Manuscripts Department
Library of the University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill
SOUTHERN HISTORICAL COLLECTION
#2652-z
GALES FAMILY PAPERS
Inventory
Abstract: Papers of and about Joseph Gales (1761-1841), his
wife Winifred Marshall Gales (1761-1839), and their
descendants. Included are manuscript reminiscences of
the Gales' experiences as printers, publishers of
several newspapers, booksellers in Sheffield, England,
refugees from political repression in Germany, and
continuing their career in Philadelphia, Pa., Raleigh,
N.C, and Washington, D.C.; a biographical sketch of
Joseph and Winifred and their descendants; and other
family data, including a tribute to Major Seaton
Gales. The reminiscences are extremely detailed
concerning the political situation that forced them to
leave England; descriptions of their various printing
shops and of processes and procedures; and social life
in Germany, Philadelphia, and Raleigh.
Online Catalog Terms:
British Americans--Pennsylvania--History--18th century.
British Americans--North Carolina--History--19th century.
British--Germany--Social life and customs--18th century.
Gales family--Genealogy.
Gales, Joseph, 1761-1841.
Gales, Seaton, 1828-1878.
Gales, Winifred Marshall, 1761-1839.
Newspaper publishing--North Carolina--History--19th century.
Newspaper publishing--Pennsylvania--History--18th century.
Philadelphia (Pa.)--Social life and customs--18th century.
Printing industry--England--History--18th century.
Printing industry--North Carolina--History--19th century.
Printing industry--Pennsylvania--History--19th century.
Raleigh (N.C.)--Social life and customs--19th century.
Refugees, Political--Great Britain--History--18th century.
Sheffield (England)--Social life and customs--18th century.
United States--Emigration and immigration--History--19th
century.
Size: 4 items (1 folder).
Provenance: Received from Nona Gales Fleming of Dallas, Tex.,
in September and October 1941 and August 1943.
Access: No restrictions. Microfilm copy available.
Processing Note: This collection was processed with support
from the Randleigh Foundation Trust.
Copyright: Retained by the authors of items in these papers,
or their descendants, as stipulated by United
States copyright law.
Table of Contents:
Description
DESCRIPTION
This collections consists of a typescript sketch of Joseph and
Winifred Gales and some of their children, grandchildren, and
great-grandchildren, with penned notes added by Nona Gales
Fleming; a typescript article, "The Old Gales House," from the
Raleigh Sentinel (N.C.), undated, telling of its demolition and
its past history; a typed copy of an obituary of Sarah Gales
(Mrs. William W.) Seaton from the New York Christian Inquirer, 16
January 1864; and a volume, 1799-1839, with typescript copy, of
recollections of Winifred and Joseph Gales.
The manuscript volume of "Recollections" was begun by Winifred
Gales and is divided into four sections. The first section,
entitled "Raleigh, 1815," begins with a genealogy of Winifred
Marshall Gales's family, mentioning members of the Marshall,
Lamb, and Weston families of England where she was born in 1761.
She tells of marrying Joseph Gales in 1784 and settling in
Sheffield where he started a printing business, published the
Register, and kept a book and stationary store. She gives an
account of their children with birth dates and places and details
some of their lives. At the end of this section, she discusses
further the ancestry of the Gales family.
The second section is entitled "Raleigh, February 1831" and
begins with "Reminiscences of our residence in Sheffield."
Winifred Gales describes the family home in Sheffield; the
printing and publishing business; the political situation in
England and France; and repressive measures against liberal
agitators in England, including Thomas Paine, whose works the
Gales had printed, and Paine's friend, Henry Redhead Yorke. She
writes about the suffering undergone by others of the same
profession as the Gales, mobs gathering, warnings to the Gales
family of possible dangers, and her husband's flight to Hamburg.
She tells of her difficulties in the absence of her husband and
of the hard journey with her children to join him in July 1794.
She describes Hamburg and her landlord's family and house and
Altons, where they lived after an unsuccessful attempt to travel
to America and where their daughter, named for the town, was
born. She writes about the French Revolution and acquaintances
among the refugees in Germany and describes public lotteries held
to support the town. She talks about the family's journey to
America in June of 1795, describing the ship and interesting
shipmates. The ship was captured by the privateers Hutchins and
Bethel and was only released through the influence of Winifred
Gales upon the privateers.
The third section, "January 8, 1836," begins in August 1795
when the Gales landed in Philadelphia. Joseph Gales hired
himself to Dunlap and Claypool as a journeyman printer and took
down debates in Congress in shorthand until his printing supplies
arrived from England. He later bought the Independent Gazetteer
in Philadelphia where the family lived for four years. They then
moved to Bucks County to avoid yellow fever, but Winifred Gales
caught the disease. Joseph Gales was invited by Richard
Stanford, congressman from North Carolina, to visit that state
and look over the advantages of that region. Gales decided to
move to Raleigh after this visit, and the family left
Philadelphia in August 1799 on a schooner for Norfolk, where they
got a boat to Petersburg and traveled to Raleigh by carriage.
The Gales soon began the Register and opened a book and
stationary store. Winifred Gales tells of Raleigh social life,
difficulties with servants, and the necessity of buying slaves
for the household, farm, and printing establishment.
The fourth section is no longer in Winifred Gales's
handwriting, having been continued by her husband after her death
in 1839. He begins with the family's arrival in Raleigh in 1799
and describes the publication of the Register, its increasing
success, and his work as public printer for the state of North
Carolina. He relates his illness with typhus fever in 1799 and
his removal to John Whitaker's in the country nearby. He tells
of the education of his children and the petition to the General
Assembly to erect an academy. He writes frequently of this
institution, headed first by the Reverend W. L. Turners then by
William McPheeteres. His English friends, Mr. and Mrs.
Sambourne, come later to teach music in Raleigh. Gales describes
a fire at his printing office and the newspaper being printed in
his kitchen and taken to Warrenton, N.C., until a brick building
could be erected. He writes of the marriages and varied careers
of his children and tells of starting a paper mill and the
operation of a grist mill in connection with the paper mill,
Gales mentions his being made tax accessor in his
congressional district; fires in Raleigh; a movement started for
a new courthouse; the burning of the state capitol in 1831; and
the failure of efforts to get water into the city for fire
protection. He discusses plans to retire and move to Washington,
D.C., leaving his business to his son, Weston; the testimonial
dinner given in Raleigh for the Gales; the move to Washington,
D.C.; publishing government material there; and Winifred's death
in June 1839. Gales returned to Raleigh in July 1839. He
includes an account of his visit to Dr. Physick in Philadelphia
before ending with an account of the his lineage and youth in
England, particularly as apprentice to two different printers.
All through the "Recollections" there are references to the
Unitarian Church and the Gales's participation in Philadelphia
and Raleigh. There are also numerous references to the National
Intelligencer of Washington, D.C., run by Samuel Harrison Smith
to whom Gales gave his subscription list and other business
material when he moved from Philadelphia to Raleigh. Joseph
Gales, Jr., moved to Washington, D.C., to work with Smith and
finally became proprietor and editor of the paper in partnership
with William W. Seaton, who married Sarah Gales.