the State; (5) the printer and four workmen to be exempted
from service in the militia. The printer selected for this State-
subsidized newspaper one of the very few in the history of
American journalism was Isaac Collins, who already had a
plant at Burlington. He was a native of New Castle County,
Delaware, where he was born "2d mo. 16, 1746" (Old Style).
Learning his trade in the shop of James Adams, Wilmington,
Delaware (see " Delaware Papers"), he had gone to Williams-
burg, Virginia, to work for William Rind (see " Virginia Papers ").
His most practical experience, however, he had obtained in
Philadelphia while in the employ of William Goddard, the pub-
lisher of The Pennsylvania Chronicle. ,
Collins, immediately after his selection for the position, began to make preparation to bring out the paper, but owing to the unsettled condition of the country he was not able to "pull" the first number off his press until December 5, 1777. With the issue of March 4, 1778, he took The New-Jersey Gazette to Tren- ton. Contrary to his expectations, the paper was not better supported at that place and at last suspended publication in July, 1783. Collins, however, was a plucky editor and made an attempt to revive The Gazette on December 9, 1783. He strug- gled along until November 27, 1786, when he brought out the last issue. He still continued his shop at Trenton, for the politi- cal plum of public printing had fallen into the lap of his apron.
Before he discontinued The New-Jersey Gazette, he was selling at his printing-office medicinal preparations, dry goods, grocer- ies, etc. : a complete list would read like an advertisement in a country four-corners store. He also received a commission on the negro boys and wenches whose sales he effected through the columns of his paper. He died at Burlington, New Jersey, March 21, 1817.
"JERSEY JOURNAL"
Two circumstances account for the appearance of the second newspaper in New Jersey. One was that when New York fell into the hands of the British the newspapers which continued publication there were loyal to the Crown : the second was that the army of General Washington at Morristown wanted a paper
