The first printing press was brought to Cambridge in 1638, the same year that John Evarts arrived. The Reverend Joseph Glover, a “worthy and wealthy dissenting clergyman”, was a great supporter of the Massachusetts Bay Colony which had been started when seventeen ships brought a thousand colonists to Boston in 1630. Glover thought a printing press would be an important improvement for the new colonies. He raised money among his associates and purchased a press, two trays of type, ink and reams of paper and found an apprentice pressman, Stephen Daye, to accompany him and his family as they emigrated to the new world.
Unfortunately, Reverend Glover never made it. He died at sea during the voyage in 1638, but the press and Glover’s widow and children and Stephen Daye made it ashore. The widow Glover had the press set up in Cambridge, where a college had just been started. The college would be named
Harvard College the following year when it received 400 books and 779 pounds sterling from the estate of another young English clergyman, John Harvard. The move to Cambridge was a good one on Elizabeth Glover’s part, because she soon became the wife of Henry Dunster, the first president of Harvard College.
Stephen Daye was supposedly a good printer, some say he was related to John Daye, the eminent London printer of the 16th century, but the evidence shows otherwise. In the first year he printed a broadsheet, The Freeman’s Oath and an almanack, and in 1640 printed the Bay Psalm Book, the first book printed in the new world. He received 300 acres of land from the colony for his work, which he promptly mortgaged for a cow, a calf, and a heifer. A close inspection of the book shows that, while the type brought from Europe was new and unworn, Daye didn’t really know what he was doing. Impressions were uneven, there were many typographical errors, commas and periods were used interchangeably, syllables were broken incorrectly.
By 1643, his fourth year on the job, Daye landed in jail (about average for a pressman). By 1648, he had been sacked from his job by President Dunster, who administered his wife’s financial affairs, and replaced by another pressman, Samuel Green. Daye hung around Cambridge, sued Dunster for one hundred pounds claiming past wages, and went to court to try to collect on his real estate grant.
By 1656, there were two presses in Cambridge. These were the old “wine press” apparatuses, paper had to be brought in from England, and production was very slow. It made sense to send a lot of material back to England to be printed if time allowed. By this time, however, the colonists had begun to teach young Indians to read at the school in Cambridge. They wished to translate the Bible into the Indian languages; it made sense to print in the colonies where the Indian students could proofread the copy. Using new type cast in England, Green printed 500 copies of the New Testament when Marmaduke Johnson, a master printer, arrived from London in 1660.
Marmaduke was a pretty good pressman, although he had some run-in’s with the law in his past. His wife was back in England, and so when he got to Cambridge he started hitting pretty hard on Samuel Green’s daughter; by 1662 a restraining order had been put out on him. Marmaduke got to work printing the Indian Bible which John Eliot was translating into Algonquin using a phonetic English alphabet. They got help from a young Nipmunk Indian they named James the Printer.
The Bible consisted of about one hundred and fifty different sheets, which were folded into signatures and then gathered together, sewn, and bound into books. The pressrun for the bible was one thousand copies, and it took about a week to print each form of the book, so, with Marmaduke's periodic absences, it took more than two years to print the book. The printers had two trays of type, which was enough to set a form, but after each form was printed, the type had to be distributed back into the cases, so that it would be available for the next form. The New Testament came out in 1661. There were a few delays along the way due to Marmaduke’s “ issues”, and then the Old Testament was completed in 1663.
In 1714, the press became the property of Timothy Green who took it to New London, Connecticut. Over the years, the press was moved several times through Connecticut and New Hampshire. It eventually printed the first Vermont newspaper The Vermont Gazette, or Green Mountain Post Boy in Westminster in 1781. George Hough purchased the old Daye press and moved it to Windsor in 1783 where he published The Vermont Journal and the Universal Advertiser. (Anthony Haswell printed the second state paper the Vermont Gazette in Bennington in 1783).The press is now in the Vermont Historical Society.
Unfortunately, Reverend Glover never made it. He died at sea during the voyage in 1638, but the press and Glover’s widow and children and Stephen Daye made it ashore. The widow Glover had the press set up in Cambridge, where a college had just been started. The college would be named
Harvard College the following year when it received 400 books and 779 pounds sterling from the estate of another young English clergyman, John Harvard. The move to Cambridge was a good one on Elizabeth Glover’s part, because she soon became the wife of Henry Dunster, the first president of Harvard College.Stephen Daye was supposedly a good printer, some say he was related to John Daye, the eminent London printer of the 16th century, but the evidence shows otherwise. In the first year he printed a broadsheet, The Freeman’s Oath and an almanack, and in 1640 printed the Bay Psalm Book, the first book printed in the new world. He received 300 acres of land from the colony for his work, which he promptly mortgaged for a cow, a calf, and a heifer. A close inspection of the book shows that, while the type brought from Europe was new and unworn, Daye didn’t really know what he was doing. Impressions were uneven, there were many typographical errors, commas and periods were used interchangeably, syllables were broken incorrectly.
By 1643, his fourth year on the job, Daye landed in jail (about average for a pressman). By 1648, he had been sacked from his job by President Dunster, who administered his wife’s financial affairs, and replaced by another pressman, Samuel Green. Daye hung around Cambridge, sued Dunster for one hundred pounds claiming past wages, and went to court to try to collect on his real estate grant.
By 1656, there were two presses in Cambridge. These were the old “wine press” apparatuses, paper had to be brought in from England, and production was very slow. It made sense to send a lot of material back to England to be printed if time allowed. By this time, however, the colonists had begun to teach young Indians to read at the school in Cambridge. They wished to translate the Bible into the Indian languages; it made sense to print in the colonies where the Indian students could proofread the copy. Using new type cast in England, Green printed 500 copies of the New Testament when Marmaduke Johnson, a master printer, arrived from London in 1660.
Marmaduke was a pretty good pressman, although he had some run-in’s with the law in his past. His wife was back in England, and so when he got to Cambridge he started hitting pretty hard on Samuel Green’s daughter; by 1662 a restraining order had been put out on him. Marmaduke got to work printing the Indian Bible which John Eliot was translating into Algonquin using a phonetic English alphabet. They got help from a young Nipmunk Indian they named James the Printer.
The Bible consisted of about one hundred and fifty different sheets, which were folded into signatures and then gathered together, sewn, and bound into books. The pressrun for the bible was one thousand copies, and it took about a week to print each form of the book, so, with Marmaduke's periodic absences, it took more than two years to print the book. The printers had two trays of type, which was enough to set a form, but after each form was printed, the type had to be distributed back into the cases, so that it would be available for the next form. The New Testament came out in 1661. There were a few delays along the way due to Marmaduke’s “ issues”, and then the Old Testament was completed in 1663.
In 1714, the press became the property of Timothy Green who took it to New London, Connecticut. Over the years, the press was moved several times through Connecticut and New Hampshire. It eventually printed the first Vermont newspaper The Vermont Gazette, or Green Mountain Post Boy in Westminster in 1781. George Hough purchased the old Daye press and moved it to Windsor in 1783 where he published The Vermont Journal and the Universal Advertiser. (Anthony Haswell printed the second state paper the Vermont Gazette in Bennington in 1783).The press is now in the Vermont Historical Society.
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