Career
Hall moved to Rhode Island and at the age of twenty-two entered into a partnership with the widow Anne Franklin [4] [lower-alpha 1] in the publication of the Newport Mercury , beginning with the issue of August 17, 1762. After the death of Mrs. Franklin on April 19, 1763, Hall continued publication of the newspaper paper with success until March 1768, after which he sold it to Solomon Southwick. [1] [lower-alpha 2]
The Essex Gazette
August 9, 1768
Detail of emblem used in the Gazette's header
In 1767 Hall was persuaded by Captain Richard Derby [lower-alpha 3] to come to Salem, Massachusetts and establish a printing press. [8] [9] Receiving financial assistance from Derby, Hall established the first printing house in Salem in 1768, [2] [10] and in the same year established its first newspaper, The Essex Gazette , [11] where he announced the purpose of his newspaper, to promote "a due sense of the Rights and Liberties of our Country." Before Hall's printing press arrived in Salem there were only two other printing presses in Massachusetts; One which arrived at Cambridge in 1639, and one at Boston in 1674. Ninety-four years would pass before Hall's printing press would arrive at Salem, making it one of only three printing presses in all of Massachusetts. [9]
In 1774 Hall suffered a serious setback in his printing business when a catastrophic fire swept through Salem and destroyed numerous shops, barns and other dwellings in that city, including Hall's printing shop. With only minutes to spare, Hall was able to save his printing press and some other wares before the fire consumed the shop. Subsequently he moved his printing operation to a large brick building nearby, owned by a Mr. Blaney, which also contained the office of the Salem custom house. With the assistance from friends and neighbors Hall was soon able to continue the printing and publication of the Gazette, giving thanks and tribute to all who gave him help and support in the issue immediately following the fire. [12]
Hall was considered a "staunch patriot", inspired so by the Stamp Act [lower-alpha 4] and the tax on tea. [13] Subsequently the Gazette had strong sympathies to the Whig party and became an able agent to the colonial cause for independence. [1] After three years of publication Hall took on his brother, Ebenezer, as a partner. [2] Their firm was called Samuel & Ebenezer Hall. They remained in Salem until 1775. [2] After the Lexington and Concord, in May 1775, Hall published a full account of the battle, in the Gazette. [14] When the British evacuated Boston in 1776 Hall, under advice of the Massachusetts General Court, and other prominent men of the Whig party, moved into nearby Cambridge with his printing press, and set up his office in Stoughton Hall, at Harvard College, and continued publishing the Gazette, under the new title of The New England Chronicle. [15] Hall's change of location was made "at the Desire of many respectable Gentlemen of the Honourable Provincial Congress", with whom Hall was in high standing. [16]
On February 14, 1776, Hall's brother and partner, Ebenezer, died, leaving a wife and child, and with Samuel publishing the paper on his own again. [17] In April 1776 Hall moved his newspaper to Boston, and continued printing his paper, now simply called The New England Chronicle, with The Essex Gazette removed from the title, and operated there until 1781, until he returned to Salem. [18] [19] In June he sold out to Powars & Willis, who renamed the newspaper The Independent Chronicle. [1] He continued printing in Salem until November 1785, after which time he returned to Boston, and established another printing house, along with a book store, in Cornhill. [20] In the Gazette of November 15, 1785, Hall stated his reasons for moving back to Boston, in that the taxes on advertising had cost him much business and that it was recommended by trusted friends that he move from Salem. [21]
Hall took on other printing assignments, which include the printing of The History of Cambridge in 1801, by Abiel Holmes. [22]
The New Hampshire Gazette is a nonprofit, alternative, bi-weekly newspaper published in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Its editors claim that the paper, which all but disappeared into other publications until the late 1900s, is the oldest newspaper in the United States. The paper trademarked the phrase "The Nation's Oldest Newspaper" after being revived as a small biweekly in 1989. This assertion is highly contested, and the Hartford Courant is generally understood to be the nation's oldest newspaper when considering scholarly articles, standard journalism, and historical texts.
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Thomas Fleet was an English printer who came to the British colonies in America and established himself as a printer and publisher in Boston. His decision to come to the colonies was prompted by people seeking retribution for what was considered his public display of disrespect for a popular member of the English clergy. Fleet produced works for various booksellers, printed pamphlets, ballads, children's stories and later established the Boston Evening Post. In his earlier years fleet compiled his own version of Mother Goose from stories told by his mother-in-law, Elizabeth Vergoose, to his children. When he published various controversial accounts about the colonial government and the clergy he was admonished, threatened with prosecution and subsequently became one of the first American printers to challenge royal authority and defend the idea of Freedom of the Press. Through his newspaper Fleet played an active role in the Christian revivalist controversy that occurred in the colonies during the early eighteenth century.
The Essex Gazette was a weekly newspaper established in 1768 by Samuel Hall in Salem, Massachusetts, as the city's first newspaper and the first published in Massachusetts outside Boston, the colony's capital. it was the third newspaper to appear in Massachusetts. From its start, the newspaper was a strong proponent of American independence. The Gazette was relocated to Cambridge in 1775 following the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War with the Battles of Lexington and Concord. In early 1776, after the British army was driven from Boston, Hall moved the Gazette to the city, changing its name to The New England Chronicle.
Richard Draper (1726–1774) was an early American Boston printer and an editor of The Boston News-Letter. Together with his father and his nephew Draper printed and published The News-Letter. In the years leading up to the American Revolution Draper sided with the Loyalists and the Tory party, and through his newspaper he provided a voice for the Loyalist writers in Massachusetts and elsewhere.
