John Dabney
John Dabney | |
|---|---|
| File:John Dabney.jpg John Dabney | |
| Born | 1752 Boston, Massachusetts |
| Died | 1819 |
| Occupation(s) | Postmaster, publisher, bookseller |
| Years active | Late 1700s – early 1800s |
| Known for | Co-publishing Salem Mercury; operating Salem Book-Store; postmaster of Salem, Massachusetts |
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John Dabney (1752–1819) was a prominent postmaster, publisher, and bookseller based in Salem, Massachusetts during the late 1700s and early 1800s. He was born in Boston in 1752 to parents Charles Dabney and Elizabeth Gardner.[1] Alongside Thomas C. Cushing, Dabney co-published the Salem Mercury newspaper between 1787 and 1789.[2][3] In 1790, he wed Abigail Mason Peale (1767-1834).[4] Around the same time, Dabney began operating the "Salem Book-Store," which provided books either for purchase or short-term lending;[5][6] among his clientele was William Bentley.[7] Dabney fulfilled duties as Salem’s postmaster approximately from 1792 until 1815.[8][9][10] He was affiliated with the North Church in Salem[11] as well as a member of the Essex Lodge of Freemasons.[12] In 1818, Dabney auctioned off his bookstore’s entire inventory.[13][14] He passed away in 1819.[15]
Notable works available at Dabney's bookstore and library
In the year 1813, the inventory at Dabney's establishment featured the following titles:
- Annual Review and History of Literature by Aikin
- Travels in the French Republic authored by Bygge
- The collected Works of Mrs. Chapone
- Morelando by M.C. Dallas
- Song Smith; or, Rigmarole Repository written by Charles Didbin
- Cry, a new dramatick fable by Sarah Fielding
- Fleetwood, a novel by William Godwin
- Scenes from Life authored by T. Harral
- Art of Thinking by Henry Home
- A volume of Sermons by William Jay
- Lives of Illustrious Seamen
- Tour in America penned by Richard Parkinson
- The novel Charlotte Temple by Susanna Rowson
- Life of Dr. Darwin written by Anna Seward
- Female Quixotism, or History of Dorcasina Sheldon authored by Tabitha Tenney
- Sans Souci Park by Maria Tharmott
- School for Fashion written by Mrs. Thicknesse
- A collection titled Miscellanies by Richard Twiss
- Ballads and Lyrical Pieces composed by Walter Scott
Related topics
Sources
- ↑ First Centenary of the North Church and Society, in Salem, Massachusetts, Salem: Printed for the Society, 1873, OCLC 3098011, OL 6427312M
- ↑ Joseph T. Buckingham (1850), Specimens of Newspaper Literature, Boston: Charles C. Little and James Brown, OCLC 1387302, OL 23338800M
- ↑ Salem Mercury, October 10, 1789
- ↑ Boston Gazette, July 5, 1790
- ↑ Salem Gazette, November 16, 1790
- ↑ "Salem Book-Store & Circulating Library", Columbian Centinel, July 7, 1792
- ↑ William Bentley (1905), Diary of William Bentley, Salem, Mass.: Essex Institute, OL 23294385M
- ↑ Joseph B. Felt (1845), Annals of Salem (2nd ed.), Salem: W. & S.B. Ives, OL 7053127M
- ↑ Table of Post Offices in the United States. Washington City: Post-Master General. 1811.
- ↑ Salem Gazette, October 10, 1815
- ↑ Catalogue of the Members of the North Church in Salem, with an Historical Sketch of the Church. Salem: W. & S.B. Ives. 1827.
- ↑ William Leavitt (August 1861), "History of the Essex Lodge of Freemasons", Historical Collections of the Essex Institute, vol. 3, no. 4, hdl:2027/uva.x000958981
- ↑ Boston Daily Advertiser, September 4, 1818
- ↑ Valuable Catalogue of Books being the Extensive Library Belonging to John Dabney, Esq., consisting of between 6 and 7000 volumes in divinity, history, philosophy, travels, biography ... to be sold at auction ... by Jonathan P. Saunders, auctioneer, 1818
- ↑ Essex Register, October 23, 1819
Publications released through Dabney
- New-England Primer Enlarged, printed by E. Draper for John Dabney in Salem, 1791
- An Address to Farmers, published for Dabney in Newburyport, 1796
- Thomas Barnard, D.D., Minister of the North Church’s sermon delivered in Salem on March 31, 1796, printed by Blunt and March for John Dabney in Salem
- Book catalogs
- Catalogue of Books, for Sale or Circulation, in Town or Country, available at John Dabney’s Book and Stationary Store and Circulating Library in Salem, 1791
- An additional book catalog for sale or circulation at the Salem Bookstore issued by J. Dabney, 1794
- A general book catalogue published by J. Dabney in 1801
- The 1813 catalogue of the Salem Book-store and Circulating Library issued by J. Dabney