Background
He was born in Charlestown, Massachusetts, the son of Peter and Esther (Hall) Edes. His great-grandfather, John Edes, came over from England about 1674.
He was born in Charlestown, Massachusetts, the son of Peter and Esther (Hall) Edes. His great-grandfather, John Edes, came over from England about 1674.
He received a meager education in the schools of Charlestown or Boston, Massachusetts, United States.
On April 7, 1755 in a partnership with John Gill, he founded the Boston Gazette and Country Journal, the third paper of its name in that city. Their paper became the organ of the Patriots, who gave it their undivided support and encouragement. Unwavering in its opposition to the British policy, it fought the political battles of the day continuously in its columns, especially those against the Stamp Act, the tea tax, and the Boston Port Bill. Its office became the resort of the leading opponents of King George III, many of whom contributed to its pages. Report says that the members of the Boston Tea Party assembled at Edes’s house on the afternoon of December 16, 1773, later using the Gazette office at the corner of Court Street and Franklin Avenue to assume their Indian disguise. The temper and spirit of the time, largely voiced through Edes’s own writings, are revealed during a long period of years in the files of the Gazette. It was described by Lieutenant-Governor Andrew Oliver in a letter from England as “that infamous paper, ” and the arrest of both Edes and Gill as instigators of sedition was advised by Sir Francis Bernard, the governor of the colony. During the siege of Boston, Edes secretly conveyed his press and types into the suburbs of Boston and set up his printing office in Watertown. After the dissolution of his partnership with Gill in 1775, Edes and his two sons, Benjamin and Peter, continued the paper until 1794, when the father took over the business alone.
He was described as “man of bold and fearless heart. ”
His great-grandfather, John Edes, came over from England about 1674.