Good morning, #Bermuda: today is #Saturday, January 17. This day marks 231 years of printed news in Bermuda. It started at Printer’s Alley in St George’s, pictured on the left, named after the English printer Joseph Stockdale, who brought the first printing press to the Island. Today in 1784, Stockdale published the first edition of Bermudas Gazette and Weekly Advertiser – the forerunner of today’s #RoyalGazette. A replica of the Guternberg Press was later kept by at the St George’s Historical Society Museum, and Stockdale’s home, shown on the commemorative stamp here, is also preserved. The first newspaper consisted of four pages each with three columns. Advertisements predominated, priced at 20 shillings per year. The price later rose: for delivery to the West End, it was two shillings extra. Stockdales arrival followed a 1771 meeting of the Bermuda Assembly which resolved that “every encouragement” would be given to a capable person from England who would start a suitable press. Nothing came of it until 1783, when a treasury grant was issued to forward the enterprise. Stockdale settled in St Georges with help from his three daughters. He reportedly loved the island and soon got to know everyone. At the age of 29 he is described by historian Terry Tucker as “a little man with his hair in a well-powdered queue (pigtail)”. Stockdale was also involved with the first attempts to establish a regular postal service in Bermuda. He charged fourpence to deliver anywhere in the Island – and used slaves to make the postal run at least twice a week. When Stockdale died in 1803, he left a successful business to Frances, Priscilla and Sarah. In 1811, the daughters printed their names in full and took charge of it. Until then only “Stockdale and Daughters” had appeared. Sarah Stockdale married Charles Rollins Beach, a master printer. He changed the papers name to The Bermuda Gazette and Hamilton and St Georges Weekly Advertiser, which he edited and printed - and ultimately relocated to the new capital, Hamilton, in 1817.
Posted on: Sat, 17 Jan 2015 12:00:00 +0000
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