Thomas Fleet

Thomas Fleet (September 8, 1685 – July 21, 1758) was an English printer who came to the British colonies in America and established himself as a printer and publisher in Boston. His decision to come to the colonies was prompted by people seeking retribution for what was considered his public display of disrespect for a popular member of the English clergy. Fleet produced works for various booksellers, printed pamphlets, ballads, children's stories and later established the Boston Evening Post. In his earlier years Fleet compiled his own version of Mother Goose from stories told by his mother-in-law, Elizabeth Vergoose, to his children. When he published various controversial accounts about the colonial government and the clergy he was admonished, threatened with prosecution and subsequently became one of the first American printers to challenge royal authority and defend the idea of Freedom of the Press. Through his newspaper Fleet played an active role in the Christian revivalist controversy that occurred in the colonies during the early eighteenth century.

Early life and family Thomas Fleet was born on September 8, 1685, in Tilstock, a chapelry in the parish of Whitchurch, of Shropshire in England, the son of Thomas and Isabella Fleet. He learned the printing business in Bristol, England where he served as an apprentice and later worked as a journeyman.

Fleet's decision to emigrate to the American colonies came about under unusual circumstances. While he was working in Bristol one day "the notorious" Henry Sacheverell, an English high church Anglican clergyman, was passing through on his way to his new home in Salatin. The townspeople gathered along the route, waving flags and cheering him on for preaching his controversial sermons against the established Congregationalists of England, which he also had printed. The House of Commons had ruled that their publication amounted to malicious and seditious libels. As the procession passed by the building where Fleet was working he accordingly concocted his own flag, hurriedly made from a halter-top fixed to a pole, and began waving it from a window. The crowd considered this a sign of contempt and disrespect and began throwing stones and other objects at the window where Fleet was standing, and then proceeded to storm the house in pursuit of Fleet. Fleet made his way to the roof of the building and made his escape running and hopping to other rooftops of the adjacent buildings, then disappeared down a quiet street and soon fled to London. After remaining there for a time he returned to Bristol with the hopes that his unintended offense had been forgotten about, but to no avail. Realizing he was no longer safe working at his former job and in his community he subsequently thought it was wise to distance himself from England altogether and made his way to Boston in the American colonies.

Fleet arrived at Boston in 1712, and soon established his printing shop with T. Crump, on Pudding Lane, which later was renamed Devonshire Street. According to historian Isaiah Thomas, Fleet and Crump printed several books together but never formed an actual partnership.

Fleet married Elizabeth Goose who publicly derided Fleet and the liberty taken with his printing-press. Fleet in his own defense was effective in his "good-natured" reply to the charges made against him and in his defense of the liberty of the Press. Prince's primary critic was Thomas Fleet who emerged on the scene as Prince's nemesis during the public debates over religious revivalism. Fleet's inclination to publicly criticize Prince was prompted by more than one reason. Fleet was an Anglican, traditionally indifferent to the Congregationalists, and subsequently he was considered an outsider by the Congregationalist establishment. Also, Fleet was relatively new to the newspaper business, which at the time was dominated by two of Fleet's major newspaper competitors in Boston: Samuel Kneeland and Timothy Green, both senior members of Prince's parish and publishers of the rival newspaper, The Boston Gazette.

Fleet considered Prince's Christian History as a highly partisan newspaper. Through his newspaper, the Boston Evening Post, in the March 7, 1743, issue, Fleet published, what would be become his opening remarks in a series of articles criticizing Prince's newspaper, claiming that it was a "Party Paper . . . design'd only for the Use of special Friends, it being with great Difficulty that we could obtain one . . . ". On April 4, Fleet also published correspondence which challenged Prince's premise in explaining the recent religious revival. another strong voice in the revivalist movement who openly criticized the "Anglican degeneracy". The Boston Gazette responded by accusing Fleet for using selective quotes they claimed were misleading to his readers. Fleet in turn responded with a "frontal attack" on Prince's Christian History.

Final years and legacy Thomas Fleet died after a long illness on 21 July 1758 in Boston at the age of 73 and is buried in the historic Granary Burying Ground in Boston. In January of the following year Fleet's estate was appraised at £959 and presented at the Probate Office. Fleet's wife, Elizabeth, died in 1775 at the age of 81, surviving her husband by seventeen years. From 1779 until 1801 his sons published Fleet's Annual Register and later printed the first edition of Thomas Hutchinson's History of Massachusetts.

Fleet has been credited for printing more than 250 books, pamphlets and tracts, aside from his newspapers, between 1713 and 1758.