Perth Amboy evening news., 1923-12-01

Several years ago., half a dozen or
more, collectors and librarians inter
ested in general Americana, and
especially in things printed and
written pertaining to New Jersey,
were startled by the appearance in a
New York auction catalogue of an
item describing the first book print
ed in New Jersey. 1t was a compila-
ton of the laws of the province.
William Bradford was the printer
and the year of publication was
1928. Most interesting of all, the
place of printing was Perth Amboy.
The catalogue set forth that there
was only one other copy known and
that one is in the Charlamagne
Tower collection of colonial laws
presented some years ago to the
Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
Current gossip at the time indicated
that the book had been sold to a
New York dealer a short time be-
fore by an old resident OF Rocky
Hill.
At the sale, George d. Smith pur-
chased the much coveted volume for
$4,000. More recently, since his
death, his estate sold it again and a
second time there was a bidder will
ing to pay hat amount, but the lack
of competition made 1t unnecessary.
1t is popularity supposed that the
Perth Amboy Laws are now in
Henry u. Huntihgton's wonderful
collection of Americana In Califor-
mia.
The volume was not unknown to
photographers before the appear
ance of the copy at auction, the
Tower collection, as noted, having
contained a copy, but there were few
who could say that they had ever
seen it.
1t is a thin volume, containing
thirty-three pages. According to the
last printed page of the laws, the act
which ends the work was published
at the city of Burlington November
80, 1723." As the book was, accord
ing to its title page, printed in that
same year, it is s~elf-evident that
December saw the printing complet-
ed, just as yesterday marked the two
hundredth anniversary of the proc
lamation of the last act the book
contains.
This, as william Nelson says in his
| article upon "Some New Jersey
| Printers and Printing in the Eight
| ttlllI Century, 10 lilC OOOH
with a New Jersey imprint. There
| have been some who argue that
Bradford ma not actually have
printed the book in Perth Amboyr
| but the title page bears the line'
"Printed by William Bradford in the
City of Perth Amboy," which would
indicate eonclusively that this an
| cient capital of East Jersey was the
1 .Aono - thu Rrgt 1nrintinO In x4-h 4 ie
now the combined East and Yves
Jerseys. Mr.. Nelson, whose re-
searches warranted him in speaking
as one having authority, very evil
IDENTIFY took no stock in the theory
that the printing was done outside
of the province. He says in the
pamphlet referred to-: evidently
1.-The assembly, or its clerk, or some
other official, objected to the re-
moval of the original manuscripts tc
a foreign jurisdiction, and insisted
that the printing of the laws should
be done within the Province, thereby
forcing Bradford to bring his type
and press from New York down tc
Perth Amboy."
There Is a curious fact connected
with this edition of the New jersey
laws. At the same time there was
issued another printing which bore
the same title page, but this imprint.
printed by William Bradford, il
the City of New York, 1928" Les
any imagine that the two books arr
one, save, for the imprint, let at
tention be called to the fact tina
while the Perth Amboy book con
tains thirty-three printed pages
that bearing the New York imprin
has but thirty-two. A careful ex
animation of the latter shows that
for some reason, Bradford reset tn
last nine pages of the Perth Ambo!
issue, bringing them down to eigh
pages, by using a wider measure