678
HISTORY OF PRINTING.
1749, Oct. 19. Died, William Oed, an in-
^nious though unsuccessful artist, who was a goldsmith in Edinburgh, deserves to be recorded lor his attempt to introduce an improvement in the art of printing, viz., Stereotype Printing. In 1781, Mr. Nichols published an interesting pamphlet, entitled Biographical Memoiri ^ William Cfed; including a particular account of his progress in the art of block-printing.* The first part of the pamphlet, as the editor informs us, was printed from a manuscript dictated by Ged, some time before his death; the second part was written by his daughter, for whose benefit the profits of the publication were intend- ed; the third was a copy of proposals that had been published by Mr. Ged's son, in 1761, for reviving his father's art; and to the whole was added Mr. Mores's narrative of block-printing. From this publication it appears, that so far back as 1725, Mr. Ged had begun to prosecute plate making. In 1727 he entered into a contract with a person who had a little capital, but who, on conversing with some printer, got so intimi- dated, that at the end of two years he had laid out only twenty-two pounds. In 1729 he entered into a new contract with a Mr. Fenner,f Thomas James a type-founder, and John James an archi- tect On April 23, 1731, the above partners having applied to the university of Cambridge for the privilege of printing Bibles and common Prayer-Dooks, with blocks, instead of single types, a \eaie was sealed to them on this day, but only two prayer-books were finished, so that the attempt was foreed to be given up. It ap- pears that one of his partners was actually averse to the success of the plan, and engaged such people for the work as he thought most likely to spoil it A straggling workman who had wrought there, informed Mr. Mores, that both bibles and common prayer-books had been printed, but that the compositors, when they cor- rected one fault, made purposely half a dozen more, and the pressmen, when the masters were absent, battered the letter in aid of the com- positors. In consequence of these base pro- ceedings, the books were suppressed by authority, and the plates sent to the lun^s printing-house, and from thence to Mr. Caslon's toundry. After much ill usage, Ged, who appears to have been a person of great honesty and simplicity, returned to Edinburgh. His friends were anxious that a specimen of his art should be published, which was at last done by subscrip- tion. His son, James Ged, who had been ap- prenticed to a printer, with the consent of his master, set up the forms in the night time, when the other compositors were gone, for his father
• See (lao, Biogn^Ueal Jftmotn of WilUam Oed; >»- ebiding a parUeular aceomU of hit pngrtu in the Art of Stock :Pri»Hng. NewcaaUr : printed b7 8. Hodgson, Unlon-itreet, and aold by E. Chaniley, Blg-nurket, 1819- Xtai« small work Is very neatly printed, and formspairt of a serie* of trpograpUcal tracts, wUch it was the intention ofUie editor, Mr. Ttiomas Hodcson, to pablish. It was {Tinted for the Newcastle Typo(raphical Society.
f wiUam Fenner, stationer, who seems to have acted no very honourable pait towards Ged, died Insolvent in or about the year 173S-
to cast the plates from; by which means S m H rn t was finished in 17.36. Of this work Mr. 1^- loch has a copy, and the plate of one of tkc pages; as also of another work, printed so^ years after, from plates of Mr. Ged's maitiifaf- ture. The book is The Life of God in the S*ml of Man,* printed on a writing pot, 12mo., xoi with the following imprint: "Newcastle; printed and sold by John White, &om plates made by William Ged, goldsmiUi, in Edijibar^, 1742.'" It is a very neat little volnme, and is as well printed as books generally were at the time.
James Ged, the son of William, wearied with disappointments, engaged in the rebdlion of 1745, as a captain in Perth's reg^ent; and being taken at Carlisle, was condemned; botoB his father's account (by Dr. Smith's interest with the duke of Newcastle,) he was pardoned and released in 1748. He afterward worked as a journeyman with Mr. Bettenham, a printer of London, and then commenced master; but beii^ unsuccessful, he went privately to Jamaica, in 1748, where his younger brother William was settled as a respectable printer. His tools, See. he left to be shipped by a false fiiend, who mast ungenerously detained them to try his own sUL James died in the year 1749, after he left Eng- land; and his brother William in 1767.
1760, JlfarcA 20. 7^ iiam Jfcr, No. 1 . These essays regularly appeared eveiy Tuesday and Saturday for two years, the 208th and last beiof dated March 14, 1762. To each number wu affixed the price of twopence, and it was wcD and accurately printed by William Fadenf on * sheet and a half of fine paper. It was in the iZami/rr that Johnson first presented to the pub- lic those peculiarities and prominent beauties of style which immediately distinguished him in so striking a manner firom all preceding writen, and which have made so durable an impressiai upon our language.^ The slow progress of tk Bambler towards the possession of that bmt which it ultimately acquired, aflected not ie author in a pecuniary light. He had entend into a contract with Mr. John Payne, a respect- able bookseller, of Fatemoster-row, who hid agreed to give him two guineas for each p^xr as it appeared, and to admit him to a share of the profits arising from the sale of the collected work. Johnson received regularly, thereitat, four gruineas a week for two years, an engage- ment that enabled him to live comfortab] j, ud which, if not productive of much present advan-
< This work was lint poblished in IM7. hy Uaaj Scongal, a theological writer of eonsidersble emiTMTKT. Be was the son of Patrick Scougal, who was bisibop c^ Aberdeen from llSfi4 to Ifisa. He was born at the end c( June, 1850, and died at the early age of twenty .eigiit, ea the 13th of June, 1S78.
t During Dr. Johnson's last illness he inquired ct Sr. Boewell, " whether any of the family of Faden Oie innlB' were living. Being told that the geographer, near Cbaii^ Cross, was Fylen's son, he said, after a short pause, I bor- rowed a guinea of his tether nesr thirty years ago; be so good as to take this, and pay it Ibr me."
t Mr. Tooke says, thst, amidst the progress which He- ratore was making at St. Fetersborgh, translaiions of Uw Ramhter and of Bladistone's Comnunteria, bad beta msde into the Koisian language, by the especial c of the empress.
VjOOQj^,,^^J^ki"
