New York City directories facts for kids

Franks was an accountant and conveyancer. In 1788, he petitioned for relief from creditors due to insolvency.

Sir Guy Carleton, who from 1782 to 1783 was Commander-in-Chief of all British forces in North America, kept careful records – names and descriptions of 3,000 Black Loyalists, most of whom had been freed in accordance with British proclamations. As Commander, in fulfilling the Crown's promise of freedom to slaves who joined the British during the Revolution, Carleton provided Washington with the list, which became known as the Book of Negroes. Of those listed, 2,800 were from New York City – 1,136 men, 914 women, and 750 children – most of whom were evacuated to points in Nova Scotia as free people of color. (related article: Black Nova Scotians)

Robert Hodge (1746–1813) (editor) immigrated to America from Edinburgh in 1770 and opened a printing office in New York in 1773.

Thomas Allen (1754–1826) (editor) was a bookseller in New York from 1786 to 1799. In 1789, he offered for sale the first Encyclopædia Britannica in America. Samuel Campbell (1765–1836) (editor) was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. He had been, from about 1785 to 1822, a bookseller in New York, his final location being at 124 Pearl Street.

His father, Samuel Campbell (1735–1813) acquired around 120 acres in Springfield, New Jersey (an area that has since become part of Millburn, New Jersey), about 16 miles from New York City, where he built a home and, in 1795, built The Thistle Paper Mill, the site on which, today, sits the Paper Mill Playhouse. Samuel Campbell, the son, married twice, to sisters – first, on December 14, 1886, to Eliza Duyckinck (1765–1798) – second, on July 24, 1799, to Euphame Duyckinck (1771–1847). Both were aunts of writers Evert Augustus Duyckinck (1816–1878) and George Long Duyckinck (1823–1863), who were brothers. Hodge, Allen, and Campbell, together, owned a bookstore, but Allen sold his interest to Hodge and Campbell in 1790. In 1792, Hodge and Campbell went their separate ways in bookselling – Hodge at 11 Water Street and Campbell at 37 Hanover Square. Campbell's brother, Robert (1767–1800) was a notable bookseller in Philadelphia. Robert is cited for having published texts that contributed to the American Enlightenment.

Thomas Swords (1763–1843) and James Swords (1765–1846), Albany-born brothers, founded and ran the firm in New York City from 1788 to 1832, when Thomas retired. A daughter of Thomas Swords, Elizabeth Davidson Swords (1804–1833), on June 8, 1824, in Manhattan, married John Evers (1797–1884), an artist and one of the founders of the National Academy of Design.

John Buel (1768–1800) (printer), corner of Water Street and Fly Market (in the 17th century, located at the bottom of Maiden Lane)

John Bull (printer), 115 Cherry Street (1795–1797); 407 Pearl Street (1797)

In 1796, John Low published his directory and in 1797, he established his bookstore in New York, called "Shakespeare's Head" at 332 Water Street, later, at 33 (1804–1808) and at 17 (1813–1819) Chatham Street (now known as Park Row), and after that, at 48 Vesey Street (around 1825). When John Low, Sr., died, his wife, Esther Prentiss (maiden; 1762–1816), and sons, John Low, Jr. (1790–1829), and Thomas P. Low (1795–1818), continued operating the bookstore. Other imprints from his firm were used, including "E. Low," which reflects the name of his wife, Esther. One of John Low's granddaughters, Elizabeth Hannah Remington (maiden, never married; 1826–1917), was, until about 1897, one of the best known pastel artists in the country.

In 1805, Longworth's directory listed 291 shoemakers in New York City, second only to carpentry in total practitioners. Longworth's 1805 directory also listed a variety of men from other trades, including four each identified as bakers, carpenters, hairdressers, and tailors, three each as blacksmiths, butchers, printers, and sailmakers, and seventeen other crafts such as a wire-maker, stone-ware potter, a tin and copper worker, a venetian blind manufacturer, and a cooper. Only three non-skilled subscribers appeared: a cartman named Josiah Corrington and two laborers, Abraham Day, and Peter Winthrop. In a study of readership of The New-York Magazine, David Paul Nord found in a random sample of the 1790 New York Directory that shoemakers comprised 14.7 percent of the artisan population in New York City.

Directories compiled by David Longworth began referencing the United States calendar (aka National calendar), from July 4, 1776. For example, a book published today, 6 May 2024, would be expressed as "The two hundred and forty-seventh Year of American Independence."

32 Vesey Street, office of Langdon's Early and Cheap Directory (1804) William W. Vermilye (1780–1849) (printer)

New York City directories, commencing with Longworth's 1832 edition, provides lists of newspapers published in New York City. (Mercein's city directory of 1820 also provides a list of newspapers in New York City).

One of his printers, Benjamin S. Collins (né Benjamin Say Collins; 1784–1857) – of Collins & Hannay – was a son of Isaac Collins, pioneering printer from New York City.

Benjamin S. Collins and Samuel Hannay were partners as booksellers from 1817 to 1831. Thereafter, the business continued by Hannay and George B. Collins (1807–1854), the only surviving son of Charles Collins (1774–1843), Benjamin's brother. Samuel Hannay had also been a corporate secretary for the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York, chartered April 12, 1842, by Alfred Pell and Morris Robinson (1784–1849) (president). Hannay died in 1849.

1845: Doggett issued a supplement, needed because of the Great Fire of July 19, updating address changes.

One of his printers, Seth Williston Benedict (1803–1869), was an influential member of the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, for whom he published The Emancipator (1835: New York) and other publications.

(§ New York City (Manhattan) directories)

(§ Great Metropolis directories)

(§ Copartnership directories)

(§ Business directories)

Henry Wilson, compiler of the earlier Trow directories, was a bookseller and publisher of The Book Trade. His business address in 1852 was at 49 Ann Street. The 1879 Trow directory stated that Henry Wilson had no connection to the directory.

(§ Business directories)

(§ The Reference registers)

Spurious names of business directories, nationally, under which defendants allegedly conducted fraudulent collections included:

Similar attempts to fraudulently collect was common, even with Wilson's Directory.

Woolf Phillips was a brother of Morris Phillips (1834–1904), who had been associated with the poet, Nathaniel Parker Willis (1806–1867), as associate editor of the New York Home Journal from September 1854, until Willis' death, then became chief editor and sole proprietor. Morris Phillips, in America, became known as "the father of society news."

One of the printers for Phillips, Frank Denham Harmon (1850–1907), had been married to Mary Eloise Burr (1856–1899), whose great grandmother, Hannah Burr (née Edwards; 1723–1803) was a sister of Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758), the third president (in 1758) of Princeton. Princeton's second president (from 1748 to 1757), Aaron Burr, Sr. (1716–1757), was a son-in-law, by way of marriage to Esther Edwards (maiden; 1732–1758), of Jonathan Edwards. Aaron Burr, Sr., was also the father of Aaron Burr, Jr. (1756–1836).

In 1877, James Collis, Jr. (1828–1898), vice president and shareholder of The Trow City Directory Company, filed a lawsuit against John F. Trow, shareholder and treasurer, and Edward P. Beach, shareholder and president. Beach was also a general railway agent for the Grand Trunk Railway, the Detroit, Grand Haven and Milwaukee Railway, and the Great Western Railway.

John Libby was, in 1890, one of the four buyers of the block between 28th and 29th Streets and 14th and 15th Avenues in the Beechhurst neighborhood of Queens. This block was originally settled by employees of the Trow City Directory Company and was called for many years the "Trow Settlement." The house which was originally the Libby home, on the corner of 14th Avenue and 28thy Street, was later owned by Mrs. Charlotte Phayre.

(§ Society directories, including social registers)