Hall & Sellers Press, York, York County

I hate winter. I know I say that a lot, but I mean it more than usual this week. This week's quest was delayed by the fact that I took a nasty fall on the ice in my driveway and was pretty banged up for a couple of days. It could have been a lot worse though, I'm okay!

It's been almost a year since I paid my inaugural visit to lovely York, but I've still got plenty of markers to share from that county. So let's head out that way and read about one of Benjamin Franklin's printing endeavors, shall we?

The marker sits in front of the site of the
Hall & Sellers Yorktown branch, at the intersection
of North Beaver and West Market Streets

Actually, good old Ben is only part of this story. It starts with him, but it doesn't end there. Most schoolchildren (at least in Pennsylvania!) are taught that Ben created, among other things, one of the first newspapers in the United States - the Pennsylvania Gazette. You can actually read old copies of it online at Newspapers.com; I perused quite a few while researching George Taylor. However, this is only partially accurate, because the newspaper was actually founded by a man named Samuel Keimer, who gave it a much clumsier and lengthier title. In 1729 he sold the Gazette to Ben, who changed the name and turned it into a twice-weekly report about current events. The Gazette was unique in that it would publish essays and letters submitted by readers, though we know now that a lot of those were actually written by Ben using fake names. He was sneaky like that.

Ben's printing industry really took off, what with the Gazette and the Poor Richard's Almanac and becoming the official printer of both Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The United States wasn't a thing yet, so being employed by two states was almost like being employed by two different countries - in other words, extremely profitable. He had so much printing work that he actually turned his printshop into America's first commercial franchise; he would form partnerships with his best employees and set them up in their own printshops to do his work beyond Philadelphia's borders. He would provide his partners with their own shops and equipment, covering all expenses for six years in return for a third of the profits. The partners provided the labor, and at the end of the term they had the option to continue the partnership or buy out Ben's share in their shop.

One of these partners came to work for him in 1743, in something of a roundabout fashion. David Hall was a native of Scotland, being born near Edinburgh in 1714. He became an accomplished printer and was friends with Londoner William Strahan, also a printer. Strahan wrote to James Read, a Philadelphia lawyer, asking about possible printing opportunities for his Scottish friend, whom he described as a non-drinker and an extremely talented printer. Well, James Read happened to be the brother of Deborah Read Franklin, Ben's wife, and he took the letter to his brother-in-law and asked if he had an opening. Ben did in fact need an experienced printer to run the Gazette for him, so he invited Hall to come to Philadelphia for a job interview, promising to pay for his return voyage if he didn't like the offer. Instead, Hall accepted Ben's proposal of a year's employment, which turned into a permanent job.

Hall took to Philadelphia almost immediately. He became active in Christ Church and was a founding member of the St. Andrews Society, a philanthropic group. In 1748 he married Mary Leacock, the mother of his three (some sources say four) children. He belonged to a number of organizations, including the Masons, the American Philosophical Society, and the Library Company of Philadelphia.

Ben was extremely pleased with Hall, and also with the pile of money he had made from his printing work, so in 1748 he decided to semi-retire from the business in order to devote his energies to his public works and scientific experiments and kite-flying. I'm kidding about the kites, mostly, but he was working on harnessing that weird electricity stuff. In any case, he and Hall put together an 18-year contract through which Hall would buy out Franklin's share of the printshop, now called Franklin & Hall, and Hall assumed total responsibility for the immensely profitable Gazette, with its enormous subscriber list.

In 1766 the terms of the contract were completed; Hall was the sole owner of the business. He promoted his journeyman printer, William Sellers, to a full partnership and rebranded the shop as Hall & Sellers. They continued to print the Gazette, and also used Hall's friendship with William Strahan to bring books and publications from England to Philadelphia. Hall wasn't the most active guy politically, but he had strong feelings about the Stamp Act, which was leading people to cancel their subscriptions to the Gazette because of the impending tax, and the Gazette began to be used as a tool to lay the groundwork for the American Revolution. Hall & Sellers also printed pamphlets, letters of protest, and other writings for the cause.

David Hall died in 1772, and is buried with his wife in the Christ Church Cemetery, across the street from the Philadelphia Mint. Their plot is right next to that of Ben and Deborah Franklin. However, the American Revolution was just getting started, and it seems that William Sellers continued to print under the joint name as he continued to support the movement. I can't find much to indicate what became of him or even when he died, but we do know something about what his business did following his partner's death.

As I mentioned in my post about the York Liberty Bell, York (or Yorktown) served as home to the Continental Congress when it met to draft the important documents of the revolution. Hall & Sellers contributed to the efforts by setting up shop across town, at the intersection of Market and Beaver Streets. There, they published government documents and also printed currency for the fledgling United States. An example can be found here, courtesy of WikiCommons. They had previously printed the 'New World' versions of British currency for use in trade and mercantile, and now they began to print the newly established "continentals," which remained in use until the creation of the U.S. Mint and the Coinage Act of 1792. The spot where the Hall & Sellers press stood in York is today occupied by the building seen at left, the York County Human Resources Center.

And if you happen to find a continental lying around, they're absolutely worthless. Send them to me, I'll take care of them. ;)

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Sources and Further Reading:

Hall & Sellers at BritishMuseum.org

Kany, Robert Hurd. David Hall: Printing partner of Benjamin Franklin. American Philosophical Society, 1963.

Franklin, Benjamin. "From Benjamin Franklin to William Strahan, 10 July 1743." Courtesy of the National Archives through Founders Online.

The Benjamin Franklin Historical Society

David Hall at FindAGrave.com

Hall & Sellers Press at the Historical Marker Database

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Except where indicated, all writing and photography on this blog is the intellectual property of Laura Klotz. This blog is written with permission of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. I am not employed by the PHMC. All rights reserved.