Background
He was born in Lincolnshire, England.
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Benjamin Towne Towne
Edit ProfileEducation
He learned the printer's trade before coming to America.
While he was a journeyman printer in Philadelphia in 1766, Joseph Galloway considered placing him, with an apprentice, in charge of a newspaper which he was establishing, but William Goddard was finally selected for this position, and Towne served as a journeyman under Goddard on the Pennsylvania Chronicle, and Universal Advertiser.
Career
In May 1769, financed by Galloway and his partner, Thomas Wharton, Towne became half-owner and a partner in this enterprise. A public quarrel among the partners brought about revelations which did not help the reputations of any of the four men involved and which ended, in 1770, Towne's connections with the Chronicle.
Towne opened a printing house of his own in 1774 and published the first issue of the Pennsylvania Evening Post, a tri-weekly, on January 24, 1775. This was the first evening newspaper printed in Philadelphia and the only newspaper that continued to be published in that city through the Revolutionary War.
Towne changed sides twice during the war in order to continue publication without moving out of Philadelphia.
He succeeded in driving his Royalist competitor, James Humphreys, out of business, but the first issue published by Towne after the British army occupied the city in September 1777 shows that he had become a Royalist and was ready to abuse the "Rebels. " He published a pro-British paper for seven months, and then the British evacuated the city. He was proscribed for high treason by the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania, but by this time the fortunes of war had made him a Patriot again, and four days before his proscription was announced he resumed publication with an issue that left no doubt of his new sentiments. The treason charge was dropped, and he published his paper undisturbed.
His conduct had made him no permanent friends, however, and his clients apparently changed to other newspapers as these were reëstablished in Philadelphia. The Evening Post gradually declined in importance and size and finally died, the last issue that has been located being that for October 26, 1784. Towne made a desperate attempt to revive the dying sheet by changing it to a daily in 1783, but this change resulted after a few weeks in decreasing regularity and frequency of publication.
Little is known of the last years of Towne's life. He is thought to have died poor and there is evidence that he himself hawked the last issue of his paper about the streets, calling "All the news for two coppers. " It seems probable, however, that he continued as a job printer after the failure of his newspaper. The census records for 1790 list eight individuals with the firm of "Benjamin Towne & Co. (printer)" and this firm disappears from the Philadelphia city directory with the death of Towne.
He died at his home in "Sixth Street near Arch Street" and his remains were interred the following evening "attended by a respectable number of citizens; and most of the typographical profession in Philadelphia. "
Achievements
Works
book
Politics
He started as an ardent Whig and Patriot.
