Benjamin Edes was a journalist

Journalist

A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...

 and political agitator

Agitator

An agitator is a person who actively supports some ideology or movement with speeches and especially actions. The Agitators were a political movement as well as elected representatives of soldiers, including the New Model Army of Oliver Cromwell, during the English Civil War. They were also known...

. He is best known, along with John Gill

John Gill (printer)

John Gill was a printer in Boston, Massachusetts, in the 18th century. With Benjamin Edes he issued the Boston Gazette newspaper. He later published the Continental Journal, 1776-1785.-Biography:...

, as the publisher of the Boston Gazette

Boston Gazette

The Boston Gazette was a newspaper published in Boston, Massachusetts, in the British North American colonies. It began publication December 21, 1719 and appeared weekly.-Brief history:...

, a newspaper which sparked and financed the Boston Tea Party

Boston Tea Party

The Boston Tea Party was a direct action by colonists in Boston, a town in the British colony of Massachusetts, against the British government and the monopolistic East India Company that controlled all the tea imported into the colonies...

 and was influential during the Revolutionary War.

Early life

He was born on October 14, 1732 in Charlestown, Massachusetts. He was one of seven children of Peter Edes and Esther Hall. His great-grandfather was John Edes. He was born in England, March 31. 1651, son of Rev. John Edes, rector of Lanford. Essex County, England and a graduate of St. Johns College

St John's College, Cambridge

St John's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college's alumni include nine Nobel Prize winners, six Prime Ministers, three archbishops, at least two princes, and three Saints....

, Cambridge, England. He relocated to Charlestown circa 1674. John was a ship carpenter and lived in Charlestown; by wife Mary Tufts, the daughter of Peter Tufts

Peter Tufts

Peter Tufts was a prominent early citizen of Medford, Massachusetts, and ancestor of Charles Tufts who donated land for the Tufts University campus...

, a prominent early citizen of Medford, Massachusetts

Medford, Massachusetts

Medford is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, in the United States, on the Mystic River, five miles northwest of downtown Boston. In the 2010 U.S. Census, Medford's population was 56,173...

, he had the following children: John, Edward, Mary, Peter, Jonathan and Sarah Edes.

Benjamin received a modest education before moving to Boston, Massachusetts in 1754.

Marriage

He married about 1754, at Boston, Massachusetts, Martha Starr, who was christened on June 22, 1729 at the Brattle Street Church

Brattle Street Church

The Brattle Street Church was a Congregational and Unitarian church on Brattle Street in Boston, Massachusetts.- Brief history :...

 in Boston, Suffolk County, Massachusetts

Suffolk County, Massachusetts

Suffolk County has no land border with Plymouth County to its southeast, but the two counties share a water boundary in the middle of Massachusetts Bay.-National protected areas:*Boston African American National Historic Site...

. She was the daughter of Joseph Starr and Margaret Bulman. She was the great great granddaughter of Dr. Comfort Starr of Boston, a founder of Harvard College

Harvard College

Harvard College, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is one of two schools within Harvard University granting undergraduate degrees...

 and a surgeon who emigrated from Ashford, Kent

Ashford, Kent

Ashford is a town in the borough of Ashford in Kent, England. In 2005 it was voted the fourth best place to live in the United Kingdom. It lies on the Great Stour river, the M20 motorway, and the South Eastern Main Line and High Speed 1 railways. Its agricultural market is one of the most...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. He is buried at King's Chapel Burying Ground

King's Chapel Burying Ground

King's Chapel Burying Ground is a historic cemetery at King's Chapel on Tremont Street in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the oldest cemetery in the city and is a site on the Freedom Trail....

, on Tremont Street in Boston, Massachusetts and is the oldest cemetery in the city. Benjamin and Martha were the parents of ten children.

Career

Edes and Gill became the proprietors of The Boston Gazette and Country Journal on April 7, 1755. The Gazette was established on December 21, 1719 by William Brooker. Edes made the paper a leading voice favouring American independence. Edes was part of The Sons of Liberty, a secret society of American patriots in Revolutionary America.
Andrew Oliver

Andrew Oliver

Andrew Oliver was a merchant and public official in the Province of Massachusetts Bay. Born in Boston, he was the son of Daniel Oliver, a merchant, and Elizabeth Belcher Oliver, daughter of Governor Jonathan Belcher. Andrew had two brothers: Daniel Oliver and Peter Oliver...

 said, "The temper of the people may be surely learned from that infamous paper". Governor Bernard advised the arrest of both Edes and Gill as publishers of sedition. Edes fought British policy through written attacks on the Stamp Act

Stamp Act 1765

The Stamp Act 1765 was a direct tax imposed by the British Parliament specifically on the colonies of British America. The act required that many printed materials in the colonies be produced on stamped paper produced in London, carrying an embossed revenue stamp...

, the tea tax, the Townshend Acts

Townshend Acts

The Townshend Acts were a series of laws passed beginning in 1767 by the Parliament of Great Britain relating to the British colonies in North America. The acts are named after Charles Townshend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who proposed the program...

, and other oppressive measures. During the Siege of Boston

Siege of Boston

The Siege of Boston was the opening phase of the American Revolutionary War, in which New England militiamen—who later became part of the Continental Army—surrounded the town of Boston, Massachusetts, to prevent movement by the British Army garrisoned within...

, Edes escaped to Watertown, Massachusetts

Watertown, Massachusetts

The Town of Watertown is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 31,915 at the 2010 census.- History :Archeological evidence suggests that Watertown was inhabited for thousands of years before the arrival of settlers from England...

 where he continued to publish the Gazette until 1798, 43 years after he started.

The two editions of the poems of Martha Wadsworth Brewster

Martha Wadsworth Brewster

Martha Wadsworth Brewster was an 18th-century American poet and writer. She is one of only four colonial women who published volumes of their verse before the American Revolution and was the first American-born woman to publish under her own name.-Early life:She was born on April 1, 1710 in...

 were printed by Edes and Gill in 1757 and 1758. She was a poet and writer, and one of the earliest American female literary figures as well as the first American-born woman to publish under her own name. Susannah Carter

Susannah Carter

Susannah Carter was the author of an early cookery book, The Frugal Housewife, or, Complete woman cook. The title page of the first edition indicated that Carter came from Clerkenwell in London...

, the author of book The Frugal Housewife, or, Complete woman cook was first published in 1765 in Dublin, and was first reprinted in North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

 in 1772 by Edes and Gill illustrated with prints made by Paul Revere

Paul Revere

Paul Revere was an American silversmith and a patriot in the American Revolution. He is most famous for alerting Colonial militia of approaching British forces before the battles of Lexington and Concord, as dramatized in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem, Paul Revere's Ride...

.

Death

He died on December 11, 1803 in Boston, Massachusetts. He is buried at Copp's Hill Burying Ground

Copp's Hill Burying Ground

Copp's Hill Burying Ground is a historic cemetery in Boston. It was originally named "North Burying Ground".-History:The cemetery was founded on February 20, 1659, when the town bought land on Copp's Hill from John Baker and Daniel Turell to start the "North Burying Ground"...

 located on Copp's Hill

Copp's Hill

Copp's Hill is an elevation in the historic North End of Boston, Massachusetts. It is bordered by Hull Street, Charter Street and Snow Hill Street. The hill takes its name from William Copp, a shoemaker who once owned the land...

 in Boston.