Confiscated
One of the presses used to print the Declaration was later confiscated as the property of a traitor
In February 1784, James Humphreys, Jr. made a list of his belongings. Three printing presses. Letter cases. Frames and racks. Imposing stones. Composing sticks. A copper kettle for making ink. Printing paper and writing paper. Greek and Latin grammars. This was an inventory of Humphreys’s Philadelphia printing office. It was also a list of items “Confiscated and Sold by the State of Pennsylvania.”
In July 1776, Humphreys printed the Declaration of Independence in his newspaper. This means that one of the presses used to print the Declaration was later confiscated as the property of a traitor.
Advertisement for a Greek Grammar, printed in the same issue as the Declaration of Independence. Pennsylvania Ledger, July 13, 1776, p. 1, Library of Congress
When James Humphreys, Jr. petitioned the Loyalist Claims Commission in 1784, he described the establishment of his printing office in Philadelphia. He undertook “considerable Expence and Risk” to launch The Pennsylvania Ledger, Or the Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New-Jersey Weekly Advertiser in 1775. At the time, Humphreys described his venture as a “Free and Impartial Newspaper, open to All, and influenced by None.” But he later told the Loyalist Claims Commission that he launched his newspaper because “no Printing Press in Pennsylvania or the neighbouring Provinces would appear in Favour of Government”—British government.
The reality of the situation fell somewhere in between Humphreys’s lofty claims in his printing proposals and his pleas to the Loyalist Claims Commission almost a decade later: he wanted to publish a newspaper that would make a profit during tumultuous times. He printed the news that people wanted to read, even when it was not “in Favour” of the British government. This included the Declaration of Independence.
James Humphreys, Jr.’s Pennsylvania Ledger was published early on Saturday mornings, including Saturday, July 6. Later that day, Benjamin Towne published the first newspaper printing of the Declaration of Independence in the Pennsylvania Evening Post. Humphreys printed the Declaration in his newspaper one week later, on July 13. By the time the Declaration of Independence appeared in the Pennsylvania Ledger, it was well known in Philadelphia and the surrounding area. It had been printed in every other Philadelphia newspaper and proclaimed outside the Pennsylvania State House.
Pennsylvania Ledger, July 13, 1776, p. 2, Library of Congress
A few months later, James Humphreys, Jr. abandoned the Pennsylvania Ledger, in part because of some essays printed in Benjamin Towne’s newspaper that painted Humphreys as anti-American. Issue number 97 on November 30, 1776 was Humphreys’s last—but not for good. The Ledger resumed with issue number 98 on October 10, 1777, after British forces took control of Philadelphia. The British royal coat of arms, which Humphreys had removed from the masthead of the Ledger in June 1776, was restored. In British-occupied Philadelphia, Humphreys did not have to worry about coming across as anti-American—his newspaper was decidedly so. More than a year after independence, the leaders of the Continental Army were treated as “rebels” in the pages of the Ledger.
In the October 10, 1777 issue of the Pennsylvania Ledger, Humphreys described how “a large detachment, under the command of the Right Hon. Earl Cornwallis,” entered Philadelphia, “march’d through the Second-street, and after placing the proper guards, encamped to the southward of the town. Humphreys praised “the fine appearance of the soldiery—the strictness of their discipline—the politeness of the Officers,—and the orderly behaviour of the whole body,” and claimed that a “perfect tranquillity” had fallen over the city. “Numbers who had been obliged to hide themselves from the former tyranny”—the independent government—“have appeared to share the general satisfaction and to welcome the dawn of returning Liberty.” Perhaps after James Humphreys, Jr. printed the Declaration of Independence, he counted himself among the “numbers who had been obliged to hide themselves” and welcomed the “returning Liberty” of British rule.
The last issue of James Humphreys, Jr.’s newspaper was dated May 23, 1778, and issued as British forces were beginning to evacuate Philadelphia. Two days earlier, the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania—meeting in Lancaster while the British controlled Philadelphia—listed Humphreys and his father among a list of people who had “knowingly and willingly aided and assisted the enemies of this State, and of the United States of America.”
Humphreys’s petition to the Loyalist Claims Commission tells the rest of the story. Having been “attainted of high Treason,” he was “obliged to leave” Philadelphia and go to British-controlled New York. His property was seized and sold. Advertisements for the auction appeared in the newspapers of printers who returned to Philadelphia after the British left.
Pennsylvania Packet, September 5, 1778, p. 2
Where to See It Online: Library of Congress
