New London.
The first printing done in Connecticut was in that town;
forty-five years before a press was established elsewhere
in the colony.[1]
Thomas Short was the first who printed in Connecticut.
He set up his press in the town of New London in 1709.[2]
He
was recommended by Bartholomew Green, who at that
time printed in Boston, and from whom he, probably,
learned the art of printing.
In the year 1710,[3]
he printed an original work, well
known in New England, by the title of The Saybrook Platform
of Church Discipline. This is said to be the first book
printed in the colony. After the Platform he printed a
number of sermons, and sundry pamphlets on religious
subjects, and was employed by the governor and company
to do the work for the colony. He died at New London,
three or four years after his settlement there.
[4]
Timothy Green has already been taken notice of, as
the son of Samuel Green junior, of Boston, and grandson
of Samuel Green senior, of Cambridge. He conducted a
press in Boston thirteen years. Receiving an invitation
from the council and assembly of Connecticut colony,[5]
in
the year 1714 he removed to New London, and was appointed
printer to the governor and company, on a salary
of fifty pounds per annum.[6]
It was stipulated that for this
sum he should print the election sermons, proclamations,
and the laws which should be enacted at the several sessions
of the assembly.
Besides the work of government, Green printed a number
of pamphlets on religious subjects, particularly sermons.
It has been said of him, that whenever he heard a sermon
which he highly approved, he would solicit a copy from the
author, and print it for his own sales. This honest zeal in
the cause of religion often proved injurious to his interest.
Large quantities of these sermons lay on hand as dead
stock; and, after his decease, they were put into baskets,
appraised by the bushel, and sold under the value of common
waste paper.
He printed a revised edition of the laws, entitled, Acts
and Laws of his Majestie's Colony of Connecticut in New England.
Imprint—"New-London, Reprinted by Timothy
Green, Printer to his Honour the Governour and Council,
1715." He published, also, an edition of the laws
from 1715 to 1750. As early as 1727, he printed Robert
Treat's Almanack; the celestial signs for which were
rudely cut on em quadrates, and raised to the height of
the letter. Some years before his death he resigned his
printing house and business to his son Timothy, who at
the time was a printer in Boston, and the partner of
Samuel Kneeland.
Green was a deacon of the church in New London;
and as a Christian was held in high estimation. His
piety was free from the gloominess and asperity of the
bigot, and he was benevolent in his heart, and virtuous in
his life. He was of a very facetious disposition, and many
of his anecdotes are handed down to the present time.
He died May 5, 1757,[7]
aged seventy-eight years. He
left six sons, and one daughter who died in East Haddam
in 1808. Three of his sons were printers; the eldest, who
succeeded him; the second settled at Annapolis, in Maryland;
and the third who was connected with his father,
but died before him. Another of his sons by the name of
Thomas, by trade a pewterer, settled in Boston, where he
died leaving several children.
Samuel Green, third son of Timothy Green, was born in
Boston two years before his father left that town. He was
taught printing by his father, and was for several years in
partnership with him. He died in May, 1752, at forty years
of age, leaving a family of nine children, three of them sons,
who were printers, and of whom due notice will be taken
in course.
Timothy Green Junior, was born in Boston, and came to
New London with his father, who instructed him in the art.
He began printing in Boston,[8]
and was for twenty-five
years the partner of Samuel Kneeland, as has been related.
On the death of his brother Samuel, his father being aged,
and unable to manage the concerns of the printing house,
he closed his partnership with Kneeland, and, in compliance
with his father's request, removed to New London.
The whole business was resigned to him. He succeeded
his father as printer of the colony; and, at that time, there
was not another printing house in Connecticut.
On the 8th of August, 1758, he published a newspaper.
This was the second establishment of the kind in the
colony.
After a life of industry, he died October 3,[9]
1763, aged
sixty years. He was amiable in his manners, and much
esteemed by his friends and acquaintances. [See Boston
Newspapers.]
Timothy Green, 3d, was the son of Samuel Green, and
nephew to the last mentioned Timothy. He was born in
New London, and was taught the art by his uncle, to
whose business he succeeded. The newspaper begun by
his uncle was discontinued, and he established another,
afterwards published by his son. In 1773, he set up a
press in Norwich, in company with his brother-in-law,
which was afterwards removed to Vermont.
Green was printer to the colony. In his profession, and
as a citizen, he was respectable; a firm and honest whig,
he was attached to the federal constitution of the United
States. He died on the 10th of March, 1796, aged fifty-nine
years. He had eleven children, eight sons and three
daughters. Two sons were printers, one of whom, Samuel,
succeeded his father, the other settled at Fredericksburg,
Virginia, and, in 1787, first printed The Virginia Herald.
Two of his sons, Thomas and John, were booksellers and
binders; another son, named William, was an Episcopal
clergyman.
