A HISTORY OF BERKSHIRE 



ready-made boots at that time were of very both at home and abroad that the business 

 inferior quality. Mr. Burrows's suggestion rapidly attained the size before mentioned : 

 was taken, and the goods met with such favour a philanthropic act substantially rewarded ! 



PRINTING 



The county can boast of a very early press 

 which was established in the sixteenth century 

 in accordance with the Act of the reign of 

 Richard III. inviting strangers connected with 

 the art to take up their abode and exercise 

 their calling in the country. In 1528 John 

 Scolar, probably identical with the Oxford 

 printer of 1518, set up a press in the Abbey 

 of Abingdon and there printed a breviary for 

 the use of the monks of that house. Emman- 

 uel College, Cambridge, possesses the only 

 known copy of this work. 1 



At the end of the sixteenth century the 

 legislature did all it could to discourage the 

 art, and an Act was passed in 1583 prohibiting 

 the practice of printing except in London, 

 Oxford and Cambridge. In consequence of 

 this edict doubtless, the early press at Abing- 

 don disappeared, and Berkshire printing 

 ceased, except perhaps by the private presses 

 that followed in the wake of the army during 

 the Civil War. Restrictive Acts of Parlia- 

 ment prevented the spread of printing, which 

 were kept in force till 1693 ; after that date 

 the art increased rapidly in the provinces, 

 especially in relation to the production of 

 newspapers. 



The earliest known printers in Reading 

 were W. Parks and D. Kennier, who were the 

 first printers of the Reading Mercury, a news- 

 paper which made its first appearance on 

 8 July 1723. This paper has had an interest- 

 ing and remarkable history. Only six other 

 news-sheets in England have existed so long 

 a period, retaining the same title ; and the 

 Reading Mercury has remained in the pos- 

 session of the same family for nearly a century 

 and a quarter. It was founded by Mr. John 

 Watts, mayor of Reading, the author in 1749 

 of a pamphlet bearing the alarming title, The 

 Black Scene opened. Parks, one of its first 

 printers, was of a roving nature. He estab- 

 lished himself at Ludlow in 1719 and at 

 Hereford in 1721, and thence came to Reading, 

 where his sojourn was equally brief. Mr. 

 Allnutt, Librarian of the Bodleian Library, 

 has traced him to Annapolis in Maryland 

 and to Williamsburgh in Virginia. 3 Isaiah 



1 English Provincial Presses, by W. H. Allnutt, 

 published in Bibliographica, ii. 30. 



2 Notes on Printing in Reading during .the 

 l8th century, by W. Allnutt in Reading Mercury. 



Thomas, in his History of Printing in America, 

 says ' Parks was well acquainted with the art 

 of printing and his work was both neat and 

 correct.' He acquired a handsome property, 

 was much respected, sailed for England in 

 1750, and died on board the ship, his body 

 being buried at Gosport. His partner, David 

 Kennier, was in early life apprenticed to a 

 London printer and member of the Sta- 

 tioners' Company, Matthew Jenour, in 1715. 

 After the departure of Parks he continued to 

 print the Mercury. The first number con- 

 sists of 12 pages foolscap 410 size, or 8 by 10 

 inches. The first two pages are occupied 

 with a list of goods imported and exported 

 at London, and an introductory address ' to 

 the gentlemen of Berkshire and the counties 

 adjacent,' in which the proprietors quaintly 

 remark : ' We have pitched our Tent at 

 Reading, induc'd by the good character this 

 country bears for Pleasure and Plenty : and 

 intend with your leave to publish a Weekly 

 News-Paper under the Title of The Reading 

 Mercury or Weekly Entertainer: containing 

 Historical and Political Observations on the 

 most remarkable Transactions in Europe ; 

 collected from the best and most authentic 

 accounts, written and printed : with the 

 Imports and Exports of Merchandizes to and 

 from London, and other Remarks on Trade ; 

 also the best recount of the Price of Corn 

 in the most noted Market-Towns 20 or 30 

 miles circular. And when a scarcity of News 

 happens we shall divert you with something 

 merry.' The printing office was styled the 

 Saracen's Head in High Street. In 1725 

 Kennier printed Heliocrene a poem in Latin 

 and English : on the Calybeate Well at Sunning 

 Hill in Windsor Forest. It is inscribed 

 Excudebat D. Kennier, Typographus Read- 

 ingensis Anno Dom. 1725. Two years later 

 another printer appeared in the town, one 

 William Ayres, who set up his press in Minster 

 Street. He printed a sermon on the Order 

 of Duties by Joseph Slade, which created 

 much controversy. He continued his art 

 until 1734, when he printed Messiah, a divine 

 essay, a work written by the senior boy of the 

 Free Grammar School, James Merrick, after- 

 wards a noted Reading author. After chang- 

 ing its proprietary at least once the Mercury 

 became in the latter part of the seventeenth 

 century the property of the widow of the 



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