Shepard Kollock

Background

Shepard Kollock was born in September 1750 at Lewes, Delaware, United States. He was the youngest of the seven children of Shephard and Mary (Goddard) Kollock.

Education

Kollock learned the printing business under his uncle William Goddard in the office of the Pennsylvania Chronicle.

Career

Kollock went for his health to St. Kitts and worked there at his trade until the news of Lexington and Concord sent him hurrying home to join the patriot forces. He is said, while in the West Indies, to have made the acquaintance of Alexander Hamilton and to have set type on Hamilton's narrative of the hurricane. After a short term in the artillery company of which Hamilton was captain, Kollock was commissioned January 1, 1777, a first lieutenant in the 2nd Regiment (Colonel John Lamb's) of Continental Artillery.

He resigned from the army January 3, 1779, in order to issue a newspaper in the Revolutionary cause, and on February 16, 1779, published the first number of the New Jersey Journal at Chatham, where he was safely within Washington's lines but close enough to hear whatever news might transpire from the enemy. He also published the United States Almanac (1779 - 83), Poems on the Capture of General Burgoyne (1782), and twelve items of a religious character. In all twenty-two of his Chatham imprints have been discovered. He suffered frequently from a shortage of paper and sometimes received supplies from the Continental quartermaster. On the evacuation of New York he moved thither and launched on December 3, 1783, the New York Gazetteer, which he published for three years. On October 14, 1783, he also began, in partnership with his brother-in-law Shelly Arnett, the Political Intelligencer at New Brunswick. This partnership was dissolved within a year; in April 1785 Kollock moved the Intelligencer to Elizabethtown; and on May 10, 1786, he renamed it the New Jersey Journal. Kollock continued to publish the Journal until with the issue of September 8, 1818, he sold it to Peter Chatterton.

Most of his imprints are religious books; it is likely that he was influenced in his selection of titles by his pastor, the Reverend David Austin. From April-May 1789 to February-March 1791 he also issued the Christian's, Scholar's, and Farmer's Magazine, which was largely made up of serials.

He was an aide-de-camp to two governors of New Jersey, postmaster of Elizabeth, 1820-29, and a lay judge of the court of common pleas of Essex County for thirty-five years.

Achievements

• Both in New York, where he issued the first directory of the city, and in Elizabeth he was a book publisher of importance.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Doctrine of the Perseverance of the Saints, Illustrated, Proved and Applied 1835

    (The biblical doctrine ably stated & defended from Holy Sc...)

Politics

He was, in spite of his early association with Hamilton and Henry Knox, a good democrat and gave his enthusiastic support to Presidents Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, and John Quincy Adams.

Personality

To the end of his long life he remained pious, patriotic, vigorous, and serene, and was held in honor throughout the state.

Connections

On June 5, 1777 Kollock married Susan, daughter of Isaac Arnett, by whom he had eight children.

Father:

Shephard Kollock

Mother:

Mary (Goddard) Kollock

Spouse:

Susan Arnett