James Abree (1691?–1768) was an 18th-century

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

printer, publisher, and bookseller. Abree was the son of William Abree of

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(ed.), ''The Topographer and Genealogist'', (London, 1846), 449. He was apprenticed to the London printer Ichabod Dawkes from 1705 to 1712.D.F. Mckenzie, ''Stationers' Company Apprentices 1701–1800'' (Oxford, 1978, 104 (record 2421). Abree moved to Canterbury in 1717, possibly at the invitation of the city authorities. He seems to have been the printer of Canterbury's first newspaper, the '' Kentish Post'', founded in 1717. In 1722 he became a freeman of Canterbury and in the same year married Mary, the daughter of Samuel and Frances Simmons of

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, (died 1748).David Shaw & Sarah Gray, 'James Abree (1691?–1768): Canterbury's first "modern printer"', in: ''The Reach of Print: Making, selling & using books'', ed. Peter Isaac and Barry McKay (Winchester and Delaware, 1998), 21–36. They had one child, a daughter also named Mary, who married Lieutenant Thomas Woolley Pickering R.N. in 1745. Besides his newspaper, Abree also printed books and ephemera such as

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's verses and

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; he also acted as an agent for the

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and no doubt sold stationery through his bookshop. At the end of his career, Abree took on an assistant, George Kirkby, son of a Canterbury vicar, who had been apprenticed to the London printer James Bettenham. In 1768, the ''Kentish Post'' announced that Abree was planning to retire in favour of his assistant Kirkby. A rival paper was started by James Simmons and after a short circulation war, the two newspapers merged as the ''

Kentish Gazette The ''Kentish Gazette'' is a weekly newspaper serving the city of Canterbury, Kent. It is owned by KM Group and published on Thursdays. Its Canterbury and Whitstable editions are the only local papers covering the area. History The newspaper c ...

'' which is still published weekly in Canterbury (2011). The firm of Simmons and Kirkby remained in operation for 23 years after Abree's retirement.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Abree, James 1690s births 1768 deaths 18th-century English businesspeople English book publishers (people) English printers People from Canterbury