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A REPUTATION FOR EXCELLENCE
A History of the Edinburgh Printing Industry
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19 2021
In
the Edinburgh of the Enlightenment, some of the city’s printers
played a part in the general spirit of enquiry and intellectual
activity. Ruddiman was one example. Another was Patrick Neill, founder
of the firm of Neill & Co. and also a renowned botanist, partly
responsible for the establishment of West Princes Street Gardens.
In 1739, at the age of fourteen, Neill was apprenticed to a printer
by the name of James Cochran. He then joined the firm of Hamilton
& Balfour, eventually becoming a senior partner. Hamilton’s
departure in 1762 gave rise to the firm of Balfour & Neill,
which in turn became, upon Balfour’s retiral in 1765, Neill
& Company. Until its demise in 1973 it was to be one of Edinburgh’s
foremost printing firms.
While still partnered with Balfour, Neill took on an apprentice
by the name of William Smellie. The son of an architect, he proved
to be so precocious as to earn himself the responsible post of corrector
while still an apprentice, adding seven shillings to his weekly
wage of three shillings. He went on to fulfill his early promise,
setting up shop with his old master Balfour. He became printer to
Edinburgh University and edited the first edition of the Encyclopedia
Brittanica as well as the Edinburgh Weekly Journal The Encyclopedia
Brittanica was printed in Edinburgh in 1771 by Carruthers and Bell
with extensive copperplate illustrations. Smellie went on to print
the Edinburgh Edition of Burns’s poems in 1787. His other intellectual
accomplish-ments included being candidate (failed) for the post
of Professor of Natural History in 1793 and Secretary of the Society
of Antiquaries for Scotland whose proceedings he also printed.
James Pillans, an apprentice of William Smellie, went on to open
his own shop in Riddle’s Court around 1775. While in Riddle’s
Court, James Pillans admitted his son Hugh as a partner in the firm
which then became J. Pillans & Son. A separate business had
been carried on by another son John, and the two merged in 1827
when the firm became H. & J. Pillans. Soon after this merger
the business moved to new premises across the Lawnmarket at James’s
Court. When this building was destroyed by fire in 1857 the brothers
re-established their business at another address in James’s
Court where they remained for another twenty years.
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Volume 1, published 1990
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