Thomas Short, who learned his trade at Boston, became Connecticut's
first printer when he went to New London to do the official printing
for the Colony in 1709.
The Library of Congress owns two Thomas Short imprints dated 1710, and
one of them is believed to be the first book printed in Connecticut:
_The Necessity of Judgment, and Righteousness in a Land. A Sermon,
Preached at the General Court of Election, at Hartford in the Colony
of Connecticut, on May 11th. 1710. By Eliphalet Adams, Pastor of the
Church in New-London_. Eliphalet Adams was an influential clergyman
whose 43 years of service at New London had just begun in 1709. The
work is an election sermon, of a type delivered annually at the
opening of certain New England legislatures. Although not especially
worthy of remembrance, it manages to suggest the ceremony of the
occasion. Adams closes his sermon by addressing the Governor, Deputy
Governor, and magistrates, next turning to the assembled clergy, and
finally concluding:
Shall I now turn my self to the _General Assembly of the
Colony at present met together_. And even here I may
promise my self an easie Reception, while I plead for
_Judgment_ & _Righteousness_. The welfare of the Country
is in a great measure Intrusted in your hands and it is
indeed a matter Worthy of your best Thoughts and chiefest
cares. It should be Ingraven, if not upon the Walls of your
House, yet upon each of your Hearts, _Ne quid Detrimenti
Respublica Capiat_, _Let the Common-wealth receive no
damage_. It is in your power partly to frame Laws for the
Direction & Government of the people of the Land. Now
too much care cannot be taken, that they may be strictly
agreable to the standing Rules of Justice & Equity, that
they may not prove a grievance in stead of an advantage to
the Subject; If the Rule be crooked, how shall our manners
be Regular?...[13]
The Library of Congress copy, in a 19th-century morocco binding,
contains no evidence of provenance, but it was undoubtedly in the
Library's possession by 1878, for the title is listed in the Library
catalog published that year. Another copy sold at auction in 1920
for $1,775, which was the largest amount ever paid for a Connecticut
imprint.[14]
The Library's other Connecticut imprint with a date of 1710 is
entitled _A Confession of Faith Owned and Consented to by the
Elders and Messengers of the Churches in the Colony of Connecticut
in New-England, Assembled by Delegation at Saybrook September 9th.
1708_.... Herein is the historic Saybrook Platform, whereby individual
congregations of the Colony submitted to the firmer control of synods.
There exists documentary evidence that the printing of this book did
not begin until late in 1710, and apparently it was not completed
until 1711.[15] Elizabeth Short, the printer's widow, was paid £50
in 1714 for binding all 2,000 copies in calfskin and birchwood
covers.[16] The Library's copy retains the original binding. Of
further interest is the evidence supplied by the Library's bookplate
that the volume formerly belonged to Peter Force, the American
historian and archivist, whose notable collection was obtained through
a special Congressional appropriation in 1867.
[Illustration: _Peter Force. Lithograph from life by Charles
Fenderich._]
[Footnote 13: P. 30-31.]
[Footnote 14: See _Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America_,
vol. 27 (1934), p. 4.]
[Footnote 15: W. DeLoss Love, _Thomas Short the First Printer of
Connecticut_ ([Hartford] 1901), p. 35-38; Thomas W. Streeter,
_Americana--Beginnings_ (Morristown, N.J., 1952), p. 25-26.]
[Footnote 16: Love, p. 37-38.]