Re: "Seven Centuries" - is it source of Edward error?
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In reply to:
Re: "Seven Centuries" - is it source of Edward error?
Austin Sepncer 1/05/03
Thank you for your reply. It's interesting to try to establish how plausible some of these assertions are.
William REESE (see below) argues that the Boston printer Samuel KNEELAND was trained by his *uncle* - Bartholomew GREEN [1666-1732] (which would certainly make Samuel's mother a daughter of Samuel GREEN senior the printer.
The suggestion is that the GREEN printing family kept the business "in the family". On the balance of probabilities I'm inclined to agree with this.
Here are a few quotes I've pulled from an essay called "The First Hundred Years of Printing in British North America: Printers and Collectors" by William S REESE of New Haven CT (he appears to be a modern authority on early printed American works; but he cites the Kiessel paper along the way, too!) at http://www.reeseco.com/papers/first100.htmhttp://www.reeseco.com/papers/first100.htm
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1. This paper, in a slightly different form, was read at the annual meeting of the American Antiquarian Society held in Worcester, MA, on October 18, 1989
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2. [...] Of the American-born and trained printers, thirteen of the nineteen were connected to the ubiquitous Green family, descended from the Cambridge printer Samuel Green, Sr., and related by blood, marriage, or apprenticeship.
The web of Green relationships provided the family with opportunities in government printing and cooperative ventures. By 1740 they ran the printing shops of Annapolis and New London, as well as four out of the five in Boston. The only interconnected group of printers that rivaled the Greens was the Franklin family, largely revolving around Benjamin's silent partnerships with former apprentices and with his brother James and James' widow.
The only American born and trained printers prior to 1740 who were not Green-related were John Foster and his apprentices Richard Pierce, Andrew Bradford, and Bezoune Allen - who apprenticed with their fathers (although the latter went into partnership with a Green), David Harry and Anne Franklin.
Source: William C. Kiessel. "The Green Family, A Dynasty of Printers," NEHGR 104 (1950): pp. 81-93.
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3. The following year Samuel Kneeland, grandson of Samuel Green, Sr., and trained by his uncle, Bartholomew Green, opened his own shop. By 1718 there were five printing establishments, a number that stayed more or less constant, allowing for changes in personnel, through 1740.
Sources: Benjamin Franklin V: "Boston Printers, Publishers, and Booksellers" 1640-1800, pp. 162-70, 193-96, 323-29 (Boston, MA: G.K. Hall, 1980).;
"Benjamin Franklin, Autobiography" (New York, 1944), p. 17.
More Replies:
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Re: "Seven Centuries" - is it source of Edward error?
Austin Sepncer 4/10/03
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Re: "Seven Centuries" - is it source of Edward error?
Graham 4/11/03
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Re: "Seven Centuries" - is it source of Edward error?