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CHAPTER VI
WHIGS AND TORIES, OR THE HOLTS
AND THE ROBERTSONS
JOHN HOLT was born at Williamsburg, in Virginia, in 1721; received a liberal education, became a merchant, and was elected mayor of his native place. Meeting with financial reverses, he procured in 1754, through the influence of his wife’s brother, one of the two deputy postmasters-general for America, a situation with James Parker, the newly appointed postmaster of New Haven. Parker not only placed Holt in charge of the post-office, but took him into partnership in a bookstore
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and printing-house which he established in New Haven, the than name being James Parker & Co. Holt, I presume, had learned type-setting in the office of his brother-in-law, Hunter, before he left Williamsburg. His first publication, “Liber Primus Novo-Portu Impressus,” according to the title-page, was an edition in Latin of the statutes of Yale College.
On the 1st of January, 1755, he began “The Connecticut Gazette,” the first newspaper printed in the colony, and continued its publication until 1760, when he was called to New York to take charge of Parker’s printing-office. The business of the New Haven firm of James Parker & Co. was carried on through an agent until 1764, when it was sold to Benjamin Mecom.
In New York, Holt had entire charge of the business, Parker preferring to attend to his printing-office at Woodbridge. He soon acquired an interest
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in the concern, and for a couple of years its publications bore the imprint of James Parker & Co.
In 1764 both partnerships were dissolved; Holt leased the New York establishment, and began publishing on his own account. He also continued the “NewYork Gazette”; but of this, although issued in Holt’s name, Parker retained the proprietorship. The earliest publication bearing Holt’s imprint was “The Laws, [etc.,] of the City of New-York,” issued late in 1763. In 1764 he printed the “Report” of the famous New York case of Forsey vs. Cunningham, and 1765 reprinted Daniel Dulany’s “Considerations on the Propriety of Imposing Taxes in the British Colonies, For the Purpose of raising a Revenue.” In 1766 he printed a small quarto volume of 72 pages, a collection of Jewish prayers translated by Isaac Pinto of New York. In 1766 he quarreled with Parker, and instead
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of issuing the “Gazette” on May 29 he put forth “The New York Journal, No. 1.” Before the next weekly issue of the “Gazette” was due, the quarrel was composed and the publication of the “Journal” was discontinued in favor of the “Gazette.” The peace lasted only until October, when Holt opened a printing-office of his own and recommenced the “New York Journal,” but this time numbering at No. 1241, in sequence with the “Gazette,” which he supposed would expire without his attention. Parker, however, was too good a business man to permit this, and the “Gazette” and “Journal” continued to appear as two distinct newspapers numbered from a common starting-point for several years. Holt gave the “Journal” a vigorous Whig tone, and it achieved an immediate success, attained a wide circulation, and attracted contributions from many able writers
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who took the side of American liberty. In 1774 he replaced the cut of the royal arms, which had ornamented his heading, with the rattlesnake, divided into twelve parts, and the motto “Join or Die,” which had been occasionally used before from the time it was suggested in the “Pennsylvania Gazette” of May 9, 1754. On the approach of the British army in 1776, Holt removed to Esopus (Kingston), leaving much of his personal property in New York, “which he totally lost.” He resumed the “Journal” at Esopus, continued it when he removed to Poughkeepsie, and again printed it in New York City in the fall of 1783, after the British had evacuated. At the last-named place Holt changed the name of the paper to “The Independent Gazette, or the New York Journal.” After his death its publication was continued by his widow until 1785, and from that time until 1787 it was
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published by Eleazer Oswald, a relative of Mrs. Holt. Early in the last-mentioned year the paper was sold to Thomas Greenleaf, who continued it. with several changes of name, until 1798.
About 1770 Holt established a printing-office at Norfolk, Virginia. This was under the management of his son, John Hunter Holt, who published a newspaper there, and did such other printing as came in his way. The Norfolk paper became obnoxious to Lord Drummond, and in October, 1775, he despatched an officer and thirteen men from the man-of-war on which he had taken refuge in the previous June to seize the printer and destroy his effects. The latter part of their object was accomplished, and aroused great indignation throughout Virginia. The elder Holt was twice again a sufferer at the hands of the British: once when they burned Esopus, and then when they
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sacked Danbury, to which place he had sent a part of his effects for safety. Holt does not seem to have been very enterprising as a book-publisher. Besides his newspaper he did but little, except in printing pamphlets and broadsides. In 1776 he became “Printer to the State,” and as such his time was fully occupied by the printing of the “Laws” and “Journals” and his newspaper and almanacs. He died in New York, January 30, 1784, and was buried in St. Paul’s churchyard.
ELIZABETH HOLT, who succeeded her husband as Printer to the State of New York, is perhaps beyond the scope of a work on the colonial printers; but as she may have aided her husband in his business before the Revolution, I have included a brief notice of her. She was born in Williamsburg,
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Virginia, in 1727, and was a daughter of John Hunter, a merchant of that colonial capital. She married Holt in 1749, and after his death continued his business, at first alone, and afterward with the assistance of a relative, Eleazer Oswald. She disposed of her interest in the printing-office and newspaper about 1787, and removed to Philadelphia, where she died on March 6, 1788, in her sixty-first year.
JAMES ROBERTSON was born in Scotland, and learned his trade in his father’s printing-office. In 1764, he, in company with several compatriots, went to Boston, where for a time he found employment as a journeyman. In 1768 he removed to New York, and, having been joined by a younger brother, established a printing-house under the name of
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James Robertson & Co. The Robertsons began a newspaper called “The New York Chronicle,” and printed a few pamphlets. In 1770, at the instance of Sir William Johnson, they removed to Albany, where, in November of the following year, they began the publication of “The Albany Gazette,” which they continued to publish until 1775. Beyond the city ordinances and a few pamphlets, I know of nothing else that they produced while in Albany. In 1773 they formed a partnership with John Trumbull, and opened another office in Norwich, Connecticut. Their first publication seems to have been a newspaper called “The Norwich Packet,” which was begun in October, 1773. As at Albany, not much is known of the issues of their Norwich press. An edition of Watts’s Psalms and a few pamphlets are all that can be traced. The Robertsons were loyalists, and on the
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entry of the British into New York they disposed of their interest in the Norwich business to Trumbull, and confided the Albany plant to a friend, who caused it to be buried on his farm, from whence it was resurrected about 1782 and sold to Balentine and Webster, who established the second printing-office in Albany. Removing to New York City, the Robertsons began the publication, in January, 1777, of “The Royal American Gazette.” This paper was continued in their joint names until James Robertson followed the British army to Philadelphia in February, 1778, and began the publication of “The Royal Pennsylvania Gazette,” the last number of which appeared on May 26, 1778. Soon after this he returned to New York and opened a shop in Hanover Square. He soon, however, rejoined his brother in the publication of “The Royal American Gazette,” and continued thus
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engaged until the early part of 1780, when, with Macdonald and Cameron, he removed to Charleston, South Carolina, where they established, “by authority,” “The Royal South Carolina Gazette.” This paper lasted during the British occupation of Charleston, on the termination of which Robertson rejoined his brother in New York. “The Royal American Gazette” was issued by them until near the time of the evacuation of New York by the British; after 1781 it for a while bore the imprint of Robertsons, Mills and Hicks, but how long this firm lasted I have not ascertained. James Robertson returned to Scotland and became a bookseller in Edinburgh, where he was living in 1810. His wife, Amy, died at Norwich, June 15, 1776, just before he left there for New York.
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ALEXANDER ROBERTSON was born in 1742 in Scotland, and like his brother learned his trade in his father’s printing-office. About 1768 he joined his older brother, already noticed, in New York, and began business with him under the name of James Robertson & Co. Besides the newspaper published by them, the only thing of importance which they printed was the third American edition of William Livingston’s “Review of the Military Operations in America from 1753 to 1756,” printed in 1770. In company with his brother he engaged in business in Albany, having also a printing-office at Norwich, Connecticut; and on the occupation of New York by the British army, in 1776, removed to that place. There, in connection with his brother, alone, or again with his brother and Mills and Hicks, he published “The Royal American Gazette,” January, 1777, until
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1783. On the evacuation of New York by the British, he removed to Nova Scotia, where he began the publication of a newspaper at Shelburne, or, as it was at first called, Port Roseway. He died there in November, 1784, in the forty-second year of his age.