University of Virginia Library

NEW JERSEY.

Several presses were occasionally set up in this province
by Keimer, and others, from Philadelphia and New York,
to print the bills of credit, or paper currency, and to do other
occasional printing for the government; and, when the
particular business was accomplished, the printers returned
to the place of their permanent residence with their presses.

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.

Burlington.

Some suppose that William Bradford introduced printing
into that city before the settlement of Philadelphia; but that
opinion is so far from being certain it is not even probable.

Isaac Collins, was a native of Delaware. His parents
were from England, and died in early life. He served his
apprenticeship, until he was twenty years of age, with
James Adams, at Wilmington. He then went, by the consent
of Adams, who had but little business, and finished
his apprenticeship with William Rind at Williamsburg,
Virginia. When of age, he was employed by Goddard
and others in Philadelphia; and for his extraordinary
attention to business, received twenty-five per cent. more
wages than other journeymen in the same printing house.
For a short time he was the partner of Joseph Crukshank,
in that city.

By the death of James Parker, there was an opening for
the settlement of a printer in that colony. Collins embraced
the opportunity; and, being supplied with a press,
types, etc., by his late partner, he removed to, and began
business in Burlington in 1770, and resided there for
several years after the commencement of the war. In 1770
he was appointed printer to the government, or, "to the
King's Most Excellent Majesty," as appears from the imprint
of proclamations, etc., which issued from his press.
In 1777 he began a newspaper.

He afterwards removed to Trenton, and there prosecuted
his business for a number of years. He continued to be
printer to the state, and at Trenton he printed a handsome
and very correct quarto edition of the Bible; also, an edition

in octavo of the New Testament; and several other
books.

Collins was of the society of Friends, and was a correct
and neat printer. He received much assistance from the
quakers in printing the Bible, particularly from those in
Philadelphia, New Jersey, and New York. He subsequently
removed to New York, there set up his press, and
continued active in book printing for some years. His
parents dying when he was very young, he had nothing on
which he could depend for his advancement in life, but his
own exertions. After an attention to business for thirty-five
years, he was enabled to retire and enjoy, in the society
of his friends, the reward of his industry. He brought up,
and educated in a reputable manner, a large family, and
had a son a printer in New York. He died in March, 1817,
in Burlington aged 71 years.

[See Newspapers.]