University of New Hampshire University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository Doctoral Dissertations Student Scholarship Winter 1980 BROKERS OF THE WORD: AN ESSAY IN THE SOCIAL HISTORY OF THE EARLY AMERICAN PRESS, 1639-1783 CHARLES WHEELER WETHERELL University of New Hampshire, Durham Follow this and additional works at: https://scholars.unh.edu/dissertation Recommended Citation WETHERELL, CHARLES WHEELER, "BROKERS OF THE WORD: AN ESSAY IN THE SOCIAL HISTORY OF THE EARLY AMERICAN PRESS, 1639-1783" (1980). Doctoral Dissertations. 2313. https://scholars.unh.edu/dissertation/2313 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Scholarship at University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 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ZEEB ROAD, ANN ARBOR, Ml 48106 18 BEDFORD ROW, LONDON WCl R 4EJ, ENGLAND Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 8118551 W etherell, Ch a r l e s Wheeler BROKERS OF THE WORD: AN ESSAY IN THE SOCIAL HISTORY OF THE EARLY AMERICAN PRESS, 1639-1783 University o f New Hampshire P hX ). 1980 University Microfilms Internetionel 300 N. Zeeb Road Ann Arbor. MI 48106 Copyright 1980 by Wethereli, Charles Wheeler All Rights Reserved Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. PLEASE NOTE: In all cases this material has been filmed in the best possible way from the available copy. Problems encountered with this document have been identified here with a check mark V 1. Glossy photographs or pages. 2. Colored illustrations, paper or print _____ 3. Photographs with dark background _____ 4. Illustrations are poor copy ______ 5. Pages with black marks, not original copy. 6. 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EÎCKE2S OP THE WOEC: AN ESSAY IN THE SOCIAL HISTORY OF lEE EABLY AMERICAN ESESS, 1639-1783 BY CHARLES WETHERELL B.A., St. Lawrence University, 1969 A EISSERTATICN Submitted to the University of New Hampshire in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History Decmeber 1980 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 This thesis has been examined and approved. sis Director,(JIL D^rrett B. Rutman, Professor of History Charles E. Clark, Professor of History Robert M, Mennel, Professor of History X/9 Donald J. Wilcox ,/^rofessor of History Cerny, Adjunolr^ssistant Professor of Geography September 2, 1980 Date Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS list of Tables IX list of Figures i i i list of Illustrations iv Abstract V Chapter 1. Issues 1 2. Dimensions 33 3. Foundations I 66 New England 4. Foundations II 92 The Southern and Middle Colonies 5. Associations 122 6. Diffusion 157 Appendix 1. Sources and Methods 182 2. Trade Genealogies 215 Bibliographic Note 223 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. LIST OF TABLES 1. Number, Percentage Change, and Annual Bate of Growth for Imprints, Newspapers, and Printers, Sponsors, and Booksellers, in Five-Year Periods, 1639-1783 35 2. Mean Number of Discrete Working Trade Associations Among Printers, 1639-1783 13il 3. Mean Individual Network Imbeddedness Among Printers By Twenty-Year Cohorts, 1639-1783 137 4. Mean Numbers of Associations and Individual Trade Imbeddedness Among Printers, By Region, 1639-1783 139 5- Mean Individual Network Imbeddedness Among Printers By Twenty-Year cohorts. By Region, 1639-1783 141 6. Characteristics of Reprinted Works, By Twenty-Year Periods, 1639-1783 169 7. Regional Distribution of Reprinted Works, By Twenty-Year Periods, 1639-1783 171 XI Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. IIST OF FIGURES 1. Growth Trends in Production and Involvement, 1639-1783 34 2. White Colonial vs Early American Press Population, 1639-1783 39 3. Number of Printers vs Number of Sponsor-Sellers, 1639- 1783 44 4. Growth Trends in Involvement by Region, 1639-1783 50 5. Number of printers. Sponsors, and Booksellers, By Region, 1639-1783 i. ■ 6. White Colonial vs Early American Press Population, By Region, 1640-1780 55 7. New England Colonial vs Press Population, 1700-1750 79 8. Hypothetical Network 131 9. Schematic View of Trade Associations in Network Terms 132 10. Network Density Among P rinters, 1700-1780 144 11. Imprints Recorded in Evans’ American Bibliography and B risto l's S upnlement to Evans, 1639- 1783 189 1X1 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. IIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 1. Schematic View of Benjamin Franklin's and James Parker's Trade Associations 116 2. Franklin Fanily in New England Printing, 1717-1768 217 3. Printing in Savannah, Georgia, 1761-1790 218 4. Printing in North Carolina, 1749-1790 219 5. Printing in Annapolis and Williamsburg, 1720-1790 220 6. Printing in Cambridge and Boston, 1630-1700 221 7. Printing in Boston, 1700-1783 222 IV Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ABSTRACT BECKERS 0Ï THE WORE; AN ESSAY IN THE SOCIAL HISTORY OR TEE EARLY AEEBICAN PRESS, 1639-1783 by CHARLES WETHERELL University of New Hampshire, December, 1980 This dissertation explores the social context of printing and publishing from 1639 to 1783 through an analysis of the complete extant record of colonial printing and a collective biography of the printers, publishers and booksellers who comprised the press. Two general areas are explored. The first involves the size, stability, and growth of the press, the second, the structure of the trade at large. The early American press grew like the population it served and was characterized by a marked stability. The broad patterns of production and growth suggest that how much was printed depended largely upon the number of persons in the trade, which, in turn, depended upon successful Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. demographic experiences. In a ll areas of colonial America, families formed the underlying structure of the trade, and their fortunes were those of the trade itself. The nature and extent of association among tradesmen is also explored. Here, the professional and familial networks of tradesmen are examined both as phenomena of personal association in colonial America and as the structure through which ideas, in the form of printed works, flowed from place to place. Tie extent of trade networks reached its zenith early in the eighteenth century, and thereafter declined as the size of the trade exceeded the ab ility of indivduals to form associations with other tradesmen. The diminishing networks of tradesmen contributed to a marked provincialism of the early American press which was reflected . in the declining inter-regional diffusion of printed works as the eighteenth century progressed. VI Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CHAPTER CNE ISSUES When Benjamin Franklin walked into Philadelphia in the Fall of 1723 he was seventeen, with neither money nor work. Yet he had a trade. Franklin was a printer, something only nine other men in the American colonies could claim at the time. Within five years Franklin had worked for each of the two printers in town, journeyed to London and back, left and reentered the trade, formed a partnership, and opened a shop.