James Parker was a prominent colonial American printer and publisher.
Early life
Parker was born in 1714 in Woodbridge Township, New Jersey. When he was eleven-years-old, his father died. Parker apprenticed himself on a servant indenture on January 1, 1727 for eight years to William Bradford, the colonial printer in New York City. The agreement terms were that Bradford was to feed and provide for Parker in exchange for labor the boy would do. Bradford was also to train Parker the skills of the printing trade. Parker became a liability instead of an asset for Bradford when there was little printing work available. He decided in April 1733 to sell the remaining 21 months left on Parker's servant indenture and advertised the sale of his indenture. Parker ran away on May 17 before Bradford had a chance to sell the remaining indenture. Parker became a "wanted man," and Bradford advertised a reward for his capture in his New-York Gazette newspaper. The runaway ad described Parker as "an Apprentice lad....by trade a Printer, aged about 19 years; he is of a fresh Completion with short yellowish hair." A reward was offered, which was doubled a short time later.
Mid-life
Parker ultimately went to Philadelphia and started working for Benjamin Franklin. He worked for Franklin as a journeyman. Franklin persuaded him to return to New York to fulfill his servant indenture agreement with Bradford. After completing his servant indenture agreement, Parker returned to Philadelphia, where he lived with Franklin for several years. Franklin saw talent in Parker. In 1741, Franklin financed Parker, as a silent partner, in setting up his own printing business in New York City, with a six-year franchise agreement. Franklin provided printing equipment, a press, an assortment of types, and a third of the maintenance costs, in exchange for a share of the profits. Franklin saw this as an opportunity to take over the business monopoly of the aging seventy-seven-year-old Bradford in the Province of New York. Parker's new newspaper was called the New-York Gazette and Weekly Post-Boy. As the circulation grew, the paper gained a good share of Bradford's subscribers. Parker eventually became the official printer for both the King of England and the government of New York province. Sometime in the 1750s Parker decided to go back to Woodbridge to set up a print shop. At the time the colony of New Jersey had two capitals. The capital for what had historically been East Jersey was at Perth Amboy, New Jersey; the capital for West Jersey was at Burlington, New Jersey. When people from Perth Amboy needed to have printing jobs done, they went to New York City, but the people from Burlington went to Philadelphia, since that city was more convenient for them. Parker's new Woodbridge printing office was close to Perth Amboy, so he offered his printing services to those in the eastern part of New Jersey and western New York. Parker's Woodbridge printing office became the first permanent print shop in New Jersey.
Interests
Parker had a variety of civic and community interests. He was a captain of a troop of horse guards in Woodbridge, a church member lay reader, comptroller of the general post-offices of the British colonies and postmaster with John Holt. He also became judge of the court of common pleas of Middlesex County, New Jersey. Parker was in journalism in the colonies of New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut. He had several printing businesses in his lifetime. Parker not only published newspapers and official government documents, but also published magazines, poetry, fiction, history, science, almanacs, and religious material. He was also a printer for Yale College in Connecticut in the mid-eighteenth century.
Parker took over Bradford's position as the official government "public printer" for New York on December 1, 1743. He was the government "public printer" for New Jersey in 1758. Parker had several controversial issues during the tenure as the government "public printer" of New York and New Jersey. His clients included many of New York City's elite. Parker even acted as Franklin's agent in the business of Franklin & Hall when Franklin went to Europe. Parker's New York printing business was handed down to his nephew Samuel Parker in February 1759. This business was ultimately taken over by Holt in 1760. Holt was the manager of the Connecticut Gazette that Parker started as the first newspaper in that colony. In 1770, Parker printed a controversial paper by Sons of Liberty leader Alexander McDougall for which he was arrested, however he died shortly thereafter before the settling of the case. Parker suffered many years from gout and died at a friend's house in Burlington, New Jersey, July 2, 1770. Towards the end of Parker's life, many of his business partners took advantage of his poor health and directed most of the profits of the business into their own pockets without sharing with Parker as they should have. Holt's obituary in the New York Journal says that Parker "was eminent in his Profession", "possessed a sound judgment and extensive knowledge", "was industrious in Business, upright in his Dealings, charitable to the distressed." Holt stated his one time business partner "left a fair Character." Parker's will showed that he bequeathed his three printing press businesses to his son.
Legacy
In his day Parker was considered a better printer than William Bradford or Benjamin Franklin in the American Thirteen Colonies. He was the general manager of the first public library in New York city. Parker established the first newspaper in the colony of Connecticut, the Connecticut Gazette. He also founded the Constitutional Courant, the first newspaper in New Jersey.
