Cross-Border Impressions:
The Interwoven Histories of Early Canadian and American Printers

Exploring the familial and professional ties that shaped the printing landscape of Atlantic Canada and the United States.

In studying early printing in Canada it is difficult to ignore the close connections between Canada and the United States. Canada can trace the beginning of its printing industry to one American family. Our early printers were often connected with each other, either through marriage or through the printing profession. They married into already established printing families or became apprentices. All of Canada’s early printers came from what were the English colonies to the south, in what is now the United States. America was, at that time, a colony of Great Britain. In fact, British officials often referred to America as the old colony while Canada was the new colony.

It is important to understand the political and social background of the time. In the mid-18th century, the British and French were almost continually at war, often engaging each other in North America and in Nova Scotia in particular. The French fort of Louisbourg, in what is now Cape Breton, was critical for the defense of Canada. Louisbourg guarded the approach to the St. Lawrence River and Quebec and England needed to capture the fort to gain control of Canada. 

The American War of Independence (1775 – 1783) had the largest, single effect on the development of printing in Canada. Thousands of American colonists supported the British cause and became known as ‘loyalists’. They came north to what was then British North America, establishing new lives and bringing with them their businesses. They would have an enormous influence of our printing industry.

In 1745 Bartholomew Green Jr. accepted a commission as a second lieutenant in the British army and took part in the first siege of the French fort of Louisbourg in Nova Scotia. This move effectively caused him the loss of his printing business and in 1751 he moved to Halifax with the intention of setting up a new printing office. He never got to fulfill that intention because he died just a few weeks after arriving in Halifax.

Green Jr’s partner, John Bushell, took his place in Halifax and on March 23, 1752, Bushell produced Canada’s first newspaper, The Halifax Gazette. Bushell took on Anthony Henry as an assistant and later partner. 

Little is known of Anthony Henry’s early life, but we know he was a fifer with the British forces and like Green Jr took part in another siege of Louisburg in 1758. Bushell died in 1761, and Henry continued to print the Halifax Gazette. 

After Anthony Henry died in 1800, John Howe was appointed King’s Printer. He had apprenticed, in Boston, with Margaret Draper, the great granddaughter of Samuel Green. The Draper and Green families were instrumental in establishing America’s printing industry. Margaret had taken over the press after her husband, Richard Draper, died in 1774.  Richard Draper’s father, John Draper, was the brother-in-law of Bartholomew Green Jr. Howe and Margaret came north as loyalists and Howe established the Halifax Journal in 1780. Margaret returned to Britain. John Ryan was his apprentice in Massachusetts.

John Ryan first learned the printing trade while apprenticed to John Howe in Massachusetts. In 1780 he married Amelia Mott, sister of Jacob S. Mott. The Mott’s were another well-known printing family in America and Ryan would eventually sell his newspaper to him. In 1783, along with other loyalists, he travelled to New Brunswick and began publishing the Royal St. John’s Gazette and Nova Scotia Intelligencer in Parr-Town (now part of St. John). The loss of government contracts forced Ryan to move to Newfoundland where he again began publishing a newspaper, thereby becoming the first printer to publish in two provinces. Ryan trained his sons to be printers and for many years the Motts and the Ryans printed on both sides of the border, visiting back and forth and working in each others’ shops.

Christopher Sower, first King’s Printer in New Brunswick. While John Ryan was the first printer in New Brunswick, he was not the first King’s Printer. Sower, another Loyalist, established the Royal Gazette and New Brunswick Advertiser in 1785 and was officially given the title of King’s Printer. The Sowers are another example of the this back and forth movement. The Sower family, as the Green family, were instrumental in establishing printing in North America. 

The latter part of the eighteenth century saw the beginning of a unique relationship between Canada and the US and between their respective printing establishments.

A Printers Family Tree

Samuel Green (1615 – 1702)

Bartholomew Green Senior (1666 – 1732)

Bartholomew Green Jr. (1699 – 1751) 

• Bushell, Allen and Green – partnership in Boston

• Brother-in-law was John Draper

• Partnered with John Bushell 

• John Draper’s son Richard, married Margaret Green Draper (his cousin)

Margaret Green Draper (1727 – 1804)

• Great granddaughter of Samuel Green

• Married Richard Draper (her cousin)

• John Howe was her apprentice

John Bushell (1715 – 1761)

• After the sudden death of Bartholomew Green Jr in 1751, Bushell would take his place and in 1752, produced the Halifax Gazette, Canada’s first newspaper.

Anthony Henry (1734 – 1800)

• John Bushell’s assistant and became a partner in 1760. Succeeded Bushell in printing the Halifax Gazette.

John Howe (1754 – 1835)

• Apprenticed with Margaret Draper

• Succeeded Anthony Henry as King’s printer in Nova Scotia

• Son, Joseph Howe, also became a printer

• John Ryan was Howe’s apprentice

John Ryan

• Became an apprentice to John Howe sometime between 1776 and 1780

• Printed the first newspaper in New Brunswick in 1783

• Established the first newspaper in Newfoundland by 1806, thereby becoming the first printer to publish in two provinces.