Background
Keimer was born in the later part of the seventeenth century in the London Borough of Southwark, England.
Keimer was born in the later part of the seventeenth century in the London Borough of Southwark, England.
On October 2, 1729, Benjamin Franklin bought this newspaper. Keimer initially learned the trade of printing from a well known London printer. He then opened a printing business in 1713, after had learned his trade.
His English business failed, however, and he was thrown into Fleet Prison (a debtors" prison) for not paying his debts.
He settled in Philadelphia. In 1712 Andrew Bradford was the first person to start a printing business in Philadelphia.
In 1723 Keimer opened a printing business near the Market-house in the city. Keimer and Bradford were then the only printers in the colony of Pennsylvania.
Keimer had come to America with an old printing press, and a worn-out font of English letters.
When Benjamin Franklin, aged 17, came to Philadelphia looking for a job in 1722, he went first to Bradford’s printing business. Bradford had no job openings, but introduced him to Keimer. Franklin found Keimer trying to set up a composition of his own, the mournful Aquila Rose.
Clerk of the Assembly and a pretty poet, but having difficulty.
Keimer hired Franklin at this time to help put his printing press into working order, since Franklin showed mechanical ability. His position as Keimer"s assistant was Franklin"s first paid job.
In later years Keimer"s business dwindled. He decided to sell his print shop business and go to Barbados.
There in 1731, at Bridgetown, he published the Barbadoes Gazette.
The Gazette was the first newspaper in the Caribbean. In 1733 he was sued for a malicious statement in his paper. He continued to publish the newspaper until its operation ceased in 1738.
Keimer died in 1742.