William Bradford moved from Pennsylvania to New York in the spring
of 1693, but what was the first product of his New York press has
not been established.[10] The Library of Congress owns two Bradford
imprints from this period, neither containing any indication of the
place of publication. Nevertheless, both are listed in Wilberforce
Eames' bibliography of early New York imprints.[11] One of them,
entitled _New-England's Spirit of Persecution Transmitted to
Pennsilvania, and the Pretended Quaker Found Persecuting the True
Christian-Quaker, in the Tryal of Peter Boss, George Keith, Thomas
Budd, and William Bradford, at the Sessions Held at Philadelphia the
Nineth, Tenth and Twelfth Days of December, 1692. Giving an Account of
the Most Arbitrary Procedure of That Court_, has been conjectured to
be the first New York imprint (Eames 1). Eames states that the work
"seems to be the joint production of George Keith and Thomas Budd,
including Bradford's own account of the trial. As it mentions the
next Court Session of March, 1693, it could hardly have been printed
before May...." He confesses that Bradford may have printed it at
Philadelphia. The Library of Congress purchased its copy--one of six
recorded in the National Union Catalog--for $50 at the November 1876
auction of the library of Americana formed by a New York collector,
William Menzies.
The other Bradford imprint conjecturally assigned to New York
is Governor Benjamin Fletcher's proclamation of April 29, 1693,
prohibiting "the _Breaking of the LORDS DAY_, all _Prophane Swearing,
Cursing, Drunkenness, Idleness_ and _unlawful Gaming_, and all manner
of _Prophaneness_ whatsoever" (Eames 9). Eames gives no reason why
this broadside should be listed as a later imprint. An eminent New
Yorker, Stuyvesant Fish, presented the unique copy to the Library of
Congress in 1915 and in an accompanying letter to the Librarian told
how it had come into his possession:
The broadside now sent you was given me by Mrs. Fish's
mother, the late Mrs. William Henry Anthon, with the
statement that she had found it among the papers left by
her brother-in-law, Professor Charles Edward Anthon (b.
Dec. 6, 1823; d. June 7, 1885). The latter was much given
to collecting coins, manuscripts, &c., but no effort of
mine has enabled me to learn where, when or how he became
possessed of the paper.
In view of the uncertain assignment of these two imprints to New
York, the Library's earliest imprints naming New York as the place of
publication should also be mentioned. _A Catalogue of Fees Established
by the Governour and Council at the Humble Request of the Assembly_
(New-York, William Bradford, 1693) is an 11-page work printed sometime
after September 20, 1693. The Library's copy, like others, is appended
to Bradford's printing of _The Laws & Acts of the General Assembly_
(New-York, 1694), which in Eames' opinion was itself probably begun
in 1693, perhaps as early as July or August. Among the owners of the
volume containing these early imprints was the bibliographer Charles
R. Hildeburn, who gave the following history in a note prefixed to an
1894 facsimile edition of _The Laws & Acts_:
This [copy], lacking a title-page, was formerly part
of a volume of laws and other folio tracts printed by
Bradford between 1694 and 1710, which was bought at a
sale at Bangs's, in New-York, about ten years ago, by the
late Dr. George H. Moore, for $26. In 1890 Dr. Moore sold
the volume as he bought it for $1750 to the writer, who,
having supplied the title-page in facsimile, sold so much
of "the Laws of 1694 as issued" as it contained to the
late Mr. Tower for $600. The volume then passed by the
gift of Mr. Towers's widow, with the Tower collection, to
the Historical society of Pennsylvania, and, having been
replaced by a perfect copy ..., was sold to Dodd, Meade &
Company, of New-York for $400. From the firm last mentioned
it was purchased by Mr. [Abram C.] Bernheim.[12]
Now in a full morocco binding by Bradstreet's, the volume contains the
bookplates of Abram C. Bernheim, who lectured on New York history at
Columbia College, Henry C. Bernheim, and Russell Benedict. At the New
York auction of Judge Benedict's library in 1922 Halstead H. Frost,
Jr., purchased it for $3,000; yet in 1926 at an auction by the same
house of "Rare Americana including the collection of the late A. R.
Turner, Jr. and selections from the collection of the late Charles A.
Munn," the same copy drew only $1,800. In 1931 the Library of Congress
obtained it from the firm of Lathrop C. Harper for $2,929.55, and it
was duly noted in the subsequent annual report as "the most precious
acquisition of the year by the law library."
[Illustration: _A Catalogue of Fees Established by the Governour and
Council at the Humble Request of the Assembly_ (New-York, William
Bradford, 1693)]
[Footnote 10: Alexander J. Wall, Jr., "William Bradford, Colonial
Printer," _Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society_, 1963,
vol. 73, p. 368.]
[Footnote 11: _The First Year of Printing in New-York_ (New York,
1928).]
[Footnote 12: P. clvii. The facsimile was made from the Bernheim copy,
which apart from its missing title page was considered to be the best
preserved.]