Category Archives: Family

The Graisberry Girls: Mary II

Emily’s grandmother Mary was born about 1797/8 in Dublin. She was most likely, the eldest child of Ruth and Daniel Graisberry. Mary grew up in the printing industry where it was not uncommon for the whole family to be involved in the running of their business. Each generation of the Graisberry women either by design on necessity ended up working as printers.

The oldest building and trees in TCD. They were there when the Graisberry's were the official printers to the college

The oldest building and trees in TCD. They were there when the Graisberry’s were the official printers to the college

When her father died in 1822 Mary and her sisters probably helped their mother keep the business going. It was not uncommon back then for women to take over the busines, when their male relatives died. In the Graisberrys time a high percentage of women were registered in the print industry trade journals. 66.6 per cent of these were widows of printer/bookbinder/bookseller husbands. The main reason for this was  financial, as was in the case of Ruth Graisberry who pleaded poverty in her petition to Trinity College. Her daughters  may have been well skilled in the folding and sewing of pages, but Ruth was as good as anyone in the industry.

Despite her protestations of poverty Ruth Graisberry was, in fact, together with Harriet Colbert and Anne Watson, among the biggest master printers and booksellers in early nineteenth-century Dublin.

As is was common for widows to take over from their husbands so was it for the girls of the industry to marry the apprentices of the print, binding and publishing trades.

From the 1800’s into the mid-20th century, a set number of apprenticeships were always reserved for printer’s sons. Many of them married female workers and this led to the growth of print families or dynasties within the print, publishing and bindery trades.

It was through the book industry that Emily’s grandmother Mary Graisberry met and/or was matched with Richard McArthur, bookseller from Ardglass Co. Down.

Take a tour of Trinity College Dublin, where the Graisberry’s were the official printiers:
https://www.tcd.ie/Library/bookofkells/trinity-tours/
Thanks to:
Irish Print Museum
Sources
Irish Booklore: A Galley of Pie: Women in the Irish Book Trades Author(s): Vincent Kinane Source: The Linen Hall Review, Vol. 8, No. 4 (Winter, 1991), pp. 10-13 Published by: Linen Hall Library. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20534214
Dictionary of Irish Biography 9 Volume Set: From the Earliest Times to the Year 2002. Cambridge University Press 2009,James McGuire and James Quinn. Turlough O’Riordan. Vol 3 P 192

The Graisberry Girls (Sisters)

Daniel and Ruth Graisberry had five daughters, born between 1797 and 1917, Mary (Emily’s grandmother), Abigail, Charlotte, Sophia, and Emily completed the female bloodline. The couple had one son, William who was born in 1805 but must have died in infancy or early childhood, as when Ruth petitioned Trinity College to allow her to take over her husbands place as official printer in 1822, there was no mention of a son, only her five daughters and elderly mother.

All of Ruth’s daughters survived to adulthood and all married, ending the name Graisberry from that branch of the family. It is unclear whether Emily kept in touch with her cousins. Her aunt Charlotte married a Joshua Porter, who may have been related to Rev Samuel George Porter. Rev Porter was a good friend of her farther, Rev. Burke, there is no way of telling for sure, and it could easily be a coincidence.

 

 

The Graisberry Girls: Ruth (2)

When her husband Daniel Died Ruth Graisberry found herself alone with five daughters and a deaf blind mother to support. As her son Daniel was not of full age (21) at the time she was the heir to her late husband’s assets. Nowadays she could have just stepped into her de

ceased husband’s shoes and took up where he let off but it was not as simple back in 1822. Ruth had to make her case to Trinity College to be allowed to continue on as their official printer.

A printing press from the early 1800's, the kind the Graisberrys would have used. Curtesy of the National Print Museum, Dublin.

A printing press from the early 1800’s, the kind the Graisberrys would have used. Courtesy of the National Print Museum, Dublin.

A resourceful woman, she used her wiles to make she self indispensable to the college. In 1823 she made the following petition:

“Being possessed of the Presses, Types, and materials for Printing and having proper and respectable Work people in her employ, she feels herself fully capable with the aid and assistance of several of the most respectable Master Printers in Dublin, who have kindly and voluntarily come forward and signed a paper undertaking to aid and assist your Memorialist if necessary to carry on the business…”

 

Ruth Graisberry was not above mentioning her dependents (five daughters and her invalided mother), and the fate that would befall them if she were denied the position of college printer. Her pleading worked she given the contract. It was not wasted on her she she held on to the position until 1837, when an ongoing health complaint forced her to sell her part of the business to her once apprentice and eventual business partner Michael Gill.

 

Drawers of print typefaces used in the print trade. Curtesy of The National Print Museum

Drawers of print typefaces used in the print trade. Courtesy of The National Print Museum

Family Connections

Ruth was no stranger to the printing industry when she took over from her husband. She may have worked in the industry before she married. It was not uncommon for young female employees of print works to marry the apprentices and sons, like Ruth to Daniel Graisberry II.  Keeping it in the industry was common of the Graisberry family. Ruth’s sister in law Elizabeth, married the apprentice Richard Campbell, who later became a partner. Her daughter Emily, Emily’s mother married Richard McArthur a bookseller.

Ruth was a member of the McCormick family, who were stationers and paper sellers. There is an entry in the dictionary of members of the Dublin book trade 1550-1800, of a John McCormick who was a blind news hawker (early newspaper street vendors). He and a Patrick Smith murdered his wife and was sentenced to hanged and quartered, Smith was acquitted, but McCormick met his demise at Newgate Prison on December 16 1754. He may or may not have been related.

 

To find out more about the printing and book trade in Ireland visit the National Print Museum’s website. If you are in Dublin pay them a visit.

http://www.nationalprintmuseum.ie/

All photos courtesy of the National Print Museum

 

Sources
Irish Booklore: A Galley of Pie: Women in the Irish Book Trades Author(s): Vincent Kinane
Source: The Linen Hall Review, Vol. 8, No. 4 (Winter, 1991), pp. 10-13 Published by: Linen Hall LibraryStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20534214 Accessed: 07-05-2015 14:24 UTC
A dictionary of members of the Dublin book trade 1550-1800 :
Author: Pollard, M. (Mary)
Dictionary of Irish Biography 9 Volume Set: From the Earliest Times to the Year 2002. Cambridge University Press 2009,James McGuire and James Quinn. Turlough O’Riordan. Vol 3 P 192
http://www.askaboutireland.ie/reading-room/history-heritage/pages-in-history/early-dublin-newspapers/news-gathering/11/06/2015

The Graisberry Girls: Ruth

When Emily’s great grandmother Ruth McCormack married Daniel Graisberry II in 1797 neither had reached the age of twenty one. It was not uncommon for people of families in trades, such as printing to marry their sons and daughters to others in the business. This trend can be seen in the Graisberry family for many generations. Daniel, the eldest son of Mary and the late Daniel Graisberry was probably fast tracked into the family business and marriage to Ruth McCormack, whose family were in the book trade too. As eldest son he was earmarked to take over the family business and allow his mother to retire.

The Long Hall Library in Trinity College, Dublin, where the Graisberrys were the official printiers

The Long Hall Library in Trinity College, Dublin, where the Graisberrys were the official printers

When Daniel was first qualified as a printer he operated from Capel Street. Early enough in his career he became the appointed printer to the Dublin Society and then progressed on to become the official printer of Trinity College, a position he held till his death in 1822. The exclusive printer to the college was an extremely lucrative position to hold, so after his death his widow Ruth hastily stepped into the vacant position. Rather than loose the family business and possibly her only income she like her mother in law Mary Graisberry she took charge of the situation she found herself in.

Back Lane where the Graisberry's had their printing business

Back Lane where the Graisberry’s had their printing business

Sources
Dictionary of Irish Biography 9 Volume Set: From the Earliest Times to the Year 2002. Cambridge University Press 2009,James McGuire and James Quinn. Turlough O’Riordan. Vol 3 P 192
A Dictionary of Members of the Dublin Book Trade 1550-1800 By Mary Pollard, Bibliographical Society (Great Britain, p 248-50
Irish Booklore: A Galley of Pie: Women in the Irish Book Trades Author(s): Vincent Kinane
Source: The Linen Hall Review, Vol. 8, No. 4 (Winter, 1991), pp. 10-13 Published by: Linen Hall Library. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20534214 Accessed: 07-05-2015 14:24 UTC

 

 

The Graisberry Girls; Mary (2)

inscription in the cover of

Inscription in the cover of a book dedicated to Mary by James Templeton. Courtesy of the National Library of Ireland

Mary Kennedy married Daniel Graisberry in 1765. The couple were married for twenty years until his death in 1785. She was mother to thirteen children all of whom she outlived, she survived her son Daniel by just one week.

As a young widow still in her thirties and possibly with some of her family dependant on her she took over her husband’s business. With the help of her son in law, Richard Campbell, taken into the business when he married her daughter Elizabeth, she took her late husband’s place in the business. With that she made an announcement to the printing world that she, Mary Graisberry, widow would carry on with business as usual, a tough decision for a woman at the time. Mary Graisberry was by no means the first woman in the Irish book trade, in fact she was one of many, usually widows who took over the business when their husbands died. Years later her daughter in Law Ruth would follow suit, when she was widowed too.

It did not take too long for tragedy to strike in the Graisberry family again, when Mary’s daughter Elizabeth. She was quite young and married only a short time, so it is possible that she died in childbirth. A touching gesture James Templeton, a poet and possibly a family friend dedicated a book to Mary. The book was entitled A Poetical Epistle to Mrs. Graisberry: On the Sudden Death of Her Daughter, Mrs. Elizabeth Campbell.

image

To the memory of Mrs Elizabeth Campbell. Courtesy of the National Library of Ireland

Mary continued as administrator of the company until her son Daniel, Emily’s great grandfather took over when he came of age (twenty-one) in 1797. She lived on till her mid seventies dying on 8th June 1822, at Clare St. Dublin.

 Sources
A Dictionary of Members of the Dublin Book Trade 1550-1800 By Mary Pollard, Bibliographical Society (Great Britain, p 248-50
Irish Booklore: A Galley of Pie: Women in the Irish Book Trades Author(s): Vincent Kinane
Source: The Linen Hall Review, Vol. 8, No. 4 (Winter, 1991), pp. 10-13 Published by: Linen Hall Library. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20534214 Accessed: 07-05-2015 14:24 UTC
Templeton, James. A Poetical Epistle to Mrs. Graisberry: On the Sudden Death of Her Daughter, Mrs. Elizabeth Campbell. By James Templeton. Dublin: Printed in the year, 1795.
Dublin Evening Packet and Correspondent 11 June 1842. P 3