Stephen Daye

First printer in Colonial America

Stephen Daye Sr. (c.1594 – December 22, 1668) emigrated from England to the British colony of Massachusetts and became the first printer in colonial America. He printed the Bay Psalm Book in 1640, the first book known to have been printed in the present day United States. His printing efforts were largely motivated by the ideals of freedom of religion and freedom of the press.

Daye was born in Sutton, Surrey London, and emigrated on June 7, 1638, to Cambridge, Massachusetts, on board the John of London with his wife Rebecca (Wright) Bordman (Bordman – from a previous marriage) (died October 17, 1658), sons Stephen Jr. (died December 1, 1639), Matthew (died May 10, 1649), and stepson William Bordman (died March 25, 1685), and three household servants. In 1638 he is recorded as being a locksmith by profession who was under financial contract to Reverend Joseph Glover to repay the loan of £51 for ship transportation for himself and his household and the cost of purchasing iron cooking utensils. Further, he was contracted to set up a printing press at Glover's home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and to be paid wages according to Massachusetts custom. Glover died on the ship John of London during the voyage, but Daye was legally bound to fulfill his contract setting up the printing press with the aid of his sons and stepson in the home of Rev. Glover at Cambridge. Elizabeth Glover, the widow, was the legal owner of the press and Daye's debt and contract upon the death of her husband. Most historians believe the 1639 broadsheet Oath of a Freeman was Daye's first publication. This print was an oath of loyalty and duty required of all new colonists in Massachusetts Bay. Accepting the full responsibilities of citizenship in the settlement was symbolized by taking the Oath. However, this work may have actually come second, following the printing of the first almanac composed by William Pierce. Pierce's almanac, as was typical, commenced with the month of March, which according to English law and custom was the first month of the year, rather than the Gregorian calendar that began in January. In 1640, he printed the Bay Psalm Book, the first book published in the American colonies. The Bay Psalm Book was an attempt at a new English translation of the 150 Hebrew psalms and then arranged in verse for singing. Because the Psalms were translated for communal singing, the book served as one of the symbols of religious freedom for people in the colonies. The books first edition was printed in an estimated 1,700 copies, which were then sold. However, the print was full of errors and discrepancies which can still be seen on the original print. Currently, only eleven copies remain. The next year, 1641, Daye was rewarded for his work with three hundred acres of land.

More than a century after Daye's death, his legacy found renewed fame in Vermont, when his press came into the possession of printers Judah Spooner and Timothy Green who used it to publish the state's first newspaper in Westminster, Vermont, The Vermont Gazette, or Green Mountain Post Boy, on February 12, 1781. In tribute to this history, in 1932 a regional literary publisher in Brattleboro was christened the Stephen Daye Press, and went on to publish local poets and writers notable to Vermont history, including Elliott Merrick and Walter Hard. With the start of World War II, that publisher would close in 1942.