Aitken, Robert (22 January 1735–15 July 1802), printer and publisher, was born in Dalkeith, Scotland. His parents’ names are unknown. Sometime after serving a regular apprenticeship with a bookbinder in Edinburgh, he became established in Paisley, Scotland, as a binder, bookseller, and proprietor of a circulating library. From there he moved to Philadelphia in May 1771 with his wife, Janet Skeoch, and two children, the eldest of whom was seven; two more children were later born in Philadelphia. In June he opened a stationer’s shop and what was soon “the largest and most valuable bookstore” in the city. With the publication in 1773 of ...
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Aitken, Robert (1735-1802), printer and publisher
Vincent Freimarck
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Bailey, Francis (1735-1815), printer and journalist
William F. Steirer
Bailey, Francis (1735–1815), printer and journalist, was born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, the son of Robert Bailey and Margaret McDill Barley, farmers. Bailey was apprenticed to Peter Miller, printer at Ephrata, at an early age, and by the time he began publishing the ...
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Bradford, Andrew (1686?–24 November 1742), printer and journalist
Raymond A. Craig
Bradford, Andrew (1686?–24 November 1742), printer and journalist, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of William Bradford, a printer and journalist, and Elizabeth Sowle, whose father, Andrew Sowle, was a printer in London. After being arrested and released for printing a pamphlet by Quaker apostate ...
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Bradford, John (1749-1830), first printer in Kentucky
Mary Kupiec Cayton
Bradford, John (06 June 1749–20 March 1830), first printer in Kentucky, was born in Prince William (later Fauquier) County, Virginia, the son of Daniel Bradford, a surveyor for Fauquier County, and Alice Morgan. He was one of eleven children in a family that probably also farmed. Bradford’s father taught him the craft of surveying. In 1771 John Bradford married Eliza James; they had five sons and four daughters....
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Carter, John (1745-1814), printer and editor
Kevin J. Hayes
Carter, John (21 July 1745–19 August 1814), printer and editor, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of John Carter, a naval officer killed in battle two months before his son’s birth, and Elizabeth Spriggs. During the late 1750s, he was apprenticed in the shop of ...
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Collins, Isaac (1746-1817), printer
Richard F. Hixson
Collins, Isaac (16 February 1746–21 March 1817), printer, was born near Centerville, Delaware, the son of Charles Collins and Sarah Hammond, farmers. The family were members of the Society of Friends. When his father died in 1760, Isaac was indentured as a printer’s apprentice to James Adams, whose recent arrival in Wilmington marked the beginning of printing in Delaware. Collins stayed with Adams about five years, during which time he probably met Shepard Kollock, another Adams apprentice, who, like Collins, later worked for ...
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Donahoe, Patrick (1811-1901), editor and publisher
Timothy Walch
Donahoe, Patrick (17 March 1811–18 March 1901), editor and publisher, was born in County Caven, Ireland, the son of Terrence Donahoe and Jane Christy. The father’s occupation is unknown, but the family was clearly poor. In 1821 Patrick and his father immigrated to Boston, Massachusetts, where the boy received a basic education and entered the printing trades in 1825. Patrick worked as a printer for several Boston newspapers and became co-owner of ...
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Draper, John (1702-1762), journalist and publisher
David E. Maas
Draper, John (29 October 1702–29 November 1762), journalist and publisher, was born in Roxbury, Massachusetts, the son of Richard Draper, a Boston shopkeeper, and Sarah Kilby. Draper grew up in a home stressing religious values; his father was a deacon at the Brattle Street church as well as a Boston selectman. Draper also was deeply religious and joined his father’s church in 1727. He was apprenticed to ...
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Draper, Margaret Green (fl. 1750–1807), printer and a publisher
Samuel Willard Crompton
Draper, Margaret Green (fl. 1750–1807), printer and a publisher, was a . Nothing certain is known regarding her parentage or the place of her birth, although some sources suggest that she was a granddaughter of printer Bartholomew Green and the daughter of Thomas Green and Ann (maiden name unknown). What is known is that she married ...
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Draper, Richard (1727-1774), Massachusetts Loyalist, printer, and publisher
David E. Maas
Draper, Richard (24 February 1727–05 June 1774), Massachusetts Loyalist, printer, and publisher, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of John Draper, the publisher of the Boston News-Letter, and Deborah Green. His mother came from a family of official printers in Connecticut going back six generations to ...
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Duane, Margaret Hartman Markoe Bache (1770-1836), editor and printer
Mark Augustus Smith
Duane, Margaret Hartman Markoe Bache (07 November 1770–28 May 1836), editor and printer, was born on St. Croix, the daughter of Francis Markoe and Elizabeth Hartman, Danish immigrant sugar planters. She lived on St. Croix on her parents’ plantation until her father’s death, probably in the late 1770s, when she moved to Philadelphia with her mother. They lived, for a time, with Margaret’s uncle, Abraham Markoe, a wealthy Philadelphia merchant who had constructed a large mansion in the heart of the city....
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Dunlap, John (1747-1812), printer and publisher
Dwight L. Teeter
Dunlap, John (1747–27 November 1812), printer and publisher, was born in Tyrone, County Strabane, Ireland. In 1757 the family of ten-year-old Dunlap sent him to be apprenticed to an uncle in Philadelphia, printer-bookseller William Dunlap. Nine years later, William Dunlap left the printing house in care of his nineteen-year-old nephew, who evidently was buying the shop in installments while his uncle took up Anglican religious studies in England. The young printer was so poor, according to his friend ...
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Fleet, Thomas (1685-1758), printer and publisher
Kevin J. Hayes
Fleet, Thomas (08 September 1685–21 July 1758), printer and publisher, was born in Shropshire, England (parents unknown). He apprenticed and served as a journeyman printer in England, but, according to Isaiah Thomas, a youthful show of disdain toward the Anglican church forced him to emigrate to America. Fleet arrived in Boston around 1712 and soon established a printing house in Pudding Lane. Perhaps his earliest imprint was the fourth edition of John Hill’s ...
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Fowle, Daniel (1715-1787), printer, publisher, and author
Kevin J. Hayes
Fowle, Daniel ( October 1715–08 June 1787), printer, publisher, and author, was born in Charlestown, Massachusetts, the son of John Fowle, a tanner, and Mary Barrell. After both parents died in 1734, Fowle was placed under the guardianship of Boston printer Samuel Trumbull and, about the same time, was apprenticed to printer ...
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Franklin, Ann Smith (1696-1763), printer and editor
Robert L. Gale
Franklin, Ann Smith (02 October 1696–19 April 1763), printer and editor, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the daughter of Samuel Smith and Anna (or Ann; maiden name unknown). She grew up in Boston.
In light of her later successful career, it is reasonable to conclude that she was at least as well educated as most girls of her era. In 1723 she married ...
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Franklin, James (1697-1735), printer
Patrick G. Williams
Franklin, James (04 February 1697–04 February 1735), printer, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of Josiah Franklin, a candle and soap maker, and Abiah Folger. He was apprenticed to a printer in London but returned to Boston in 1717 to establish a print shop on Queen Street. Franklin turned out books, pamphlets, and broadsides and was eventually assisted by an apprentice, his brother ...
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Gaine, Hugh (1726-1807), printer-editor and bookseller
Marion Barber Stowell
Gaine, Hugh (1726–25 April 1807), printer-editor and bookseller, was born in Portglenone in the parish of Ahoghill, Ireland, the son of Hugh Gaine and his wife (name unknown). At age fourteen he began his apprenticeship to Samuel Wilson and James Magee, Belfast printers. When the partnership split in 1744, Gaine left Ireland for America and settled in New York City, where he became a printer’s journeyman for ...
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Gales, Joseph (1786-1860), journalist and publisher
Joseph P. McKerns
Gales, Joseph (10 April 1786–21 July 1860), journalist and publisher, was born in Eckington, England, the son of Joseph Gales, a printer, and Winifred Marshall. The elder Gales was a political refugee who brought his family in 1795 to Philadelphia, where he published the ...
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Gill, John (1732-1785), printer and newspaper publisher
Richard F. Hixson
Gill, John (17 May 1732–25 August 1785), printer and newspaper publisher, was born in Charlestown, Massachusetts, the son of Captain John Gill and Elizabeth Abbot. He served his apprenticeship with Samuel Kneeland, an established Boston printer who also owned the Boston Gazette. Gill married Kneeland’s daughter, Ann Kneeland, in January 1756. It is likely that Gill met ...
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Goddard, Mary Katherine (1738-1816), printer, newspaper publisher, and postmaster
Carol Sue Humphrey
Goddard, Mary Katherine (16 June 1738–12 August 1816), printer, newspaper publisher, and postmaster, was born in Groton, Connecticut, the daughter of Giles Goddard, a physician, and Sarah Updike Goddard, a printer. Growing up in New London, Connecticut, Goddard received an exceptional education for a woman in the 1700s, most of it from her mother, who had been taught by a French tutor. Little else is known about her early life....
