A Short History of English Printing, 1476-1898 Part 17

Crossgrove appears to have continued work till 1739, being succeeded by William Chase, who had been printing since 1711, and who established the _Norwich Mercury_ in 1727.

At Bristol the press that William Bonny had established in 1695 continued to flourish until 1713. About November 1702 he began to issue a weekly paper called the _Bristol Post-Boy_, which ran until 1712, when it was either replaced or supplanted by Samuel Farley's _Bristol Postman_.[17]

The Parleys were noted printers in the West of England at this time, and the above-named Samuel must not be confounded with Samuel Farley the Exeter printer.

In Cirencester printing began in 1718, in which year Thomas Hinton brought out the first number of the _Cirencester Post_, and the _Gloucester Journal_ was printed in that city by R. Raikes and W. Dicey on April 9, 172-1/2. Robert Raikes continued printing there till 1750, and was succeeded by his son Robert, the founder of Sunday Schools.[18]

In the neighbouring county of Devon the Exeter press, finally established after many vicissitudes in 1698 by Samuel Darker, is found busily at work in 1701, Darker having been joined by Samuel Farley, whose relation to the Samuel Farley of Bristol offers an opportunity to some cunning genealogist to reap distinction. In 1701 Farley issued by himself John Prince's _Danmonii Orientales Ill.u.s.tres; or The Worthies of Devon_, a work of 600 folio pages, with coats of arms. It was certainly one of the largest works printed at that time by any provincial press outside the Universities. In point of workmanship all that can be said for it is that it was no worse than the bulk of the work turned out by provincial presses; and it furnishes its own criticism in a list of errata on the last page, which closes with the words, 'with many others too tedious to insert.' Thomas Tanner, writing to Browne Willis in 1706, says that he has heard of a bi-weekly paper printing at Exeter. No copy of an Exeter paper of so early a date is known.

In 1705 Farley was joined by Joseph Bliss, and jointly they issued several books; but the partnership lasted a very short time, as by 1708 Joseph Bliss had set up for himself in the Exchange.

On September 24, 1714, Samuel Farley issued the first number of _The Exeter Mercury; or Weekly Intelligence of News_, which in the next year he transferred to Philip Bishop. In 1715 also Joseph Bliss started a rival sheet called the _Protestant Mercury, or The Exeter Post-Boy_, from his new printing-house near the London Inn. Meanwhile Farley appears to have left Exeter, for on September 27, 1715, he published the first number of the _Salisbury Post-Man_. In 1717 Andrew Brice, the most important of Exeter printers, began to print, his address then being 'At the Head of the Serge Market in Southgate Street,' from which he issued, some time in 1718, a paper called the _Post-Master, or the Loyal Mercury_. The history of this printer is too lengthy to be told here, and has already been ably written by Dr. T. N. Brushfield (_The Life and Bibliography of Andrew Brice_). Farley's name occurs again in 1723, when he returned to Exeter and started _Farley's Exeter Journal_. In November 1727 the burial of Samuel Farley is recorded in the registers at St. Paul's, Exeter. He was succeeded in business by an Edward Farley.

Another provincial press that revived very early in the eighteenth century was that of Worcester. It had been silent for upwards of a century and a half; but in June 1709 a printer from London, named Stephen Bryan, set up a press, and started a newspaper called the _Worcester Postman_. In 1722 the t.i.tle was altered to the _Worcester Post, or Western Journal_. Bryan died in 1748, but just previous to his death he a.s.signed his paper to Mr. H. Berrow, who then gave it the name it has ever since borne, that of _Berrow's Worcester Journal_.

Hazlitt, in his _Collections and Notes_ (3rd Series, p. 282), mentions a book ent.i.tled _Tunbridgialia, or ye pleasures of Tunbridge, a poem_, as printed 'at Mount Sion at ye end of ye Upper Walk at Tunbridge Wells,'

1705.

At Canterbury printing was revived in 1717, and a very interesting record of it is in the British Museum in the form of a broadside with the following t.i.tle:--

'A List of the names of the Mayor, Recorder, Aldermen & Common Council of the City of Canterbury Who (In the year of our Lord 1717) promoted and encouraged the n.o.ble Art and Mystery of Printing in this City and County.' Canterbury, Printed by J. Abree for T. James, S. Palmer, and W.

Hunter, 1718.' This John Abree died in 1765 at the age of seventy-seven.

Turning northward, the most important presses were those of York and Newcastle.

At York John White, who had settled in the city in 1680, was actively engaged in business in 1701, and he remained the sole printer there until his death in the year 1715. By his will, dated 31st July 1714, he gave his wife Grace White the use of one full half of his printing tools and presses, etc., for her life; and after her death he gave the same to his grandson, Charles Bourne, to whom he bequeathed the remaining half of his printing implements immediately upon his death. To John White, his son, he devised his real estate.

On the 23rd February 1718-19 Grace White issued the first York newspaper, _The York Mercury_. Upon her death in 1721 the printing-house was carried on by Charles Bourne until 1724, when he was in turn succeeded by Thomas Gent, who had served under John White in 1714-15, and married the widow of Charles Bourne. Davies in his _Memoirs of the York Press_ (pp. 144 _et seq._) gives a detailed and interesting biography of this printer, who, he says, has obtained a wider celebrity than any other York typographer. Gent was an engraver as well as printer, and was the author of a _History of York_, and other works. As a printer his work was wretched; there is little to be said for him as an engraver; while as an author he was below mediocrity. Nevertheless, he deserves credit for the interest he took in the history of York. His history of that city was published in small octavo in 1730, and he followed it up in 1735 with _Annales Regioduni Hullini, or The History of the Royal and Beautiful town of Kingston upon Hull_, also an octavo.

These works were quickly overshadowed by Drake's _History_, and from this time forward Gent's fortunes began to decline. He made an enemy of John White, the son of his old employer, with the result that White set up a press at York in 1725, and issued the first number of _The York Courant_, a weekly paper, but sold it and the business to Alexander Staples ten years later. Staples in turn was succeeded by Caesar Ward and Richard Chandler--the first a bookseller in York, the second in London; but Chandler committed suicide in 1744, and left Ward to carry on the business alone. John Gilfillan was another printer at work in the city during this period. Thomas Gent lived to the age of eighty-seven, his death taking place on the 19th May 1778.

In Newcastle, John White, the son of the York printer of that name, began printing in 1708. He started the _Newcastle Courant_, the first number of which appeared in 1711. In 1761 the firm became John White and Co., and in 1763 John White and T. Saint. White died in 1769, when he is said to have been the oldest printer in the kingdom. As has been noted, from 1725 to 1735 he had carried on a press at York in opposition to T.

Gent. One or two other printers are found here for short periods, but little is known about them.

Among other towns possessing presses early in this century were--Nottingham, 1711; Chester, 1711; Liverpool, 1712; and Birmingham, 1716.

In America the number of printing presses increased but slowly during the first half of the eighteenth century. William Bradford in New York continued the only printer in that province for thirty years. He died on the 23rd May 1752, at the age of ninety-two. For fifty years he had been printer to the Government, and among the numerous books that came through his press were the Book of Common Prayer in quarto, in 1709, the only issue in America before the Revolution, a venture by which he is said to have lost heavily. He also printed a Mohawk Prayer-book in quarto; this was issued in 1715. On the 16th October 1725 he began to publish a weekly paper called _The New York Gazette_, and continued it until his retirement from business.

In 1726 a German named John Peter Zenger set up as a printer in New York. He is chiefly remembered as the printer of the second New York newspaper, the _New York Weekly Journal_, the first number of which was wrongly dated October 5th, 1733, instead of November 5th. The paper involved the printer in several actions for libel, and led to some lively pa.s.sages with William Bradford. He is believed to have died about 1746. Bradford was succeeded as printer to the Government by James Parker, one of his apprentices, who is described as a neat workman. He continued the _New York Gazette_, with the alternative t.i.tle, _or Weekly Post Boy_. He also issued in 1767 an edition of the Psalms in metre, one of the earliest books printed from type cast in America.

In 1753 Parker took into partnership William Weyman, but the connection lasted but a short time, Weyman setting up for himself in 1759. Parker also established presses at New Haven and Woodbridge in New Jersey.

Among the later printers in New York were Hugh Guine (1750-1800); John Holt (1750-1784), printer to the State during the war; Robert Hodge (1770-1813); and Frederick Shober (1772-1806).

Philadelphia possessed only one printer until 1723--Andrew Bradford, son of William Bradford, of New York. In 1723 Samuel Keimer set up near the Market House. It was this printer whom Benjamin Franklin worked for in his early days. Bradford started the _American Weekly Mercury_ on Tuesday, November 22nd, 1719; and the _Pennsylvania Gazette_, afterwards carried on by Franklin and Meredith, was first printed by Keimer. Andrew Bradford died in 1742. Perhaps the most notable of Keimer's books was the folio edition of Sewell's _History of the Quakers_, which he began in 1725. It was a work of upwards of seven hundred pages and Keimer soon found that he had taken the contract at a ruinous rate. It was only by the help of Franklin and Meredith that he was enabled to finish it in 1728.

Benjamin Franklin's history hardly needs retelling. His career as a printer began in the shop of his brother James at Boston in 1717.

Differences arose between them which ended in Franklin's setting out for New York. Work was not to be had there, and by the advice of William Bradford he moved on to Philadelphia. There for some months he worked for Samuel Keimer until, deluded by the promises of Governor Keith, he took ship for England with a view of obtaining materials for a printing office. While in England he worked for James Watts in Bartholomew Close, and James Palmer. On his return to America he once more entered Keimer's office as a journeyman. But after a short time, in company with Hugh Meredith, he set up in business for himself. He was the proprietor and printer of _Poor Richard's Almanack_, which became celebrated, and also of the _Pennsylvania Gazette_. After a long and prosperous career Franklin died, on April 19th, 1790, at the age of eighty-five.

Boston was the home of more printers than any other place in America during the eighteenth century. To give anything like a history of even a few of them would be beyond the limits of this work. Only one or two of the more important can be even noticed.

Thomas Fleet arrived in Boston in 1712, set up as a printer, and for nearly fifty years carried on business there. His issues were princ.i.p.ally pamphlets for booksellers, small books for children, and ballads. He was also the proprietor of a newspaper called the _Weekly Rehearsal_, first begun in September 1731. At his death in July 1758, he left three sons, two of whom succeeded him in business.

In 1718 Samuel Kneeland set up in Prison Lane, and his printing house continued for eighty years. He was one of the printers of the _Boston Gazette_, and he started besides several other journals. Thomas in his history (vol. i. p. 207) says that Kneeland, in company with Bartholomew Green, printed a small quarto edition of the English Bible with Mark Baskett's imprint, but this is not confirmed. Kneeland died on December 14th, 1769. Another celebrated printer in the city of Boston was Gamaliel Rogers, who began business about 1729. In 1742 he entered into partnership with Daniel Fowle. In the following year they issued the first numbers of the _American Magazine_, and in 1748 started the _Independent Advertiser_. The partnership with Fowle was dissolved in 1750. Rogers subsequently moved to the western part of the town, but suffered from a fire, which destroyed his plant. He died in 1775.

Daniel Fowle, on the dissolution of his partnership with Rogers, set up for himself. He was arrested in 1754 for printing a pamphlet reflecting on some members of the House of Representatives, and was thrown into prison for several days. Upon his release, he at once left the town and set up in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where he started the _New Hampshire Gazette_. He was succeeded in his Boston business by his brother Zachariah Fowle, who continued printing there until the Revolution, when he also retired to New Hampshire, where he died in 1776.

[Footnote 14: Chancery Proceedings, 1753 (Record Office).]

[Footnote 15: _Notes and Queries_, First Series, vol. xii. p. 197.]

[Footnote 16: Harl. MS. 5906.]

[Footnote 17: Hyett and Bazeley, _Bibliog. Man. of Glouc. Literature_, vol. iii. p. 339.]

[Footnote 18: Allnutt, _Bibliographica_, vol. ii. p. 302.]

CHAPTER X

1750-1800

The improvement in printing which Caslon had begun quickly spread to other parts of the kingdom, even as far north as Scotland, where, before the middle of the century, there was established at Glasgow a press that became notable for the beauty of its productions.

Robert and Andrew Foulis, the founders of this press, were the sons of Andrew Faulls and Marion Paterson, Robert being born at Glasgow on April 20th, 1707, and his brother on November 23rd, 1712.

Robert Foulis was apprenticed to a barber, but his love for literature led him to study at the University, where he attended the moral philosophy lectures of Francis Hutcheson, who advised him to become a bookseller and printer. His brother, Andrew, entered the University at a later date, destined for the ministry, and during their vacations they travelled throughout England and on the Continent. In the course of these travels they sought for and brought back with them many rare and beautiful books, and gained a wide knowledge of the book trade.

At length, in 1741, Robert Foulis set up as a bookseller in Glasgow. In some of his earlier publications will be found lists of books printed and sold by him, which are very interesting. One of these, which enumerates fifteen books, includes a Greek Testament, Buchanan's edition of the Psalms, Burnet's _Life of the Earl of Rochester_, seven or eight cla.s.sics, among which were a Cicero, Juvenal, Cornelius Nepos, Phaedrus, and Terence, and two of Ta.s.so's works. The Terence was printed for him by Robert Urie, and shows some excellent founts of small italic and Roman. Robert Foulis seems to have begun printing on his own account in 1742, and among his earliest patrons was Professor Hutcheson, for whom he printed a treatise ent.i.tled _Metaphysicae Synopsis_, a duodecimo of ninety pages, and a work on Moral Philosophy of three hundred and thirty pages. He also printed in the same year the second and third editions of a sermon preached by William Leechman before the Synod of Glasgow and Ayr, _The Meditations of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus_, and editions of Cicero and Phaedrus. All these were in duodecimo or small octavo, printed in a clear readable type, that probably came from Urie's foundry. On the 31st March 1743, Robert Foulis was appointed printer to the University of Glasgow, and published _Demetrius Phalerus de Elocutione_ in two sizes, quarto and octavo. This was the first book printed at Glasgow in Greek type, the Greek and Latin renderings being printed on opposite pages--the Latin in a fount of English Roman that cannot be distinguished from Caslon's letter, while the italic also has a strong resemblance to that of the English founder. Among other productions of the year 1743 was a specimen of another Glasgow man's work, Bishop Burnet's translation of Sir Thomas More's _Utopia_, to which was prefixed Holbein's portrait of the great Chancellor.

In 1744 Dr. Andrew Wilson, who for some years had been furnishing Scotch and Irish printers with types from his foundry, moved to Camlachie, a spot within a mile of Glasgow, and at once began to furnish letter for Robert Foulis. In the same year Robert took his brother Andrew into partnership, and the firm quickly became famous for the beauty and correctness of their cla.s.sics, beginning with the edition of Horace, which, from the fact of its having only six errors in the text, was christened the immaculate. Other attractive books were the Sophocles of 1745, quarto; Cicero in twenty volumes, small octavo; the small folio edition of Callimachus, which took the silver medal offered in Edinburgh for the finest book of not fewer than ten sheets; the magnificent Homer, which Reed in his _Old English Letter Foundries_ describes as 'for accuracy and splendour the finest monument of the Foulis press.' But the Foulis press did not confine itself to cla.s.sics only. It published several fine editions of English authors, among them a folio edition of Milton's _Paradise Lost_, and editions of the poems of Gray and Pope. In 1775 Andrew Foulis died suddenly. The blow was very severely felt by his brother, and coming as it did upon the failure of his Academy of Arts, completely crushed him. He removed his art collection to London for sale; but here another disappointment awaited him--the sum realised after paying expenses being fifteen shillings. He returned to Edinburgh, and was on the point of starting for Glasgow when he died on the 2nd June 1776. The Foulis press was carried on by the younger Andrew Foulis until the end of the century.

In England, the chief event of this period was the appearance of John Baskerville at Birmingham.

No satisfactory biography of Baskerville has yet been written, but the best sketches of his life are those by the late T. B. Reed in his _History of the Old English Letter Foundries_ (chap, xiii.), which contains some highly interesting and valuable correspondence between Baskerville and his publisher, R. Dodsley, and the more recent article in the _Dictionary of National Biography_, from the pen of Mr.

Tedder.

[Ill.u.s.tration: JOHN THOMAS BASKERVILLE.]

John Baskerville was born in 1706 at Wolverley, a village in Worcestershire. No one has discovered where he was educated: yet this is one of the points upon which we should like to know something, because it is generally admitted that he was a very beautiful writer; indeed, it was to his love of calligraphy that we owe the regular and well-proportioned letters a.s.sociated with his name. For some time he earned his living as a writing-master; after which he appears to have gone into the j.a.panning trade, and in 1750 embarked some capital in a letter foundry. Another point upon which his biographers are silent is the place where he learnt the art of printing. For we know that the punches of his foundry were not cut by himself, and that he was not in any sense a practical printer; yet he must have obtained some knowledge of the rudiments of the art before taking over the responsibilities of a foundry of his own. Baskerville appears to have employed the most skilled artists he could obtain, and it is said that he spent upwards of 600--some say 800--before he obtained a fount to suit him. His letters to Dodsley show how anxious he was to attain perfection. The result of all this care and labour was shown in the quarto edition of _Virgil_ which appeared in 1757, and was followed by quarto editions of Milton's _Paradise Lost_ and _Paradise Regained_.

The appearance of Baskerville's publications gave rise to no little controversy. By some they were hailed with unstinted praise; while others, such as Mores and Dr. Bedford, looked upon them with something little short of contempt. Yet it is difficult to understand the grounds of these adverse criticisms. As regards type, there is very little to choose between Caslon's Roman and that of Baskerville, while the italic of Baskerville was unquestionably the most beautiful type that had ever been seen in England; and the ridiculous criticism pa.s.sed on it that its very fineness was injurious to the eyesight, was shown to be utterly worthless by Franklin's letter to the printer, which is printed in Reed's _Old English Letter Foundries_. But there are also other features of excellence about these books of Baskerville's. They are simplicity itself. There is not a single ornament or tail-piece introduced into them to divide the attention. The books were printed with deep and wide margins, and the lines were s.p.a.ced out with the very best effect.

The first public body to recognise Baskerville's ability was the University of Oxford, which in July 1758 empowered him to cut a fount of Greek types for 200 guineas. This order proved to be beyond his power.

It is generally admitted that his Greek type was a failure, and he wisely made no further attempts at cutting learned characters. Some of the punches of Baskerville's Greek types are still preserved at Oxford, and are the only specimens of his foundry that we have.

In his Preface to _Paradise Lost_, Baskerville stated that the extent of his ambition was to print an octavo Prayer Book and a folio Bible. In connection with this ambition, he applied to the University of Cambridge for appointment as their printer, a privilege which was granted to him, but at the cost of such a heavy premium that he obtained no pecuniary profit from it. The Prayer Book printed in two forms appeared in 1760, and the same year saw the prospectus and specimen of the Bible issued, the Bible itself appearing in 1763 in imperial folio. Both are beautiful specimens of the printer's art.