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A REPUTATION FOR EXCELLENCE
A History of the Aberdeen and Northern Counties Printing
Industry
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In 1661, three years after the death
of Raban, John Forbes and his son of the same name were the next
to succeed to the office of printer to the town and university.
Forbes senior was thought to have traded as a bookseller, his son
being responsible for undertaking the printing. In the following
year they issued the famous Cantus, songs and fancies, to thre,
foure, or five partes, both apt for voices and viols, with a brieft
introduction to musicke as is taught in the Musicke School of Aberdeen
by TD (Thomas Davidson). Two further editions appeared in 1666 and
1682. The Hero as Printer comments that ‘this work was the
first published edition containing Scottish songs and the only music
book which presents the music as well as the teaching method employed
in a Scottish music school of the period.’
Much of the success of the Forbes partnership was based on the annual
production of the Almanac or Prognostication first produced by Raban.
The con-tinuing success of the Aberdeen Almanac resulted in an increase
of pirated editions and Forbes was forced to take his case to the
Privy Council. A decision was obtained in 1684 forbidding the counterfeiting
and reprinting of Aberdeen Almanacs. It is claimed that 50,000 copies
per year were published by Forbes.
In 1675 John Forbes senior died and his son con-tinued with the
business until his death in 1705. The younger Forbes widow succeeded
him and was the town and university printer for five years before
the appointment passed to her son-in-law James Nicol. His work was
not regarded as note-worthy except for a series of Almanacs produced
by his press.
An earlier booklet in this series, A History of the Dundee and Perth
Printing Industries, contains an interesting account of how Nicol
was commis-sioned by the town council of the day to send one of
his presses, type, and other printing materials to Perth on the
orders of the Earl of Mar. During the rebellion of 1715 this plant
was used to print proclamations and other documents of the Old Pretender.
Nicol retired because of ill-health in 1736 and his place was taken
by James Chalmers, eldest sur-viving son of Dr James Chalmers, Professor
of Divinity at Marischal College.
He had been apprenticed to Nicol, after which he broadened his experience
in London working, it is said, in the printing house of John Watts.
On Nicol’s demission he immediately made successful application
to take over the role of official printer to the Town Council. Shortly
afterwards, Chalmers petitioned Marischal College to undertake their
printing. He appears to have special-ised in printing local sermons
and several local publications but no book of any significance came
from his press. His one outstanding achievement was the founding
of The Aberdeen Journal. The first issue is dated 29 December 1747
— 5 January 1748, and the direct descendant of this is today’s
Press and Journal. The first number was a single sheet, folded in
half, to give four pages. The early issues of The Aberdeen Journal
make a notable contribution to local history through the advertisements
it carried, which recorded details of local events such as business
matters, property sales, notices of sporting events, entertainment
programmes and details of ship movements.
The monopoly of printing in Aberdeen ended in 1752 when Francis
Douglas and William Murray opened their printing office. Douglas,
a former baker turned bookseller, was the real driving force and,
when the partnership was dissolved in 1757, he continued the business
on his own.
One of the enterprising Douglas’s first publica-tions was a
newspaper, The Aberdeen Intelligencer, the first issue of which
appeared in October 1752. The paper continued to be published weekly
until February 1757 when it seems a price war, over advertising
rates and complaints over the necessity to have to place advertisements
in two newspapers, was lost to Chalmers’s Aberdeen Journal.
Another of Douglas’s ventures was the launching of the first
magazine to be published in Aberdeen. Entitled The Aberdeen Magazine,
it was first published in 1761 but ran for only twelve months.
However, in contrast to Chalmers, who preferred the security offered
by much civic printing, Doug-las was more adventurous in a wider
field and among his publications are editions of works by Addison,
Beattie, Bossuet, Pope and Voltaire. He also wrote a number of works
himself, the most notable being Rural Love, a tale in the Scottish
dialect, which he printed and published in 1759.
When James Chalmers died in 1764 he was succeeded in business by
his eldest son, also named James and then only twenty-two. Like
his father, he adopted a conservative business approach and concentrated
mainly on his Aberdeen Journal and to a lesser extent was active
in the chap-book market, few of which have survived. He will be
best remembered for The Aberdeen Almanac which he revived and enlarged
in 1771. Later to be known as The Northern Year Book, the publication
contin-ued until its final issue in 1955-56.
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Volume 3 published 1996
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