NOTES ON THE HISTORY OF PRINTING IN NEW YORK.

IV.

The beginnings of printing in our ancient city were very feeble. Hildeburn is enabled to mention but thirteen works in the first year, nine in the second, and seven in the third. The first ten years number together only eighty-five. The most in any year of that period was seventeen, and the least four. This, of course, was not enough to keep Bradford constantly in employment, for many of the pieces were trifling and could be done in a day or two. None took over a month, excepting the Laws and Acts of the General Assembly, which was issued in 1694, the labor of it being spread through two years. Those believed to be the first by Dr. Moore are" An Act for Granting to King William and Queen Mary the Rate of One Penny per Pound" upon the estates of Pennsylvanians; “An Act for Restraining and Punishing Privateers and Pyrates; ""An Act Granting to their Majesties the Rate of One Penny per Pound" in New York; "An Act for Raising Six Thousand Pound" on account of the Indian war; "A Catalogue of Fees;" the two proclamations respecting the slaves in Sallee, in Dutch and English, noticed in our last number; "A Proclamation" respecting fire beacons, "An Exhortation & Caution To Friends Concerning buying or keeping of Negroes;" "An Account of Several Passages and Letters" between Governor Fletcher and the officials in Connecticut; "A Proclamation" addressed to the people of Connecticut; a proclamation relative to

deserters; and "A Journal of the Late Actions of the French," of which the full title is given on page 153. Hildeburn has the same number, but he apparently consolidates all the epistles of Fletcher to the people of Connecticut, and inserts "An Ordinance establishing Courts," May 15, 1691. The largest of these was the "Journal of the Actions of the French," being twenty-six pages, in the English edition; the next largest pamphlet has eleven, then eight, six, six, four and three. Five have only one page each. Thus sixty-nine pages make the total of his year's work. Of these, twelve pieces are in English and one in Dutch. The latter language made no comparison in its printed productions with its rival, as although the majority of the inhabitants then and for many years after were Dutch, yet there were few persons of education among them, and the productions of the press in the tongue of Stuyvesant before the Revolution did not exceed seventy-five. Printing in French began in 1696, the work being "Trésor des Consolations Divines et Humaines."

The polyglot character that New York showed so early it retains to this day. I believe that there is no newspaper in Dutch published here at present, although there have been several in the past; the Mohawk language, in which several works were published in the last century, is dying out, the Indians of that tribe speaking English familiarly, but there is much French, much German, and much Italian. Many other tongues of Europe and Asia we have had for years familiarly spoken and printed among us. Among these are Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan, Welsh, Erse, Danish, Swedish, Russian, Polish, Bohemian, Roumanian, PlattDeutsch, Deutsch-Hebraisch and Chinese. None of these are for instruction, but to furnish news to residents of this city, or for other every-day uses. Other languages have frequently been printed in, but the works were intended for foreign lands or for scholars. There are now many printers who are provided for such labors and have in their offices workmen who are proficient in these languages.

The great work executed by Bradford in his earlier years was the Laws of New York.* This was printed at different times, in

*The | Laws & Acts | of the | General Assembly | for | Their Majesties Province of New York, | As they were Enacted in divers Sessions, the first of | I

1693 and 1694, but in all the bound copies which have come down to us many pages have been added since the original sheets were folded. Each copy varies from the other. The first printed consisted of a title, with blank verse; a table of contents, one leaf; then eighty-four pages of acts. But other acts, subsequently printed, were intercalated and added, so that the collation becomes very difficult. Some are on smaller paper than the others. The "Laws" is justly regarded as the principal work of Bradford here in early years, both from its matter and the circumstances of its production. There was not, until 1726, although in 1709 another compilation was brought out, any work to match it for magnitude issued from the press here, and for many enactments it remains the sole copy, as Bradford, in printing it, exercised many of the functions of an editor, and omitted those which he thought were not necessary. In these laws we trace the beginning of our commonwealth, there being few wants that could be supplied by legislation. Neither was there then any rage for theoretical enactments, to better the condition of those who were already well off. In this volume and its successors can be studied the growth of each returning year in wealth and public spirit, by the appropriations made for the support of the civil government, for warlike purposes, for schools, and for public improvements. The book is not remarkable for its printing, but it shows no doubt as high an average as would have been displayed by printers in provincial towns in England. No one knows how difficult it is to execute such work until he has himself attempted it at great distances from places where supplies can be obtained. Only seven copies of this book, it is stated by one possessor, are now known to exist. Two of them have been recently sold. The one in the Brinley collection brought sixteen hundred dollars, and the one in the Vanderpoel library realized thirteen

hundred.

A fair example of his early printing may be seen in the proclamation issued by Governor Fletcher on the 9th of January, 1695, which has not been hitherto noticed by antiquaries. It is a which began April, the 9th, Annoq; Domini, | 1691. At New York. | Printed and Sold by William Bradford, Printer to their Majesties, King | William & Queen Mary, 1694. | Folio.

proclamation of joy on account of the return of King William to England in safety, in the month of October preceding, and on account of the victories of His Majesty's arms in Flanders, and directs that a day of thanksgiving shall be celebrated on the 16th of January for New York City and vicinity, and the 23d for Albany and the rest of the counties in the province. Four sizes of type are used, running from English up to double great primer. In the first line, "By His Excellency," the letters B and E are much larger than the others, and are justified in. This same practice is shown in the line, "God Save the KING.” Here King is in capitals of a type much larger than the rest of the line. There can be no question in my mind but that the fonts of type he used were mixed, the letters in many cases match so badly. The spacing is very irregular, and transgresses all the canons. The endings of letters are broken off, the hairlines worn away, and the Roman is eked out by italic. The presswork is reasonably good.

The life of Bradford from this time forth shows little change. Each year he issued several pamphlets and broadsides, and occasionally there was a larger book. The Quakers seem to have let him alone after he came here, and he was on good terms with the people of the Reformed Dutch Church. He early joined the Episcopal Church, and was in high favor with it and with most of the Governors. Before any competition was met with he had issued two hundred and sixty different pieces. The "Exhortation against Keeping Slaves" was the first blow in print in America against the unnatural system of slavery that then existed and that continued until Lincoln issued his proclamation. against it in 1862, to take effect on the first of January following. In 1694 he printed an Almanac, one following almost every year from that time on. "A letter of Advice to A Young Gentleman leaving the University concerning his Behaviour and Conversation on the World" was brought out by him in 1696, and for a number of years he issued pamphlets on religious subjects; not, however, the work of his own pen. The first of these were from the Keithian Quakers, showing up the inconsistencies of the other Quakers. When Keith became an Episcopalian, he printed his new notions. In 1703 the colony of New Jersey, in which

By His Excellency

Benjamin Fletcher, Captain General and Governour in Chief of The Province of New-York, and the Territories and Tracts of Land depending thereon in America, and Vice-Admiral of the same, His Majesties Lieutenant and Commander in Chief of the Militia, and of all the Forces by Sea and Land within His Majesties Collony of Connecticut, and of all the Forts and places of Strength within the same.

A PROCLAMATION

W Hereas I have received the Joyful News of the safe Arrival of Our Most Excellent Soveraigne Lord WILLIAM the Third, by the Grace of God, King of England, Scotland, France and Ireland, Defendor of the Faith, dc., in His Kingdom of ENGLAND in the Moneth of October last past, and of the Success of His Majesties Arms in Flanders. I have therefore thought fit, and by and with the Advice and Consent of His Majesties Council, for the Province of NEW-YORK, Do Appoint Thursday, the Sixteenth Instant, for the City and County of New York, and the Three and Twentieth Instant for the City and County of ALBANY, and the rest of the Counties of the said Province, To be Observed and Celebrated Publick Days of Thanks-giving to Almighty God for the same And all Persons within this Province are Required on the said Respective Days, to forbear Servile Labour, and to Observe and Celebrate the same with fervent Demonstrations of Joy and Thankfulness.

Dated at His Majesties Fort in New-York the Ninth Day of January, in the Seventh Year of His Majesties Reign, Annoq; Domini 1695, 6.

God Save the KING

F. Phillips,

BEN. FLETCHER.

T. Willet,

N. Bayard, Esqrs. J. Lawrence, Esqrs.

G. Munveill,

C. Heathcote.