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 Gazzette
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]
Daniel Fowle was a colonial American printer and publisher before and during the American Revolution, and the founder of The New Hampshire Gazette. He printed Samuel Adams' newspaper, The Independent Advertiser. He was jailed for printing a damaging account on the conduct of various Massachusetts representatives and after his trial, he lost his license to print. Dismayed with the Massachusetts government he subsequently chose to remove from Massachusetts to New Hampshire and established The New Hampshire Gazette. During the course of his printing career Fowle employed several apprentices. Using his newspaper, he openly criticized the Stamp Act in 1765. After American independence was established he was commissioned to print the state laws of New Hampshire.
The Boston Gazette (1719–1798) was a newspaper published in Boston, in the British North American colonies. It was a weekly newspaper established by William Brooker, who was just appointed Postmaster of Boston, with its first issue released on December 21, 1719. The Boston Gazette is widely considered the most influential newspaper in early American history, especially in the years leading up to and into the American Revolution. In 1741 the Boston Gazette incorporated the New-England Weekly Journal, founded by Samuel Kneeland, and became the Boston-Gazette, or New-England Weekly Journal. Contributors included: Samuel Adams, Paul Revere, Phyllis Wheatley.
The Boston News-Letter, first published on April 24, 1704, is regarded as the first continuously published newspaper in the colony of Massachusetts. It was heavily subsidized by the British government, with a limited circulation. All copies were approved by the Royal governor before publication. The colonies’ first newspaper was Publick Occurrences Both Forreign and Domestick, which published its first and only issue on September 25, 1690. The Weekly Jamaica Courant followed in Kingston, Jamaica from 1718. In 1726 the Boston Gazette began publishing with Bartholomew Green, Jr., as printer.
The New-England Courant, one of the first American newspapers, was founded in Boston in 1721, by James Franklin. It was a weekly newspaper and the third to appear in Boston. Unlike other newspapers, it offered a more critical account about the British colonial government and other royal figures of authority. The newspaper published critical commentary about smallpox inoculation which fueled the controversy during the smallpox epidemic in Boston. Ultimately it was suppressed in 1726 by British colonial authorities for printing what they considered seditious articles. Franklin took on his brother, Benjamin Franklin, as an apprentice and at one point was compelled to sign over publication of the Courant to him to avert further prosecution. Benjamin submitted anonymous editorials to the Courant, which resulted in James' imprisonment after he began publishing them.This sort of Governmental censorship of early colonial newspapers is what largely fostered the American ideal of Freedom of Speech in the press. The New England Courant is widely noted among historians as being the first newspaper to publish Benjamin's writings.
TheNewport Mercury, was an early American colonial newspaper founded in 1758 by Ann Smith Franklin (1696-1763), and her son, James Franklin (1730–1762), the nephew of Benjamin Franklin. The newspaper was printed on a printing press imported by Franklin's father, James Franklin (1697–1735), in 1717 from London. The Mercury may be the first newspaper published by a woman in the colonial United States. The Mercury was the also first paper to publish poetry by an African American woman, Phillis Wheatley.
Samuel Green was an early American printer, the first of several printers from the Green family who followed in his footsteps. One of Green's major accomplishments as a printer was the Eliot Indian Bible, translated by the missionary John Eliot, which became the first Bible to be printed in British America in 1663. Members of his family who also became printers include his sons Bartholomew, Bartholomew Green, Jr. and Joseph Dennie. Throughout his adult life Green also served in the Massachusetts Bay Colonial Militia, advancing to the rank of captain later in life.
Joseph Tinker Buckingham was an American journalist and politician in New England. He rose from humble beginnings to become an influential conservative intellectual in Boston.
The Independent Chronicle (1776–1840) was a newspaper in Boston, Massachusetts. It originated in 1768 as The Essex Gazette, founded by Samuel Hall (v.1–7) in Salem, and The New-England Chronicle (v.7–9) in Cambridge, before settling in 1776 in Boston as The Independent Chronicle. Publishers also included Edward E. Powars, Nathaniel Willis, and Adams & Rhoades; Capt. Thomas Adams (ca.1757–1799) was the editor prior to his death in 1799. For some time it operated from offices on Court Street formerly occupied by James Franklin. As of the 1820s, "the Chronicle [was] the oldest newspaper ... published in Boston; and has long been considered one of the principal republican papers in the state; and its influence has, at all times, been in exact proportion to the popularity of the cause which it has so warmly espoused." After 1840 the paper continued as the Boston Semi-weekly Advertiser published by Nathan Hale.
Samuel Kneeland (c.1696–1769) was an American printer and publisher of The Boston Gazette and Weekly Journal. Kneeland obtained much of his work printing laws and other official documents for the Province of Massachusetts Bay colonial government for about two decades. He printed the first Bible in the English language ever produced in the American colonies, along with many other religious and spiritual works, including the Book of Psalms. He was also noted for introducing a number of innovations to newspaper printing and journalism. He was one of many colonial printers who were strongly opposed to and outspoken against the Stamp Act in 1765. Kneeland, primarily, along with his sons, were responsible for printing the greater majority of books, magazines and pamphlets published in Boston during his lifetime.
Early American publishers and printers played a central role in the social, religious, political and commercial developments in colonial America, before, during, and after the American Revolution. Printing and publishing in the 17th and 18th centuries among the Thirteen Colonies of British North America first emerged as a result of religious enthusiasm and over the scarcity and subsequent great demand for bibles and other religious literature. By the mid-18th century, printing took on new proportions with the newspapers that began to emerge, most notably in Boston. When the British Crown began imposing new taxes, many of these newspapers became highly critical and outspoken about the British colonial government, which was widely considered unfair among the colonists.
Bibliography of early American publishers and printers is a selection of books, journals and other publications devoted to these topics covering their careers and other activities before, during and just after the American Revolution. Various works that are not primarily devoted to those topics, but whose content devotes itself to them in significant measure, are sometimes included also. Works about Benjamin Franklin, a famous printer and publisher, among other things, are too numerous to list in this bibliography, can be found at Bibliography of Benjamin Franklin, and are generally not included here unless they are greatly devoted to Franklin's printing career. Single accounts of printers and publishers that occur in encyclopedia articles are neither included here.
Peter Edes was a colonial American patriot and printer and an advocate of American independence before and during the American Revolution, during which he was arrested for his show of support for the patriots. After the war he moved his shop to Boston, then to Rhode Island, and again to Maine where he became the first printer to establish a printing house in the District of Maine where he lived out the remainder of his life.
Daniel Henchman was a renowned American publisher and bookseller in 18th century colonial Boston. Aside from his mainstay of publishing, printing and book selling he was involved in a variety of mercantile pursuits. He was also very involved in Boston's civic matters, and gave generously to the poor fund through his church. He was also an officer in the Boston militia regiment. Primarily through Henchman's efforts, the first paper mill to appear in New England was built in Massachusetts. Some historians consider Henchman to be the most prominent publisher and book seller in pre-Revolutionary New England.
The Massachusetts Gazette was a colonial American newspaper established by Richard Draper, printer for the royal governor and council in the Province of Massachusetts Bay. As the American Revolution drew closer it was commissioned by the colonial government to lend its support for the measures of the British ministry. It was one of the few Loyalist newspapers operating during the years leading up to the revolution.
Thomas Fleet (1685–1758) 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.
Marmaduke Johnson was a London printer who was commissioned and sailed from England to Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1660 to assist Samuel Green in the printing of The Indian Bible, which had been laboriously translated by John Eliot into the Massachusett Indian language, which became the first Bible printed in America. Johnson is considered the first master printer to emerge in America. When he attempted to operate his own privately owned printing house in Boston, without an official license from the Crown, the Massachusetts General Court interceded and censured his operation, which in turn started one of the first 'Freedom of the Press' issues in colonial America. After several appeals the Court conceded, where Johnson moved to Boston, set up and outfitted his printing shop, and ultimately became the first printer in America allowed to operate his own private printing press. During his printing career, Johnson printed several works for Eliot containing religious material translated for the Indian nations of Massachusetts.
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.
