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A REPUTATION FOR EXCELLENCE
A History of the Aberdeen and Northern Counties Printing
Industry
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Montrose
It was in 1776 that David Buchanan introduced printing to Montrose.
Bearing in mind the limited equipment he had available, it is remarkable
that he was able to print and publish such works as Hume’s
England, Burke’s On the Sublime, and two editions of Pilgrim’s
Progress.
The next recorded publication in Montrose was The Literary Mirror
which appeared between 1793 and 1815. It was published by Murray
of Montrose but no other details of the work are known. Another
early publication was The Angus and Mearns Register, an annual published
by John Smith, bookseller, on the west side of Montrose High Street.
It first appeared in 1808 but was later assumed to have merged with
the Remembrancer. The Montrose Review was first published on 11
January 1811 and was known then as The Mont rose, Arbroath, and
Brechin Review and Forfar and Kincadine Shires Advertiser. It consisted
of eight pages and the price was sixpence, including stamp duty.
It was printed and published by James Watt at his High Street office
and is thought to be the first newspaper printed in Montrose. In
its early days, the paper contained very little local news, its
contents consisting mainly of overseas items, parliamentary reports,
London fashion news and reports of accidents and offences.
James Watt appears to have been an enterprising person, for on 2
August 1811 he opened a Public Reading Room in the town. The papers
he made available, in addition to the Review, were The Globe, The
Caledonian Mercury, The Edinburgh Weekly Chronicle, The Observer,
The Aberdeen Journal and The Dundee Mercury. The yearly subscription
was one pound, with a reduction to ten shillings and sixpence for
‘gentlemen occasionally in town’.
On 3 January 1812 the price of the paper was increased to sixpence
halfpenny. The proprietor expressed the hope that this ‘would
not be regarded as an infringement on the liberality of the respectable
readers of the Review’. He explained that the increase was
to provide ‘an accession of beautiful types cast on purpose
for this paper’.
On 14 March 1822 there was a change of printer as, according to
the imprint that day, the paper was then printed and published by
William Scott opposite the Port Well. However, less than a year
later, in January 1823, the imprint changed ye again to read ‘Montrose,
printed and published every Thursday evening by John Mitchell for
the proprietors. Price per annum, 32 shillings sent by post, 31
shillings and sixpence delivered in town and 30 shillings and fourpence
called for’.
As well as having these changes of printer, the newspaper also moved
to different locations. In 1836 it transferred from Port Well to
Lady Balmain’s Street, and then in 1844 it relocated to the
east side of the High Street.
In 1836 the price of the paper had been reduced to fourpence halfpenny
and it was further reduced in 1854 to threepence. In that year Mitchell
left Montrose for Edinburgh and was succeeded by Alex Dunn whose
first action was to change the publication day to Friday mornings.
Fifteen years later control of the paper passed to James Ross, Sheriff
Clerk of Forfarshire, who had been a regular contributor to the
Review. Dunn continued to print the newspaper for the new proprietor
at 97 High Street. Ross, who managed the business with distinction
for many years, died on 1 January 1888.
It was during Ross’s ownership that the Foreman family began
their long association with the Review. Joseph Foreman served his
apprenticeship as a compositor with the paper but then turned to
journalism for a career. To gain experience he served for a short
period in Kelso before returning to Montrose to take up a post as
reporter on the Review.
After three years Foreman, with his brother Robert and his brother-in-law
Alexander Balfour, bought the Review from Ross. A few years later,
they formed a limited company and adopted the name A. Dunn &
Co. Joseph Foreman eventually became sole proprietor and was managing
editor and director until 1919 when the ownership passed to his
son James. In 1951 the Review was sold by James Foreman to Mr and
Mrs W. H. Robertson, both journalists, who had worked on several
Fleet Street publications.
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Volume 3 published 1996
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