- The First Printing in the Carolinas
- "Most of them (the laws of North Carolina) either appear under ridiculous titles,
- are full of contradictions, or the language and style is childish, ridiculous and against the common rules of grammar."
- -Governor Gabriel Johnson, in 1736 on urging for the establishment of a public printer to print the laws and official business on the colony.
Printing in North Carolina is 250 years old in 1999. On June 24, 1749, the first printing office was officially started by James Davis in Newbern. An act of the colonial assembly in 1747 passed a "Bill for revising and printing the Laws of this Province & so forth." James Davis, of Virginia was appointed printer at a yearly salary of 160 pounds.
The need for printing was the poor condition of the manuscript copies of the laws that were in use. According to Colonial Governor Johnson, there were errors in and between the various handwritten copies. A printer was necessary to establish a consistent form in the various copies of the laws.
Hand copied laws proved a great problem, but no less than the hand copied currency that was used in the province. Without a printing press and in need of paper scrip the solution was hand written bills.
In order to make paper money, a book of blank pages was created. On each leaf of the book a single bill was drawn, written, and signed. A seal of wax or other official notation was made. Along the edge of the bill a flourish of loops was made. Each numbered bill was cut out of the book leaving part of the decorative edge in the book. The book pages were left with rectangular holes of the missing bills. To test for counterfeit, a suspect bill was laid against the hole and matched to the edges.
To pay for the services of a public printer, a tax on rum was passed. It proved very unpopular. Many rum drinkers didn't read or see the need for a printer. A head tax was passed. Each "taxable" was charged four pense. A "taxable" was a free male 16 to 60 years of age or any slave over 12 years.
Davis tried to supplement his official income by printing the first newspaper in North Carolina in 1755, The North Carolina Gazette. The paper had several reversals and restarts over a period of several years.
There were two other printers in Pre-Revolutionary North Carolina; Andrew Stewart and Adam Boyd both of Wilmington. Neither was able to make a full time living at printing. Many of the people of North Carolina could not read and the services of a printer were unnecessary. One of Benjamin Franklin's partners, Hugh Meredith, came to North Carolina in 1736, but brought no equipment and went into farming.
South Carolina has a much longer printing tradition. Eleazer Phillips moved from New England in 1730 and established a book and stationery shop in "Charles Town." He attempted to go into the newspaper business by publishing The South Carolina Weekly Journal. Poor circulation caused the paper to close in six months.
Two years later, Thomas Whitmarsh founded The South Carolina Gazette., but died shortly after of yellow fever. Another of Benjamin Franklin's printers, Lewis Timothy revived the paper in 1734 and published it until his accidental death in 1738.
His widow, Elizabeth, ran the paper and print shop until his son Peter was old enough to take over. As many successful printers, Peter Timothy worked with the colonial postal service and was appointed Deputy Postmaster-General of the Southern Provinces.
Peter Timothy's "Gazette" was called The Gazette of the State of South Carolina. During the Revolutionary War, his loyalties were viewed as pro-independence by the British and he had to flee to Florida. Another "Gazette," The South Carolina Weekly Gazette run by Robert Wells was allowed to continue publication under the title The Royal Gazette.
When the British occupation of Charleston ended The Royal Gazette was finished and Peter Timothy intended to resume publication of his paper. However, like his father, he died accidentally. And like her Mother-in-law, Peter Timothy's widow continued publication until, her son, Benjamin Franklin Timothy, could continue in his mother's, father's and grandparent's craft. Benjamin Franklin Timothy continued the family business until 1802.
Copyright © 1999, Frank Granger
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