University of Virginia Library

CONNECTICUT.

There was no press in this colony until 1709; and, I
believe, not more than four printing houses in it before
1775.

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.

New Haven.

The second printing house, established in Connecticut,
was in this town.

James Parker & Company. At the commencement of
the war between England and France, in 1754, Benjamin
Franklin and William Hunter were joint deputy postmasters
general for America. As the principal seat of the
war with France, in this country, was to the northward,
the establishment of a post office in New Haven became
an object of some consequence. James Parker, in 1754,
obtained from Franklin the first appointment of postmaster
in that place, associated with John Holt, who had
been unfortunate in his commercial business, and was
brother-in-law to Hunter.

Having secured the post office, Parker, who was then
the principal printer at New York, by the advice of Franklin
established a press in New Haven at the close of the
year 1754. The first work from his press was the laws of
Yale College, in Latin. On the first of January, 1755, he
published a newspaper.

Holt directed the concerns of the printing house and
post office in behalf of James Parker & Co. Parker

remained at New York. Post riders were established for
the army, and considerable business was done at the post
office and printing house during the war.

Parker had a partner, named Weyman, in New York,
who managed their affairs in that city until the year 1759,
when the partnership was dissolved. This event made it
necessary that a new arrangement should take place.
Holt went to New York in 1760, took the direction of Parker's
printing house in that city, and conducted its concerns.
The press and post office in New Haven were left to the
agency of Thomas Green; Parker & Co. still remaining
proprietors, and continuing their firm on the Gazette till
1764, when they resigned the business to Benjamin Mecom.

Benjamin Mecom, who has been mentioned as a printer,
first at Antigua, and afterward in Boston, removed to
New Haven in 1764, and succeeded Parker & Co. Franklin
appointed him postmaster. He revived the Gazette
which had been discontinued, but did very little other
printing. He remained in that city until 1767, and then
removed to Philadelphia. [See Philadelphia, etc.]

Samuel Green was the third son of Samuel Green, and
grandson of the first Timothy Green, both printers in
New London, where he was born. He was taught printing
by his uncle Timothy, who succeeded his father and grandfather,
in New London; and was the successor of Mecom,
at New Haven, in 1767. He was joined by his brother
Thomas, from Hartford, and they became partners, under
the firm of Thomas & Samuel Green. The newspaper,
which was begun by Parker & Co., and continued by
Mecom, had again been discontinued. These brothers
established another. Their partnership remained until
dissolved by the death of Samuel, one of the parties, in
February, 1799, aged fifty-six years.

After the death of Samuel, the son of Thomas became
a partner with his father, under the firm of Thomas Green
& Son. This son was also named Thomas. The establishment
continued ten years.

In 1809, a nephew of Richard Draper, Thomas Collier,
who had been a printer at Litchfield, was connected with
Green and his son; but the same year Thomas Green the
father retired from business. On this occasion he published
a very affectionate and pathetic address to the public.
He died May, 1812, aged seventy-seven years.

The newspaper established by Thomas and Samuel
Green was continued by Eli Hudson.

Hartford.

Printing was first introduced into Hartford, in the year
1764.

Thomas Green, who has been just mentioned as the
partner of Samuel Green in New Haven, was born at New
London. He was the eldest son of Samuel Green, printer,
in that place. His father dying, during the early part of
his life he was instructed in printing by his uncle. Green
first commenced printing in Hartford, in 1764. Until that
time New London and New Haven were the only places
in the colony in which presses had been established. He
began the publication of a newspaper, which was the third
printed in Connecticut; he remained there till 1767, when
he removed to New Haven, and went into a partnership
with his brother. Previous to his leaving Hartford, he
formed a connection with Ebenezer Watson, and conducted
the press two years under the firm of Green &
Watson.

Thomas Green was a great-great-grandson of Samuel
Green, who printed at Cambridge, Massachusetts. He died
in 1812, aged 73.

Frederick Green, printer of the Maryland Gazette, at
Annapolis, was from the same stock, and also a great-great-grandson
of the same Samuel Green.

Samuel Green, printer of the Connecticut Gazette at New
London, and Thomas Green junior, one of the publishers
of the Connecticut Journal, at New Haven, were of the sixth
generation of the name of Green, who had been printers
in this country, being great-great-great-grandsons of
Samuel Green of Cambridge.

Ebenezer Watson succeeded Thomas Green, in Hartford,
from whom he learned printing. He continued the
newspaper established by Green. Publishing this paper
was his principal employment, and he became its proprietor
at the close of the year 1769. It does not appear
that Watson was a thoroughly taught printer, though he
practised the art ten years. He died September 16, 1777,
aged thirty-three years. He was remarkable for his humanity,
and anxious for the safety of his country, then
contending for its independence, devoted his press to her
cause. He was an ensign in the governor's company of
cadets. This company attended his funeral, and he was
buried with military honors.

Watson's widow continued the Connecticut Courant in
company with George Goodwin, until she married Barzillai
Hudson. Goodwin served his apprenticeship with
Watson, and was a correct printer. Hudson was not bred
a printer, but came into the business by marrying the
widow of Watson. Goodwin became the partner of
Hudson, and they were very respectable printers under
the firm of Hudson & Goodwin.

Norwich.

This is the fourth town in Connecticut where a press
was established before the revolution. Two printing
houses were opened in the same year.

Green & Spooner. Timothy Green the third, printed in
New London. Judah Paddock Spooner was his brother-in-law,
and served his apprenticeship with him.

Green took Spooner into partnership and furnished press
and types; and they opened a printing house in Norwich
in 1773. Spooner, by agreement, managed the concerns
of the firm. Their business not answering their expectations,
after the trial of a few years, they removed their
press to Westminster in Vermont.[10]

Robertsons & Trumbull. Alexander and James Robertson
were sons of a respectable printer in Scotland. I have
mentioned them as at Albany, where they began printing
and remained for several years. John Trumbull was,
I believe, born in Charlestown, Massachusetts; he served
an apprenticeship with Samuel Kneeland in Boston.
Trumbull entered into partnership with the Robertsons,
and in 1773 they opened a second printing house in Norwich,
and soon after published a newspaper. This connection
was not dissolved until after the British troops took
possession of the city of New York in 1776. The Robertsons
were royalists; and, soon after that event, they left
Norwich, and went to New York.

Trumbull remained at Norwich, and continued printing.
He differed in his politics with his partners, one of whom,
James, had been in the political school of Mein & Fleming
of Boston, for whom he worked two or three years as a

journeyman; but, politics apart, James was a worthy man
and a very good printer. Of Alexander I had no knowledge;
but I have been informed that he was, unfortunately,
deprived of the use of his limbs, and incapacitated for
labor. He was, however, intelligent, well educated, and
possessed some abilities as a writer.

Trumbull was an honest, well meaning man, and attached
to his country. His printing was chiefly confined to his
newspaper, and small articles with which he supplied
country chapmen. He died in August, 1802, at the age of
fifty-two years.

Alexander and James Robertson remained in New York
till 1783, when the royal army and the refugees quitted the
city. The Robertsons went to Shelburne, in Nova Scotia,
where they published a newspaper. Alexander died in
Shelburne, in December, 1784. James returned to Scotland,
his native country, and began business as a printer
and bookseller in Edinburgh.[11]