Woodbridge.
The first press established in New Jersey, it appears,
was at Woodbridge, and for many years this was the only
one in the colony.
The printing which had been done for government by
presses set up occasionally, as mentioned above, was executed
at Burlington. It was there that Keimer, in 1727,
sent Franklin to print the bills of credit; for which, Franklin
observes, he "engraved various ornaments, and performed
the business to general satisfaction."
James Parker, who has been mentioned among the
printers of New Haven and New York, was born in that
borough, and there began business about the year 1751.
He had for several years conducted a press and a newspaper
in New York, but having taken William Weyman
as a partner in his concerns in that city, he intrusted the
management of the establishment to him, and returned
himself to the place of his nativity. There he printed a
folio edition of the Laws of the Province,[1]
and, from time
to time, the votes and resolves of the legislature, and did
other work for goverment. There also he published,
monthly, more than two years, a magazine, and otherwise
employed his press on his own account.
To accommodate the printing of Smith's History of New
Jersey, in 1765, Parker removed his press to Burlington,
and there began and completed the work, consisting of
570 pages, demy octavo, and then returned with his press
to Woodbridge.
Parker was a correct and eminent printer. Besides his
professional concerns, he was much employed in the public
transactions; he was a magistrate, a captain of a troop
of horse, in New Jersey, and comptroller and secretary
of the general postoffice for the northern district of the
British colonies. He possessed a sound judgment, and a
good heart; was industrious in business, and upright in
his dealings.
He died July 2, 1770, at Burlington, where he had resided
a short time for the benefit of his health. His
funeral was attended five miles from Burlington, by a
number of gentlemen of that city, and was met at Amboy
by others, who then joined the procession to his house in
Woodbridge, where a numerous concourse was collected,
and accompanied his remains to the cemetery where those
of his ancestors reposed.
[See N, Haven—New York—Hist. Newspapers.]
Samuel F. Parker has been mentioned, as connected
with his father in the printing business, during several
years; and, afterward, with John Anderson, in New York.
After the death of his father, he became possessed of a
large printing apparatus; but from it he derived very little
benefit, as he leased the establishment at New York, not
much to his advantage, and sold that at Woodbridge, in
the course of a few years. He did not improve either his
time or his talents; his health decayed; and he slept with
his fathers, before he had attained the number of years to
which they arrived.
