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Belcher & Armstrong Set Up Shop:
1805
Rollo G. Silver
ON an April day in Boston in 1798, a boy celebrated his fourteenth birthday by deciding that the time had come to escape from his unendurable lot in life. After his father's death, his mother had placed him with his uncle, and the youngster at this time was working in his uncle's Boston paint shop. Little Samuel T. Armstrong, waiting on trade, grinding paints, lugging the family groceries, blacking boots in the cold winter nights, bitterly determined to win independence. Chancing to see an advertisement
He remained at Manning & Loring as journeyman for approximately six months, but the job did not satisfy him. Nor did being a journeyman printer satisfy his friend Joshua Belcher, twenty-one years old, who had just served his time on the Independent Chronicle. Belcher and Armstrong, therefore, decided to enter into partnership as book and job printers. They bought the Boston Magazine from Gilbert & Dean and in October, 1805, opened their printing office on the second floor of an old building at 70 State Street.[3]
The expenses incurred in the establishment of this office are itemized in the final pages of Armstrong's journal. The list contains needed information about the economy of nineteenth-century American printing, and it is presented in the hope of stimulating the publication of similar material. The text is printed in full, but deletions and insertions are not noted and punctuation has been changed for purposes of clarification:
- 1 Press of Adam Ramage...............................$ 136.00
- 322wt Brevier, a 73...................................... 235.06
- 330 Long Primer a 53.................................. 174.90
- 335 Pica a 41......................................... 137.35
- 68 Great Primer a 38.................................. 25.84
- 74 Double Pica a 38.................................... 28.12
- 6 English Flowers a 38.................................. 2.28
- 2..14 Brevier two lines letters 38 1.09
- 3.. 8 Long Prim do do 1.33
- 5.. Pica do do 1.97
- 6 L. Prim flowers a 53 ......... 3.18
- 5 Brevier do 73......................................... 3.65
- Boxes ....................................... 3.80
Page [1]:
Belcher & Armstrong, began
Oct. 21, 1805
The expense of their office is
annexed, according to the bills --- --- ---
- 17..10 Long Primer a 53 ................................ 9.33
- 4..13 Pica 41 .......................................... 1.97
- 47.. French Coennon 38 ................................ 17.86
- 26..6 Quotations 36 .................................... 9.49
- 30.. Scabbards " ...................................... 10.80
2d Importation of imperfections &c.
- 2d Press of A. Ramage ..............................$ 135.00
- 41 Cases & 2 gallies............................... 43.00
- Stands and other gallies as bills .................... 44.50
- Cotton & Marston's bill[4]...... 24.00
- 1 Stand ................................................ 5.00
- Sticks &c. ........................................... 6.00
- trough ................................................ 7.00
- Stove, shovel & tongs.............................. 7.00
- Chases 5.............................................. 28.00
- Sundries ............................................. 25.00
- ----
- 1,137.00[5]
- a bank ................................................ 5.50
- 2 sticks & 1 royal chase............................ 12.00
- Brev. open 2 line letters & flowers
and english letters, rules, &c. .................. 14.00 - Font of Script & Cases............................ 42.80
- Double rule & single do for Alk. and other purposes.. 15.00
- do .................................................. 5.00
- Lamps & Cord ...................................... 1.25
Page [2]:
- Imposing stone ..............D10.00
- Duodecimo leads ............. 15.00
- Flowered Rules .............. 1.00
- Lothian's bills for large flowers for open
letter
& several other kinds[6]............ 12.00 - Russell & Cutler for 3 fonts Black Type viz. D.P. G.P. & L. Primer & 3 pairs Cases[7] .............. 30.50
- Charles Spear for 2 pairs old Cases[8] .............. 3.00
- 2 Crown Chases .............. 3.50
- Oliver & Monroe for royal chase[9] .............. 5.00
- Gilbert & Dean for Pigeon Holes[10] .............. 10.00
- Thos Foster jun for paper poles ....................... 9.50
- To Abner Wood for bill Exchange on
Peter
Wynne & Son for types &c &c ................... 444.44 - 18 mo leads. wt a 56 cents...... 12.60
- Small Chase ................. 2.33
Page [3]:
Expences of their Office (continued)
- English importation from Mess. Peter &
W. Wynne amounted to ......................$ 623.69 - Duties on the same to 88.00
- Bond $1--Truckage $1.............. 2.00
- pair Cases &c.mmat; 2$
- Shelves for Books, &c
- Oct. 8, 1807
- 566wt Long Primer a
- Ten lines Pica a
- 5 lines Do a
- Whole amt of types of Wynne & Co.
- $602.11
- June 2, 1808 Phineas Harding came
to be apprenticed to B & A
16 years old Nov. 9 1807[11] - Joseph Ballister
15 years old July 27, 1808
Page [4]:
Expenses of the
Office-continued
This text discloses that the establishment of a modest printing office even for two journeymen required a considerable amount of capital investment.
The major work of the office seems to have been devoted to books, job work, and pamphlets. In 1807, the firm joined with Oliver & Munroe to issue the first Boston edition of Shakespeare's Poems. Independently, they issued James Montgomery's Wanderer of Switzerland [1807?], William H. Brown's Ira and Isabella (1807), G. W. Fitzwilliam's Pleasures of Love (1808), and other books. For one pamphlet, the Trial of Thomas O. Selfridge [1807], the partners showed their resourcefulness by obtaining professional reporters from New York or Philadelphia since there were none in Boston. [14] Despite such enterprise, the printing business continued to be a financial struggle. In April, 1808, they formed a publishing association with W. P. Farrand, D. Mallory, and J. Morse, and moved the Belcher & Armstrong print shop to the floor above the bookstore of Farrand, Mallory & Co.[15] There they published the Panoplist, a religious and missionary magazine, but business was unprofitable, and in December, 1808, the firm of Belcher & Armstrong was dissolved. Though there was much pamphlet and job work, Armstrong declared in his journal, it enabled him to clear nothing—"probably not so much as journeyman's wages for 3 yrs. & 3 mos."
Joshua Belcher lived in Boston as a printer until he died in New York on September 4, 1816, at the age of 32.[16] Armstrong set up a printing office in Charlestown, eventually opening a bookstore at 50 Cornhill, Boston, about 1811. There he acquired the wealth and public esteem he desired. Not only did he retire a rich and independent man, but he served the community as Representative to the General Court, State Senator, Lieutenant Governor, and Mayor of Boston. Armstrong died in 1850, a prototype of the Horatio Alger hero who raised himself from rags to riches by the correct combination of business acumen and virtue.[17]
Notes
This information and the inventory of the Belcher & Armstrong shop appear in Armstrong's manuscript journal (Edes Papers, Massachusetts Historical Society). The writer wishes to thank the Massachusetts Historical Society for permission to print this material. The aid of Mr. Stephen T. Riley, the Librarian, is also gratefully acknowledged.
Information about Belcher appears in J. T. B[uckingham], "The Faustus Association," Boston Evening Transcript, Sept. 26, 1859, p. 1, col. 1.
Less than two years later, a Boston newspaper contained a reference to a Robert Lothian, letter founder, Pleasant Street (Columbian Centinel, July 11, 1807, p. 3, col. 1).
Independent Chronicle, Dec. 5, 1805, p. 3, col. 1; Columbian Centinel, Dec. 7, 1805, p. 2, col. 5.
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