Samuel Keimer

Background

Samuel Keimer was born on February 11, 1688 in St. Thomas' parish, Southwark, London, England.

Education

Keimer was admitted on September 11, 1699, to Merchant Taylors' School and was later apprenticed to Robert Tookey, printer, of Christopher's Court, Threadneedle St.

Career

In 1707, with his mother and sister Mary, Keimer joined the French Prophets, a small, noisy sect of cataleptics, exhibitionists, and their dupes, led by Sir Richard Bulkeley and John Lacy. He opened a printing office in 1713 but went bankrupt in 1715 and was committed to the Fleet for an unknown period. In 1717 he spent fifteen weeks in the Gatehouse for some objectionable matter in the Weekly Journal, of which he was the printer. He now turned author with A Brand Pluck'd from the Burning: Exemplify'd in the Unparallel'd Case of Samuel Keimer (1718), a lachrymose exposure of the French Prophets, somewhat in the manner of Daniel Defoe, for whom Keimer had done printing. The Platonick Courtship (1718) narrates in doggerel the wooing of a "virgin soul" by personifications of thirteen sects, denominations, and religions. The author designated himself on the title-page as Keimer Samuel and explained in the preface that he did so for conscience' sake, Keimer being the first name given him by his parents. A Search after Religion among the Many Modern Pretenders to It (1718), listed in the British Museum Catalogue, is on the same subject and may be the same book. Although he cherished a certain affinity for Quakers, Keimer's own religious observances consisted solely of wearing his beard untrimmed (eventually it attained a prodigious length) and of keeping the Sabbath instead of Sunday.

Set at large in 1721, he deserted his wife and embarked for Pennsylvania. On his arrival at Philadelphia in February 1722, he advertised in Andrew Bradford's American Weekly Mercury that he was willing to teach male Negroes to read the Holy Scriptures without charge to their masters. In the summer of 1723 he obtained a font of worn type and a broken press and set up as a printer with Benjamin Franklin as his factotum. Keimer's first Philadelphia imprint was his own Elegy on the Much Lamented Death of the Ingenious and Well-Beloved Aquila Rose (1723), which Franklin saw him compose in a double sense.

On September 29, 1723, the Philadelphia Monthly Meeting of Friends disowned him for publishing a Parable (1723), in which Keimer, probably with some aid from Franklin, attempted to counterfeit the language of Friends. A little later, however, the Friends gave him the contract to print an edition of Sewel's History of the People called Quakers and advanced him some money. Keimer sent to London for paper and equipment and filled his house with five incompetent and superfluous apprentices. Franklin, returning from London, worked for him again, enabling him among other things to print some paper money (1727 or 1728) for the province of West Jersey. Keimer also got out a spurious edition of Jacob Taylor's Almanac for 1726 and in the following year had some trouble with William Bradford over an edition of Titan Leeds' Almanac.

Getting wind of Franklin's proposal to start a magazine, he published December 24, 1728, the first number of the Universal Instructor in all Arts and Sciences and Pennsylvania Gazette, which he disposed of to Franklin and Meredith after its thirty-ninth issue, September 25, 1729. By this time the double competition of Franklin and of Andrew Bradford had reduced him to bankruptcy. He went to Bridgetown, Barbados, worked at his trade, and in 1731 started the Barbados Gazette, which he conducted in spite of many difficulties until the end of 1738. He is supposed to have died about this time.

Achievements

• Samuel Keimer was one of the first printers in the colony of Pennsylvania in the United States. He was noted for being the founder of the Pennsylvania Gazette and the Barbados Gazette, the first newspaper in the Caribbean. He was also associated with the Benjamin Franklin, who was the first printer that he employed to assist him in his business.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The platonick courtship. A poem. By Keimer Samuel, a hearty lover of honesty, sincerity, and truth.

    (The 18th century was a wealth of knowledge, exploration a...)

  • Brand pluck'd from the burning: exemplify'd in the unparallel'd case of Samuel Keimer, ...

    ( The 18th century was a wealth of knowledge, exploration...)

  • A search after religion, among the many modern pretenders to it ... To which is added, an address and petition to King Jesus. By Samuel Keimer, a ... Him, and a peaceable subject of King George.

    (This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)

  • The History of Printing in America: With a Biography of Printers, and an Account of Newspapers (Classic Reprint)

    (By ISAIAH THOMAS, LL.D. PRINTER, LATB XBNIDBNT OF THB AXB...)

Religion

Keimerwas a member of the sect known as the" French Prophets".

Personality

Keimer was a negligible person, maundering, frowzy, and incompetent, half fool, half knave, and wholly pitiable.

Connections

Keimer was married.

References

• A Century Of Printing; The Issues Of The Press In Pennsylvania, 1685-1784 - Vol. 2 1764-1784
• A Century Of Printing - The Issues Of The Press In Pennsylvania - 1685-1784 - Vol. I