James Adams of Londonderry, Ireland, after working more than seven
years with Franklin and Hall in Philadelphia, established Delaware's
first press at Wilmington in 1761.
[Illustration: (_The Wilmington Almanack, or Ephemeries_, _for the
Year of Our Lord, 1762. By Thomas Fox, Philom_.)]
The Library of Congress possesses one of two extant imprints out of
four that Adams is known to have issued at Wilmington in the latter
part of that year: _The Wilmington Almanack, or Ephemeries_ [sic],
_for the Year of Our Lord, 1762 ... By Thomas Fox, Philom_.[27]
Copies, according to the title page, were also "to be had, in
_Philadelphia_, of William Falkner." The publication is the first in
an annual series of "Wilmington Almanacs," all printed by Adams, that
were prepared for the years 1762 to 1794.
The otherwise unknown author, Thomas Fox (possibly a pseudonym),
brings himself to the reader's attention in this statement:
Kind Reader,
Having for some Years observed those Almanacks published in
America; and having formerly, in Europe, learned the Use
of Mr. Thomas Street's Tables, with some others, and being
willing to crowd in among the rest, I have calculated an
Almanack for the Year 1762....
More interesting than the colorless prose and verse selections
accompanying the astronomical tables are the printer's advertisements,
such as the following notice near the end of the book:
BIBLES, Testaments, Psalters, Spelling-Books, Primers,
Merchants blank Books, Writing-Paper, Ink, all Sorts of
Blanks, _viz._, Bills of Lading, Kerry Bills, Penal Bills,
Bills of Sale, Arbitration Bonds, Apprentices Indentures,
Bonds with and without Judgment, to be sold at the
Printing-Office in Wilmington.--Also, very good Lampblack.
* * * Ready money for clean Linen Rags, at the above Office.
The Library's copy of the almanac has been detached from a bound
volume and bears no evidence of early ownership. It was acquired by
exchange from Dodd, Mead & Company in 1908, at a valuation of $15.
[Footnote 27: No. 3 in Evald Rink, _Printing in Delaware 1761-1800_
(Wilmington, 1969).]