in Italy, producing five or six new operas each year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Quincy political family</span> Political family in Massachusetts, US

The Quincy family was a prominent political family in Massachusetts from the mid-17th century through to the early 20th century. It is connected to the Adams political family through Abigail Adams.

Gerrardus Wynkoop was a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives from Bucks County and served as speaker of the House in 1793.

The Columbian Centinel (1790–1840) was a Boston, Massachusetts, newspaper established by Benjamin Russell. It continued its predecessor, the Massachusetts Centinel and the Republican Journal, which Russell and partner William Warden had first issued on March 24, 1784. The paper was "the most influential and enterprising paper in Massachusetts after the Revolution." In the Federalist Era, the newspaper was aligned with Federalist sentiment. Until c. 1800 its circulation was the largest in Boston, and its closest competitor was the anti-Federalist Independent Chronicle.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caleb Davis</span> American politician

Caleb Davis was an American merchant, revolutionary patriot, and public servant in Boston, Massachusetts. He held several positions of public trust, including state legislator (1776–1788), Speaker of the Massachusetts General Court (1780–1782) and Elector for Massachusetts' Suffolk County in the first U.S. presidential election in 1789.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ebenezer Battelle</span> American bookseller

Ebenezer Battelle (1754–1815) was an American Revolutionary War veteran, a bookseller in Boston, Massachusetts, and a settler of Marietta, Ohio, in the late 18th century.

The Massachusetts Register is the bi-weekly publication mandated by the Administrative Procedures Act ; it is an official organ of the Massachusetts state government. The Register publishes new and amended regulations; notices of hearings and comment periods related to prospective or draft regulations; and a cumulative index of regulatory changes for the current year. The Register also publishes notices of public interest, as well as opinions of the Attorney General and Executive Orders. The Register is a printed publication; online subscription is also available. This era of publication of the Massachusetts Register began in April 1976.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Dabney</span>

John Dabney (1752–1819) was a postmaster, publisher, and bookseller in Salem, Massachusetts, in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. He was born in Boston in 1752 to Charles Dabney and Elizabeth Gardner. With Thomas C. Cushing, John Dabney published the Salem Mercury newspaper, 1787-1789. In 1790 he married Abigail Mason Peale (1767-1834). Beginning around 1790 he ran the "Salem Book-Store" which offered books for sale or short-term rental; customers included William Bentley. Dabney also served as Salem postmaster ca.1792-1815. He belonged to the North Church in Salem and the Essex Lodge of the Freemasons. Dabney sold the contents of his shop at auction in 1818. He died in 1819.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Isaac Smith Jr.</span>

Isaac Smith Jr. was an American librarian, minister, and educator.

References

  1. "Guild, Benjamin 1749-1792", WorldCat , Online Computer Library Center, retrieved July 30, 2010
  2. "Circulating Library", Massachusetts Centinel, January 6, 1787
  3. Boston Directory, 1789
  4. Boston News-Letter and New-England Chronicle, July 20, 1769
  5. 1 2 3 Burleigh 1887.
  6. "Mr. Benjamin Guild, late tutor of Harvard College, lately arrived from Holland, and who saw Mr. [John] Adams there in August last ..." cf. Salem Gazette, November 15, 1781
  7. Massachusetts Centinel, June 23, 1784
  8. Independent Chronicle, May 27, 1784
  9. American Recorder and the Charlestown Advertiser, June 6, 1786
  10. "Charter of Incorporation", Records of the Academy (American Academy of Arts and Sciences), no. 1964/1965, p. 38
  11. E. W. Pitcher (1980), "Fiction in the Boston Magazine (1783-1786): A Checklist with Notes on Sources", William and Mary Quarterly, 37 (3): 473–483, doi:10.2307/1923813, JSTOR   1923813
  12. Independent Chronicle and the Universal Advertiser, October 26, 1786
  13. Massachusetts Centinel, December 19, 1787
  14. 1 2 Catalogue 1788.
  15. American Apollo, October 26, 1792
  16. Catalogue 1789.
  17. "Markoe, Peter 1752?-1792", WorldCat, Online Computer Library Center, retrieved February 28, 2011
  18. "Robin abbé 1750-1794", WorldCat, Online Computer Library Center, retrieved February 28, 2011
  19. "Wanley, Nathaniel 1634-1680", WorldCat, Online Computer Library Center, retrieved February 28, 2011
  20. "Wyld, Samuel", WorldCat, Online Computer Library Center, retrieved February 28, 2011
  21. "Wynne, John Huddlestone 1743-1788", WorldCat, Online Computer Library Center, retrieved February 28, 2011

Bibliography