Port of [Blank] Know Ye, That [blank] Master or Commander of the [blank] Burthen [blank] Tons or there-abouts, Mounted with [blank] Guns, Navigated with [blank] Men, [blank] Built [blank] Bound for [blank] Having on Board [blank] Hath Enter’d & Clear’d in her Majestys Custom–House at [blank] According to Law…

“Mounted with [blank] Guns” – Rare form printed by William Bradford

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A rare and early eighteenth-century partly-printed blank form for sea vessels, likely from the press of William Bradford, created during the first two decades of New York printing. The form’s final lines date it to the reign of Queen Anne (1702-14; sovereign from 1707 onward), when Bradford was New York’s only working printer.

The completed form would certify customs clearance, recording the vessel’s name, tonnage, arms, crew, origin, and itinerary.

William Bradford (1663-1752), the first printer in New York and Pennsylvania, is cited as the “pioneering printer of the English middle colonies” (DAB). He began printing in Pennsylvania in 1685 and opened a bookstore in 1688. Legal troubles, including the seizure of his printing equipment in 1692, led him to relocate to New York in 1693, where he printed the acts of assembly and other official documents for the colonial council.

Price: $750.00