University of Virginia Library

HISTORY
OF
PRINTING IN AMERICA.

HISTORY OF NEWSPAPERS,

FROM THE PERIOD WHEN THEY WERE FIRST PUBLISHED IN THE BRITISH
COLONIES, TO THE TIME OF THE REVOLUTION, WITH SOME ACCOUNT OF
THOSE PUBLISHED IN EUROPE.

To an observer of the great utility of the kind of publications
called newspapers, it may appear strange that
they should have arisen to the present almost incredible
number, from a comparatively late beginning. I would
not be understood to intimate that ancient nations had no
institutions which answered the purposes of our public
journals, because I believe the contrary is the fact. The
Chinese gazettes may have been published from a very remote
period of time. The kings of Persia had their scribes
who copied the public despatches, which were carried into
the one hundred and twenty-seven provinces of the Persian
empire "by posts;" and, it is probable, they transmitted
accounts of remarkable occurrences in the same manner.
The Romans also adopted the custom of sending into their
distant provinces written accounts of victories gained, and
other remarkable events, which took place in that empire.[1]

It has already been mentioned,[2] that the Mexicans were
very expert at engraving and painting. It has been represented

as probable that they likewise executed hieroglyphical
gazettes; for when the Spaniards first arrived on the
Mexican coast, some of the subjects of Montezuma II sent
to him such a description of the Spanish ships, men, etc.,
as not only terrified him with the strangeness of the sight,
but also astonished the Spaniards themselves, by the accuracy
of it, when the paintings were afterward shown to
them.

These kinds of hieroglyphical gazettes were not unknown,
it is said, among the natives of the more northern
parts of America. Annexed is an engraving of a copy of
an Indian gazette, taken many years since by a French
officer from the American original, with an explanation of
the same. It relates to an expedition of a body of Canadian
warriors, who, soon after the settlement of this part
of America, took up the hatchet in favor of the French
against a hostile tribe that adhered to the English. It was
communicated to me many years ago, and, soon after, I
had it engraved for the Royal American Magazine. It
had previously appeared in several works published in
Europe.

In the year 1531, a newspaper was printed at Venice, for
which the price charged was a Venetian coin called
gazetta; and hence is derived our word gazette; the name
of the coin having been transferred to the paper.[3]

The first newspaper produced by the English press, was
entitled The English Mercurie, printed and published on the
28th day of July, 1588, in London, by Christopher Barker,

who was printer to Queen Elizabeth. A copy of this paper
is preserved in the British Museum.[4]

Another paper was printed in London, anno 1622, the title
of which was The Weekly Courant. In 1639, a paper was
printed at Newcastle upon Tyne, by Robert Baker. The
Mercuries succeeded, being first published August 22,
1642, and continued occasionally through the protectorate
of Cromwell, and after his death. One was entitled The
Mercurius Rusticus, or "the Countrie's Complaint of the Barbarous
Outrage began in the year 1642, by the Sectaries of
this once Flourishing Kingdome;" edited by Bruno Ryves.
These papers were generally in quarto, and sometimes
contained two sheets; but neither of them obtained a permanent
establishment.

The oldest English newspaper I have seen, is one now in
my possession, which was published weekly on Thursdays,
anno 1660. The title of it is Mercurius Publicus, "Comprising
the Sum of Forraign Intelligence: With the afiairs
now in agitation in England, Scotland, and Ireland, For
Information of the People. Published by Order." This
publication was begun that year; it contained two small
quarto sheets. A number of books and medicines for sale,
by various people, are advertised in that paper, which was
printed in London "by J. Macock and Tho. Newcomb."
I cannot determine if any other periodical work was published
in England at that time; but Sir Roger L'Estrange
published a paper called The Public Intelligencer, in 1663.[5]

The British Encyclopedia, and other works, state, that
"the first gazette in England was published at Oxford," the
court being there on account of the prevalence of the plague
in London. It was "in a folio half sheet, Nov. 7, 1665.
On the removal of the court to London, the title was
changed to The London Gazette." The publication of newspapers
and pamphlets was prohibited by proclamation in
England, anno 1680, but although this was done away
during the revolution in that country, newspapers were
afterwards made objects of taxation.

In 1696, The Athenian Gazette was published in London,
by John Dunton, whom I have had frequent occasion to
mention. In that work Dunton states, that only nine
newspapers, the Athenian Gazette included, were then published
in England. Newspapers were not published in
Scotland till after the accession of William and Mary to
the throne of England. In the year 1808, the newspaper
establishments in England amounted to one hundred and
forty-five. Of this number forty-seven were published
in London, viz: nine morning, and seven evening, daily
papers; nine were printed three times, and one twice a
week; and there were nineteen weekly, including eleven
Sunday papers. Ninety-eight were printed in all other
parts of England. The same year, nineteen were printed
in Scotland, and thirty-five in Ireland, making the whole
number published in the United Kingdoms of Great Britain
and Ireland, one hundred and ninety-seven.

The celebrated Horace Walpole observes, that a Gazette
was published in France, anno 1631, by Renaudot, a physician

at Paris.[6] This was prior to the appearance of the
Journal des Savans.

That kind of literary journals, called reviews and magazines,
appears to have originated in France. The first production,
of this description, was the Journal des Savans,
which, according to D'Israeli, made its début on the 30th
of May, 1665, and was contemporaneous with the London
Gazette. It was published by Dennis de Sallo, an ecclesiastical
counsellor in the parliament of Paris, in the name
of the Sieur de Hedouville, his lacquey. Some suppose de
Sallo adopted this method of sending it abroad in the world
because he thought so humble an author as his servant
would disarm criticism of its severity; or, that the scurrility
of the critics would produce less effect than if directed
against himself.

The Journal des Savans comprehended a variety of subjects.
It contained an account of all books published in
Europe; panegyrics on deceased persons of celebrity; it
announced all useful inventions, and such discoveries as
were beneficial to the arts, or curious in science; chemical
experiments, celestial and meteorological observations, discoveries
in anatomy, and in the practice of physic; decisions
of the ecclesiastical and secular tribunals; and the author
intended to publish an account of the censures of the Sorbonne,
&c., &c. In the course of a few years many imitations
of this journal were published in different parts of
Europe.

Dr. Miller, of New York, in his valuable work entitled,
A Brief Retrospect of the Eighteenth Century, mentions that
"in 1671, appeared the Acta Medica Hafnensia, published
by M. Bartholin. To which succeeded, in 1672, Mémoires
des Arts et des Sciences, established in France, by M.
Dennis; in 1682, the Acta Eruditorum, of Leipsic, by Menkenius;
in 1684, Les Nouvelles de la Republique des

Lettres, by M. Bayle, and the Bibliotheque Universelle Choisie,
et Ancienne et Moderne, by Le Clerc; in 1689, the Monathlichen
Unterredungen, of Germany; in 1692, the Boekzaal
van Europa, by P. Rabbus, in Holland; and in 1698, the
Nova Literaria Maris Balthici; together with several
others in Germany, France and Italy." These were
all of that class of periodical works which are called reviews.
The first publication of this kind in England, was
The History of the Works of the Learned, printed in London,
in 1699; which was soon followed by Memoirs of Literature,
The Present State of the Republick of Letters, The Censura
Temporum, and the Bibliotheca Curiosa. These were published
in England the beginning of the eighteenth century,
but they were soon discontinued.[7]

The first English literary work, bearing the name of a
magazine, was published in London in the year 1731, by
Edward Cave,[8] and is continued under the title of The
Gentleman's Magazine at this time. It has acquired credit
not only from its long establishment, but from its usefulness,
and a considerable addition was made to its reputation
by the labors of the learned doctor Samuel Johnson.

The second performance of this description, was The
London Magazine, a valuable publication, which was continued
fifty years. The Scot's Magazine, is said to have been

the third magazine published in Great Britain. The European
Magazine was established in 1782.

There are, at this time (1810), upwards of forty periodical
works, denominated reviews and magazines, published
in Great Britain and Ireland. Some of these reviews are
regularly reprinted and republished in the United States.
A list of the works of this description, which are published
in the United States, will be found in the appendix.

The British Encyclopedia, with large additions, in twenty
volumes, quarto, was reprinted by Thomas Dobson, of Philadelphia.
It was published in half volumes, two of which
came from the press annually.

The first public journals, printed in British America,
made their appearance in 1704. In April of that year, the
first Anglo American newspaper was printed at Boston, in
Massachusetts Bay, by the postmaster, whose office was
then regulated by the colonial government. At that period,
I believe, there were only four or five postmasters in all the
colonies. It was not until after the expiration of fifteen
years, that another publication of the kind issued from any
press in this part of the world.

On the 21st day of December, 1719, the second Anglo-American
newspaper was published in Boston; and, on the
following day, December 22, the third paper appeared,
which was printed in the city of Philadelphia.

In 1725, a newspaper was first printed in New York;
and after that time, gazettes were gradually introduced into
the other colonies on the continent, and into the West
Indies.

There are now, 1810, more newspapers published in the
United States, than in the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland.[9]

In 1754,[10] four newspapers only were printed in New
England, these were all published in Boston, and, usually,
on a small sheet; they were published weekly, and the
average number of copies did not exceed six hundred from
each press. No paper had then been issued in Connecticut,
or New Hampshire. Some years before, one was
printed for a short time in Rhode Island, but had been discontinued
for want of encouragement. Vermont as a state
did not exist, and the country which now composes it was
then a wilderness. In 1775, a period of only twenty-one
years, more copies of a newspaper were issued weekly from
the village press at Worcester, Massachusetts, than were
printed in all New England, in 1754; and one paper now
published contains as much matter as did all the four published
in Boston, in the year last mentioned.

At the beginning of 1775, there were five newspapers
published in Boston, one at Salem, and one at Newburyport,
making seven in Massachusetts. There was, at that
time, one published at Portsmouth; and no other in New
Hampshire. One was printed at Newport, and one at
Providence, making two in Rhode Island. At New London
there was one, at New Haven one, one at Hartford and
one in Norwich; in all four in Connecticut; and fourteen
in New England. In the province of New York, four
papers were then published; three in the city, and one in
Albany.[11] In Pennsylvania there were, on the first of
January, 1775, six; three in English and one in German,
in Philadelphia, one in German, at Germantown; and
one in English and German, at Lancaster. Before the

end of January, 1775, three newspapers, in English, were
added to the number from the presses in Philadelphia,
making nine in Pennsylvania. In Maryland, two; one at
Annapolis, and one at Baltimore. In Virginia, there were
but two, and both of these at Williamsburg. One was
printed at Wilmington, and one in Newbern, in North
Carolina; three at Charleston, South Carolina; and one
at Savannah, in Georgia. Making thirty-seven newspapers
in all the British colonies, which are now comprised in the
United States. To these may be added one at Halifax, in
Nova Scotia; and one in Canada, at Quebec.

In 1800,[12] there were at least one hundred and fifty publications
of this kind printed in the United States of America,
and since that time, the number has increased to three
hundred and sixty.[13] Those published before 1775 were
weekly papers. Soon after the close of the Revolutionary
war, daily papers were printed at Philadelphia, New York,
&c., and there are now, 1810, more than twenty published,
daily, in the United States.

It was common for printers of newspapers to subjoin to
their titles "Containing the freshest Advices both Foreign and
Domestic;" but gazettes and journals are now chiefly filled
with political essays. News do not appear to be always

the first object of editors, and, of course, "containing the
freshest advices," &c., is too often out of the question.

For many years after the establishment of newspapers
on this continent, very few advertisements appeared in
them. This was the case with those that were early
printed in Europe. In the first newspapers, advertisements
were not separated by lines from the news, &c., and were
not even begun with a two line letter; when two line letters
were introduced, it was some time before one advertisement
was separated from another by a line, or rule as it is
termed by printers. After it became usual to separate
advertisements, some printers used lines of metal rules:
others lines of flowers irregularly placed. I have seen in
some New York papers, great primer flowers between advertisements.
At length, it became customary to "set off
advertisements," and from using types not larger than those
with which the news were printed, types of the size of French
canon have often been used for names, especially of those
who advertised English goods.

In the troublesome times, occasioned by the stamp act
in 1765, some of the more opulent and cautious printers,
when the act was to take place, put their papers in mourning,
and, for a few weeks, omitted to publish them; others
not so timid, but doubtful of the consequence of publishing
newspapers without stamps, omitted the titles, or altered
them, as an evasion; for instance the Pennsylvania
Gazette, and some other papers, were headed "Remarkable
Occurrences, &c."—other printers, particularly those in
Boston, continued their papers without any alteration in
title or imprint.

INDIAN GAZETTE.

EXPLANATION
OF THE
INDIAN GAZETTE,

GIVING AN ACCOUNT OF ONE OF THEIR EXPEDITIONS.

The following divisions explain those on the plate referred to by the numbers.

         

1. Each of these figures represents the number ten. They all signify, that 18 times 10, or 180 American Indians took up the hatchet, or declared war, in favor of the French; which is represented by the hatchet placed over the arms of France.	2. They departed from Montreal —represented by the bird, just taking wing from the top of a mountain. The moon, and the buck, show the time to have been in the first quarter of the buckmoon, answering to July.
3. They went by water—signified by the canoe. The number of huts, such as they raise to pass the night in, shows they were 21 days on their passage.	4. Then they came on shore, and traveled seven days by land—represented by the foot, and the seven huts.
5. When they arrived near the habitations of their enemies, at sunrise —shewn by the sun being to the eastward of them, beginning, as they think, its daily course; there they lay in wait three days—represented by the hand pointing and the three huts.	6. After which, they surprised their enemies, in number 12 times 10, or 120. The man asleep shows how they surprised them, and the hole in the top of the building is supposed to signify that they broke into some of their habitations in that manner.
7. They killed with the club eleven of their enemies, and took five prisoners—the former represented by the club, and the eleven heads; the latter by the figures on the little pedestals.	8. They lost nine of their own men in the action—represented by the nine heads within the bow, which is the emblem of honor among the Americans; but had none taken prisoners—a circumstance they lay great weight on, shown by all the pedestals being empty.
9. The heads of the arrows, pointing opposite ways, represent the battle.	10. The heads of the arrows, all pointing the same way, signify the flight of the enemy.