Richard Pue (died 1722) was an Irish
newspaper publisher,
bookseller, and proprietor of
Dick's Coffee House
Dick's Coffee House was a significant Irish coffeehouse in the 17th and 18th century.
Dick's was one of Dublin's most famous and long lasting coffeehouses, established by Richard Pue in the late 17th century, at some point before July 1698. Pue ...
.
Life
The date and place of Richard Pue's birth is unknown. He established Dick's Coffee House,
Skinner's Row, Dublin sometime before July 1698. Pue became a freeman of
Dublin in 1701 as a member of the Dyers' Guild. On 25 December 1703 he began publishing ''Impartial Occurrences'' with
Edward Lloyd. This paper was delivered by post across the country, with Pue acting as editor until 1706. The paper ceased in February 1706, reappearing in February 1712 as ''Pue's Occurrences''. In late December 1705, Lloyd and Pue jointly published a satirical attack on Protestant dissent by Jonathan Swift called ''
A tale of a tub''. They also printed the ''Votes of the Irish house of commons'' (nos 1-65) between July and October 1707 and May and June 1709.
Owing to Pue's political leanings, Dick's was a centre for residual Protestant
Jacobite interest in Dublin, with
Robert Rochfort
Robert Rochfort (9 December 1652 – 10 October 1727) was a leading Irish lawyer, politician and judge of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. He held office as Attorney General for Ireland, Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer, a ...
and his allies frequenting the
coffeehouse
A coffeehouse, coffee shop, or café is an establishment that primarily serves coffee of various types, notably espresso, latte, and cappuccino. Some coffeehouses may serve cold drinks, such as iced coffee and iced tea, as well as other non-ca ...
. Pue increasingly became a
Tory, and became increasingly intolerant of Jacobite opinion, informing Dublin Castle of "papist murmuring" in 1707 and Jacobite activities in Dick's. From 1710, he published or republished Tory pamphlets on topics such as the trial of
Henry Sacheverell in London.
In 1714 after the accession of the Hanoverian monarchy, Pue suffered for his earlier Tory support, being imprisoned briefly by the Irish house of commons in February 1715. This was part of an overall purge of Dublin's Tory press, with Pue being taken in custody again in November 1717. He left Ireland for a time, returning in late December, publishing ''Pue's Occurrences'' again on 4 January 1718. He held a number of auctions from Dick's from the 1720s, as well as selling "eye water" and other health elixirs. Pue was a successful printer who was not sworn into the Printers’ Guild. Pue died in early 1722, and was buried at the church of
Church of St. Nicholas Within, Dublin
St. Nicholas Within is a former Church of Ireland parish church in Dublin city, Ireland. It was located at the corner of Nicholas St. and Christchurch Place, where part of its entrance may be seen next to the Peace Park. The term may also refer ...
on 10 May 1722. His wife
Elizabeth took over his businesses after his death, and in turn was succeeded by their son
Richard
Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Frankish language, Old Frankish and is a Compound (linguistics), compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic language, Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' an ...
.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pue, Richard
1722 deaths
18th-century newspaper publishers (people)
Irish publishers (people)
Date of birth unknown
18th-century Irish businesspeople