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Officers in the several Regiments serving in North-America,” and a number of proclamations and military notices. In February, 1778, they moved to Philadelphia, where they printed an “Army List” for 1778, and more proclamations and notices. They returned to New York in June, 1778, and in 1779 issued a third “Army List.” In the following year they followed the British to Charleston, South Carolina, where, besides printing the yearly “Army List” and the necessary official broadsides, they, in conjunction with James Robertson, printed “The Royal South Carolina Gazette.” On the evacuation of Charleston they returned to New York, but did not, so far as I can learn, resume business. Cameron was in New York in October, 1782, beyond which date I am unable to trace him.

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DONALD MACDONALD, like his partner Alexander Cameron, already noticed, was a Scotchman, and came to New York in 1777. The office of the firm was “in Water-Street, between the Coffee-House and Old Slip-Bridge.” While in Philadelphia they were located on “Chestnut street, a few doors above the Barrack-Office.” In Charleston they had “their Printing-Office, [at] No. 20, Broad Street,” and there sold “Hyson Tea, Jewelry, Perfumery, Genuine Scotch Snuff, etc.,” in addition to books. I have noticed the publications of this firm, on which their name always appears as “Macdonald & Cameron,” in my sketch of the junior partner, but I may add here, in support of my theory of their official connection with the army, that the publications are almost all “By Permission,” or “By Authority.” Macdonald, who died at Newton, on Long Island, October 5, 1782,” was

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a gentleman of inoffensive manners and had a native goodness of heart.”

NATHANIEL MILLS was born November 3, 1749, at Dorchester, Massachusetts, and was apprenticed to John Fleming, a Boston printer. At the expiration of his time of service, Mills, in partnership with John Hicks, bought out his former master, who was desirous of returning to Great Britain. Mills & Hicks began business in Boston in April, 1773. They also acquired control of “The Massachusetts Gazette,” and continued it in the interest of the government party. This paper, according to Thomas, was terminated in April, 1775. The same writer is authority for the statement that besides their newspaper they printed “only a few political pamphlets and the ‘Massachusetts Register.’” Mills resided a

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short time at Cambridge, but rejoined his partner in Boston before its evacuation by the British. They accompanied the British army to Halifax, and from thence went to England, where they remained about two years. In 1777 they came to New York and opened a printing-office in connection with a stationery store. They published there the “British and American Register” and “Army List in 1778,” and a few other pamphlets. In 1782 they joined the Robertsons, the firm being Robertsons, Mills & Hicks. In 1783 Mills went to Nova Scotia, settling first at Halifax and then at Shelburne.

JOHN HICKS was born October 16, 1750, at Cambridge, Massachusetts. His father, John Hicks, was a great-grandson of Zachariah Hicks, who settled in Cambridge prior to

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1652. The elder John Hicks was an ardent Whig, and lost his life by a British bullet as the royal forces on their retreat from Lexington passed through Cambridge on April 19, 1775. The younger Hicks served his apprenticeship with Green & Russell in Boston, and until 1773 was supposed to be on the side of American liberty. “He was reputed to have been one of the young men who had the affray with some British soldiers which led to the memorable massacre in King street, Boston, on March 5, 1770.” In April, 1773, he began business in partnership with Nathaniel Mills, and adopted the side of the government in the political dispute of the time. The death of his father made no change in Hicks’s politics, and on the evacuation of Boston he accompanied the British forces to Halifax. Soon afterward both Mills and Hicks went to England, where they remained nearly

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two years. In 1777 they returned to America and established a printing-office and a stationery store in New York City. Their publications were not numerous. I have mentioned some of them in the sketch of Mills, and need only say here that the later issues of their “Register” are of great historical value on account of the “Army Lists,” which they contain. Nearly all the army rosters printed in America contain lists of the loyalist corps and German mercenaries employed by the British, which were never included in the official “Army Lists” printed in Great Britain, and are therefore sources of information not to be obtained elsewhere. Sometime in 1782 they joined in business with the Robertsons, with whom they appear as joint publishers of “The Royal American Gazette.” After the peace in 1783 they retired again to Halifax and began business there. They

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separated after a short time, and Hicks obtained permission to return to Massachusetts. He purchased a fine estate at Newton and resided there until 1794, when he died.

WILLIAM LEWIS was a native of Kent, England. He came to New York, I think, but a short time before he opened his printing-office at 19 Wall street, and there began “The New York Mercury.” The first number was issued September 3, 1779, and was “published at Mr. Philip Brooks’s Stationery Store in the same House.” Lewis soon acquired the store and carried on the stationery business himself, adding to it a trade in snuff, patent medicines, and popular nostrums, cosmetics and perfumery, gold and silver epaulets, and military trimmings. The paper was well printed and contained as much news as any

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other then issued in New York, but it met with poor success, more than half the advertisements in the numbers I have seen being of books and other goods for sale by James and Alexander Robertson. It was continued up to August, 1781, and probably longer. Lewis printed a few pamphlets and school-books besides his newspaper. In 1782 he was in partnership with Horner. The only publication of this firm that I can discover was a “Freemason’s Pocket Book, a curious collection of original Masonic Songs.” Lewis retired from the concern in 1783, and on June 28 of that year was arrested for debt. He was soon afterward released, and joined with John Ryan in settling at St. John, New Brunswick. Here, in December, 1783, they began “The Royal St. John’s [sic] Gazette and Nova Scotia Intelligencer.” This paper was continued under various names until about 1806, but Lewis’s

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connection with it ceased in 1785, and I have been unable to obtain further information concerning him.

WILLIAM MORTON, in October, 1776, was chosen second lieutenant of the Middle Ward Company of the New York City Regiment of Militia raised by the British immediately after their capture of the city. About May, 1782, he, in partnership with Christopher Sower and Samuel Horner, established a printing-house and started a newspaper called “The New York Morning Post.” The editors had to depend largely on Daniel Coxe’s supply of foreign newspapers for their news, and in return agreed to send him their paper without charge. Sower withdrew in 1783, and soon afterward quarreled with his former associates about his share of the profits. Morton and Horner had continued

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the business, but were unable to meet Sower’s demands, and upon their being unable to pay a note which Morton had given Sower and he had negotiated, Morton was committed to prison and remained there some time. While in jail Morton published a statement in “The Morning Post” attacking Sower, who replied, first briefly, and then to the extent of two columns, in Rivington’s “Royal Gazette.” On the death of Horner, Morton continued the newspaper and printing-office alone. Of the former I have seen no number later than 1788, and his name disappeared from the City Directory after 1789. It is possible that he died about that time, although there is no will of his, nor any letters of administration on record at the surrogate’s office. He married in New York City, in August, 1782, Mary Love; but I have been unable to ascertain anything more about him,

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nor can I record any publication bearing his imprint other than “The Morning Post” and the pamphlet mentioned in the notice of Sower.

SAMUEL HORNER, the eldest child of Isaac Homer and Rachel Carter, his wife, was born December 31, 1757, in New York City. I have been able to learn nothing about him from this time until May, 1782, when he was in partnership with William Lewis. This firm existed but a short time, as about the same year Homer joined Sower and Morton in opening a printing-office and establishing “The New York Morning Post.” Sower retired in 1783 and became engaged in a quarrel with his former partners about his share of the profits, which was extensively aired in the columns of “The Morning Post” and of Rivington’s “Royal Gazette.” Morton and Horner

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made their peace in some way with the Whig authorities, and continued the publication of their paper after the evacuation of New York by the British. “The Morning Post” is remarkable as the only newspaper printed within the British lines which survived their withdrawal from the United States. The paper was converted into a daily shortly before Homer’s death, which occurred in New York City in February, 1786. By his will he bequeathed his interest in the printing-office and newspaper to his partner Morton.

CHRISTOPHER SAUR, or Sower, the third of that name, was born January 27, 1754, at Germantown, Philadelphia County, where his grandfather, in 1738, had printed from the first German type used in America, and in 1743 had issued, the first edition

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of the Bible printed in a European language in the Western world. He was brought up in the office of his father, Christopher Sower, Junior, of which he and his brother Peter became proprietors in 1777. Except his continuation of the “Germantown Gazette,” and “Der Hoch-Deutsche Americanische Calender,” the disturbed state of the times rendered his press barren. In both these publications he espoused the British side of the great question of the day. On the capture of Philadelphia by Howe, he sought the protection of the royal army. Venturing back to his house in Germantown to secure some valuable papers, he was made a prisoner. He was exchanged, after a short detention, for his next door neighbor, whose services as a powder-maker were greatly valued by the Americans, and whose arrest by the British, Thomas says, was instigated by Sower. Sower accompanied the

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English to New York, and from thence went to England. Before leaving New York he wrote, in December, 1779, a letter which, with a number of others, was captured by the Americans. In the same packet was another letter touching the same topic as part of Sower’s. The following extract from the other letter, which was written by Daniel Coxe, of New Jersey, on December 7, 1779,—

I have lately brought about a general representation of all the refugees from the respective colonies, which now compose a board of which I have the honor to be president. We vote by colonies and conduct our debates in quite a parliamentary style,—

becomes an amusing illustration of the old saw that there are two sides to everything, when considered with Sower’s letter, which says:

The deputies of the refugees from the different provinces meet once a week. Daniel Coxe,

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Esq., was appointed to the chair, to deprive him of the opportunity of speaking, as he has the gift of saying little with many words.

Sower remained in England about two years, and then returned to New York, where, for a short time, he en-gaged in business with Morton & Horner. The only publication of this firm I have met with besides “The New York Morning Post,” the publication of which they began about May, 1782, is a small quarto volume, issued in 1783, a reprint of Cornwallis’s “Reply to Sir Henry Clinton’s Narrative,” from the imprint of which it appears that their office was at “No. 62, Water-Street, facing Beckman-Slip.”

In that year Sower again went to England, and remained there until 1784, when, in addition to a pecuniary compensation for the losses entailed by his adherence to the royal cause, he was appointed Deputy Postmaster-General and Printer to the Crown in

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the Province of New Brunswick. Sower settled at a French village which he named “Brookville,” and in 1785 began there the publication of “The Royal Gazette and Weekly Advertiser.” This paper and the post-office he continued to manage until the spring of 1799, when he visited Philadelphia and Baltimore, and arranged with his brother Samuel for an interest in the latter’s type-foundry in the last-named place. He was, however, stricken with apoplexy and died in Baltimore. July 3, 1799, leaving a widow and several children. Thomas’s statement that Sower was placed in the English army, as a colonel at half pay, is not borne out by the official “Army List.”