History of Newburyport, Mass., 1764-1905, Volume I, Part 36

Author: Currier, John J. (John James), 1834-1912. cn
Publication date: 1906
Publisher: Newburyport, Mass., The author
Number of Pages: 790

USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Newburyport > History of Newburyport, Mass., 1764-1905, Volume I > Part 36

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The preface to the above-described collection of sacred mu- sic is dated Newburyport May 28, 1807, and the frontispiece, reproduced in the half-tone print on the opposite page, was "engraved by J. Akin for Amos Blanchard's Newburyport Collection of Sacred Music."

The first American edition of the Bible, " to be printed on paper to be manufactured in this country," was announced in the columns of the Essex Gazette, published in Salem, Mass., December 11-18, 1770.3

Subscriptions taken by John Fleming at his Printing Office in New- bury Street, nearly opposite the White Horse Tavern, Boston ; by Mr Bulkeley Emerson at the Post Office in Newbury Port ; by Mr Edward

1 Newburyport Herald, November 19, 1857.

2 Boston Public library.

3 Essex Institute, Salem, Mass.

Unto thee will y sing with the harp. 1) there body one of Trade; Psalm T/XXI. 22. #;

Kaigraved by 3. Akin for Amos Blanchardi Newburyport folietion of Sacred Music, published

and split by bin MIXETHR, ceo by Thomas &: Whipple Newburyport,

by the princpot Booksellers in Boston, Salem, and Portsmouth and Horybout, the New England States.

482

HISTORY OF NEWBURYPORT

Weld, Merchant, near the Bunch of Grapes Tavern, in Marblehead, and by Samuel Hall, Printer, in Salem.

At that date, Mr. Emerson was a bookseller as well as postmaster in Newburyport. The title-page of a sermon printed at Boston in 1771 reads as follows :-

The sweet remembrance of the just, Shall flourish when he sleeps in dust. PSAL. CXII, 6.

Boston, New England | Printed by T. and J. Fleet for Bulkeley Emer- son | in Newbury Port, 1771.

Soon after Isaiah Thomas set up his printing press in New- buryport and commenced, in company with Henry Walter Tinges, the publication of a weekly newspaper, several sermons were printed and published in pamphlet form by the firm of Thomas & Tinges. The title-page of one of these pamphlets, probably the earliest one printed in Newburyport, reads as follows :-

The next year a pamphlet was printed by Ezra Lunt (suc- cessor to Isaiah Thomas) and Henry W. Tinges, with the fol- lowing title :-

1 American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Mass.

483

BOOKS AND NEWSPAPERS

John Mycall, in company with Henry W. Tinges, under the firm-name of Mycall & Tinges, published the Essex Journal and New Hampshire Packet, a weekly newspaper, in Newbury- port, from May, 1775, to January, 1776, and also an alma- nac described as follows :-

On the title-page of this almanac is an engraving, intended to represent the introduction of "Concord, Agriculture and the Arts to America." In 1777, John Mycall printed an al- manac prepared by Daniel George, a young astronomer resi- ding in Haverhill.2 This almanac was also printed and sold by Draper & Phillips in Boston. After that date, until 1784 and perhaps later, the almanac was published annually by John Mycall. The title for 1778 reads as follows :-

In 1788, Bickerstaff's Boston Almanac was "Printed and sold Wholesale and Retail by John Mycall at Newbury Port."4

1 American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Mass.

'Daniel George is described as a man of genius. His first almanac was pub- lished in Salem in 1776, when he was only seventeen years old. He was a cripple from infancy and was taken from house to house in a small wheel-chair, or carriage, by a servant employed for that purpose. He removed to Portland, Maine, in 1783, and subsequently published a newspaper there.

3 Essex Institute, Salem, Mass.

4 Copies of this almanac are in the libraries of the American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, and the Essex Institute, Salem, Mass.

484

HISTORY OF NEWBURYPORT

April 26, 1776, a book entitled "Common Sense | ad- dressed to the Inhabitants | of America,"' reprinted in New- buryport from the Philadelphia edition, was advertised for sale, in the Essex Journal and New Hampshire Packet as follows :-

Now in press and will be published in about a fortnight, and sold by Samuel Philips, Jr., of Andover, and by the Printer hereof, by the hun- dred, dozen, or single with good allowance to those who take a quantity.

The title-page of a pamphlet printed in 1777 reads as fol- lows :-

Rev. Peter Powers was pastor of the church in Newbury, Vt., and Haverhill, N. H., when the state government of Vermont was organized in 1778. He preached the election sermon on that occasion. It was printed in Newburyport, there being no printing press in the state of Vermont at that time. The title-page reads as follows :-

The report of the committee appointed at the convention held in Ipswich, in 1778, to consider the objections to the constitution proposed for the government of the state of Mas- sachusetts, known as " the Essex Result," was printed in New- buryport by John Mycall. The title-page of this report is re- produced in a half-tone print on a preceding page.4

1 Essex Institute, Salem, Mass.

2 From a pamphlet now in the possession of Mr. Eugene Noyes, Amesbury, Mass.

3 Vermont State library. This sermon was preached from the text: " And Je- sus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in Heaven and in earth." MATTHEW, ch. XXVIII., v. 18.

4 See chapter II., p. 63.

485

BOOKS AND NEWSPAPERS.

Mr. Mycall published in 1779 two volumes of sermons described as follows :-

He also printed, for John Boyle and J. D. McDougall of Boston the second volume of a book described as follows :-

The first volume of these letters was printed, at or about the same time, in Boston, for the above-named dealers in books and stationery.

During the next five or six years Mr. Mycall printed, on his own account or for dealers in Boston and elsewhere, the following-described books :--

* | Newburyport | Printed and sold by John Mycall | MDCCLXXXI.

1 Newburyport Public library.

486

HISTORY OF NEWBURYPORT

The last-named book was printed by subscription for Rev. John Andrews, Capt. Philip Aubin, Capt. Offin Boardman, Hannah Balch, William Bartlet, Hon. Theophilus Bradbury, Lucy Balch, Capt. Peter LeBreton, Capt. William Coombs, Stephen Cross, Ralph Cross, Capt. Tristram Coffin, Dr. Charles Coffin, Timothy Dexter, Anthony Davenport, Hon. Benjamin Greenleaf, Capt. Ebenezer Hale, Thomas Wood- bridge Hooper, Maj. Michael Hodge, Capt. Anthony Knap, Richard Pike, Capt. Ebenezer Stone, Dudley A. Tyng, Thomas Thomas, Capt. Ebenezer Wheelwright and many

1 Newburyport Public library.

2 The second and fourth volumes of " The Children's Friend " were printed in Newburyport by John Mycall " for the proprietors of the Boston Book Store, No. 59 Cornhill Boston, "without date. The first and fourth volumes are in the Essex Institute, Salem, Mass., and the second in the Newburyport Public library ; but the third has not been found.

487

BOOKS AND NEWSPAPERS

others of Newburyport and for the following-named book- sellers in Boston : William Andrews, fifty copies, John Boyle, fifty copies, Benjamin Guild, two hundred and fifty copies, Samuel Hall, fifty copies, Benjamin Larkin, one hundred copies, Ebenezer Larkin, fifty copies, Thomas & Andrews, fifty copies, David West, two hundred copies, and James White, fifty copies.

March 8, 1786, the following advertisement was published in the Essex Journal and New Hampshire Packet :-

Proposals for Publishing a complete System of Arithmetic

more comprehensive, plain and intelligible than any extant, with demon- strations of the several Rules, and many other useful matters (as the method of making Taxes &c.) in Notes .-

Containing Numeration, Addition, etc., By Nicolas Pike, A. M.

It is supposed it will contain between 4 and 500 pages in large octavo.

The public may be assured that both the Work and Execution will be wholly American.

Subscriptions for the above will be received by the Author at the Printing-Office in Newbury-port-by Messrs. Vinal and Carter, School- masters, and Capt. John Stone in Boston.

The first edition of this arithmetic was probably printed in 1786, although no copy bearing that date has been discovered. The dedication reads as follows :-

To His Excellency James Bowdoin, Esquire Governor and Commander in Chief of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts

and President of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

May It Please Your Excellency :

The Author of this System, anxious to procure for it a favourable Re- ception from his Fellow citizens, takes the liberty of soliciting the Honor of your Excellency's Patronage.

488

HISTORY OF NEWBURYPORT

As this Work is the first of the kind composed in America he feels himself entitled to the candid indulgence of the Learned in general,- and from your Excellency's zeal for the advancement of the sciences and attachment to the Republic of Letters, he rests assured that the Public will pardon him the ambition of inscribing your Name to this Literary Attempt.

That your Excellency may long continue the Ornament of your Coun- try and the Delight of your Friends is the ardent wish of

May it Please your Excellency Your Excellency's Much Obliged Most Obedient And very Humble Servant Nicolas Pike

Newburyport, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, June Ist, 1786.

The manuscript of this arithmetic,-the first one published in America,-was completed in 1785 and submitted by the author to men of prominence in public life who responded with letters of commendation that were printed with the book. The title-page of the earliest edition now extant reads as follows :-

A printed copy of this arithmetic was sent to George Wash- ington, then president of the United States, who responded as follows :-

MOUNT VERNON, June 20th 1788.

SIR :- I request you will accept my best thanks for your polite letter of the Ist of January (which did not get to my hand till yesterday) and also for the copy of your "System of Arithmetic " which you were pleased to present to me.

I hope and trust that the work will ultimately prove not less profitable than reputable to yourself. It seems to have been conceded on all hands that such a system was much wanted. Its merits being established by the approbation of competent judges, I flatter myself that the idea) of its being an American production, and the first of the kind which has ap- peared, will induce every patriotic and liberal character to give it all the countenance and patronage in his power. In all events you may rest

1 Newburyport Public library; Essex Institute, Salem, Mass.

489

BOOKS AND NEWSPAPERS.

assured that as no person takes more interest in the encouragement of American genius, so no one will be more highly gratified with the suc- cess of your ingenious, arduous and useful undertaking, than he who has the pleasure to subscribe himself, with esteem and regard,

Sir, your most obedient and very humble servant G. WASHINGTON.

NICOLAS PIKE, ESQ.I

October 24, 1792, the Essex Journal and New Hampshire Packet announced that Isaiah Thomas had purchased the copyright of Pike's Arithmetic and that an improved and abridged edition was then in press and would soon be pub- lished. The title-page of the abridged edition reads as fol- lows :-

The second edition of this abridgment was printed in Wor- cester in 1795 ; other editions were subsequently published in Boston and in Concord, N. H.

In 1788 and 1789, John Mycall published the following- described pamphlets, and perhaps several others that have no date on the title-page.

1 History of Newburyport (Mrs. E. Vale Smith), p. 327.

Essex Institute, Salem, Mass.

490

HISTORY OF NEWBURYPORT

THE

NEW-ENGLAND

PRIMER,

ENLARGED AND IMPROVED :

CE, AN EASY AND PLEASANT

Guide to the dirt of Reading.

ADORNED WITH CUTE.

ALSO THE

CATECHIS M.

NEWBURYPORT: PRINTED AND SOLD BY JOHN MYCALL; SOLD ALSO BY ISAIAH THOMAS, AT HIS SHOPS IN Bofton AND Wircefter.

NEW ENGLAND PRIMER; TITLE-PAGE.

In 1790 or 1795, John Mycall published a small edition of the New England Primer. Copies of this edition are in the libraries of the American Antiquarian Society at Worcester, Mass., and in the Newburyport Public library. The size and typographical appearance of the Primer are shown in the half-

1 Essex Institute, Salem, Mass.

BOOKS AND NEWSPAPERS

49I

tone prints on this and the opposite page. An edition was probably printed in Newburyport, at about the same time, by or for Samuel S. Parker. The title-page reads as follows :-

In Adam's Fall We finned all.

Thy Life to mend, This Book attend.

The Cat doth play, And after flay.

A Dog will bite. A Thief at night.

An Eagle's flight Is out of fight.

The idle Fool Is whipt at School.

NEW ENGLAND PRIMER; SECOND PAGE.

Mr. Mycall published, in 1793, The Vicar of Wakefield, by Oliver Goldsmith, " two volumes bounded in one," and proba- bly printed, at about the same date, the following-described books for Boston booksellers :-

1 A copy of this Primer sold at auction in New York city November 29, 1904, is now in the Pequot library, Southport, Conn.

492

HISTORY OF NEWBURYPORT

Emma Corbett | in two volumes | The Sixth Edition | Newburyport - Printed by John Mycall for | Ebenezer Battelle and William Green Booksellers in Boston [no date].2

Other publishers printed and sold in Newburyport from 1793 to 1798, the following- described books :-

In 1797, William Barrett and Angier March, under the firm-name of Barrett & March, published a small edition of the catechism composed by Rev. James Noyes, and described

1 Newburyport Public library.

2 Essex Institute, Salem, Mass.

8 Newburyport Public library. The second edition of the Village Curate was published by W. & J. Gilman, Newburyport, in 1808.

4 A copy of this book, in the Newburyport Public library, has a counterfeit book plate engraved in imitation of the George Washington book plate. See American Book Plates by Charles Dexter Allen, pp. 93-95.

BOOKS AND NEWSPAPERS

493

on page 471. The half-tone print below is taken, by permis- sion, from a copy of the Catechism in the Boston Public library.

The first edition of the American Coast Pilot, compiled by Capt. Lawrence Furlong, was probably published in 1796 by Edmund M. Blunt, and sold at his book store on State street,

CATECHISM

O M FO

MR. JAMES NOYES

LATE TEACHER OF THE CHURCH 09

HAR IS T.

NEWBURY,.

FOR THE USE OF

THERE

OSTON

NEWBURYPORT.

PRINTED BY BARRETT & MARGIT

MIDDLE-STRET .- 1797.

TITLE PAGE OF THE SHORT CATECHISM.

Newburyport, "sign of the Bible." In 1797, Mr. Blunt printed, for Mathew Carey of Philadelphia, " The Beauties of the late Reverend Dr. Isaac Watts." In 1798, he published the second edition of the American Coast Pilot, " sold by all the Booksellers and Ship Chandlers in the United States."

494

HISTORY OF NEWBURYPORT

The third edition was published in 1800, and the sixth in 1809. Mr. Blunt had a printing office on State street, where he printed, in addition to the above-named books, the follow- ing-described pamphlets :-

He published, in 1799, the New Practical Navigator, re- printed from the thirteenth English edition, and the next year issued a second edition enlarged and improved. In 1801, he published an entirely new work, prepared by Nathaniel Bow- ditch of Salem, described as follows :-

The twenty-fourth edition of the Practical Navigator was published in New York in 1854 by E. and G. W. Blunt, sons of Edmund M. Blunt.

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History of Newburyport, Mass., 1764-1905, Volume I, Part 36

Author: Currier, John J. (John James), 1834-1912. cn Publication date: 1906 Publisher: Newburyport, Mass., The author Number of Pages: 790

Author: Currier, John J. (John James), 1834-1912. cn
Publication date: 1906
Publisher: Newburyport, Mass., The author
Number of Pages: 790