Gilbert & Dean was a banking and publishing firm in Boston

Boston

Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...

, Massachusetts

Massachusetts

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...

, run by Samuel Gilbert and Thomas Dean in the early 19th-century. As publishers, they produced works by Joseph Croswell, David Humphreys

David Humphreys (soldier)

David Humphreys was a American Revolutionary War colonel and aide de camp to George Washington, American minister to Portugal and then to Spain, entrepreneur who brought Merino sheep to America and member of the Connecticut state legislature...

, Susanna Rowson

Susanna Rowson

Susanna Rowson, née Haswell was a British-American novelist, poet, playwright, religious writer, stage actress and educator....

, John Sylvester John Gardiner

John Sylvester John Gardiner

John Sylvester John Gardiner , aka John S. J. Gardiner, was Rector of Trinity Church, Boston, Massachusetts, president of Boston's Anthology Club, and active in the Boston Athenaeum....

, Benjamin Dearborn

Benjamin Dearborn

Benjamin Dearborn was a printer and mechanical inventor in Portsmouth, New Hampshire and Boston, Massachusetts in the late 18th and early 19th centuries...

 and others, as well as the Boston Weekly Magazine

Boston Weekly Magazine

The Boston Weekly Magazine of Boston, Massachusetts, was established by Gilbert & Dean in 1802, "devoted to morality, literature, biography, history, the fine arts, agriculture, &c." Joshua Belcher, Samuel T. Armstrong, Oliver C. Greenleaf, and Susanna Rowson were also affiliated with its production...

. They kept an office on State Street

State Street (Boston)

State Street is a major street in the financial district in Boston, Massachusetts and is one of the oldest streets in the city. The street is the site of some historic landmarks. The Faneuil Hall Marketplace can also be found nearby...

.

History

Samuel Gilbert (1777-ca.1867) and Thomas Dean (1779–1826) established their partnership in 1802. Both Dean and Gilbert had trained with Boston newspaperman Benjamin Russell

Benjamin Russell (journalist)

Benjamin Russell was an American journalist, born in Boston.-Early life:Benjamin Russell was born on 13 September 1761, son of John Russell, a stonemason...

, of the Columbian Centinel

Columbian Centinel

The Columbian Centinel was a Boston, Massachusetts, newspaper established by Benjamin Russell. It continued its predecessor, the Massachusetts Centinel and the Republican Journal, which Russell and partner William Warden had first issued on March 24, 1784...

.
In 1802 they began publishing the Boston Weekly Magazine. Susanna Rowson served as editor, and also contributed serialised fiction and other pieces. "As an early attempt to describe the manners, reprehend the follies, cultivate the taste and soften the customs of the people, the Boston Weekly Magazine is not discreditable to American literature." The magazine ceased in 1805. Besides the weekly, the firm published numerous other titles. They kept an office at "no. 56, State-street, Boston, where printing in all its branches, is executed with neatness, accuracy and dispatch;" by 1804 they'd moved to "no.78, State-Street, corner of Wilson's Lane."

Meanwhile, in addition to printing, the firm's business also encompassed banking. Gilbert & Dean described themselves as "lottery, stock and exchange brokers." Among other activities, they notified the public of counterfeit currency, describing details by which people might recognize forgeries. One notorious counterfeiter, Stephen Burroughs, mocked Gilbert & Dean's anti-counterfeit efforts:

"Gentleman, Having often seen your 'only sure guide to bank bills,' and admiring your kind labors for the public weal, in detecting the works of those 'ingenious rogues,' I have enclosed and forwarded to your Exchange Office, a bill on the Shipton Bank. ... I wish, Gentlemen, you would ... strictly examine all bills on the aforesaid bank, by the enclosed genuine bill; for such is the depravity of man, and such the success of counterfeiting, that I lately observed in one of your newspapers, that patent Buck Wheat Pancake

Pancake

A pancake is a thin, flat, round cake prepared from a batter, and cooked on a hot griddle or frying pan. Most pancakes are quick breads; some use a yeast-raised or fermented batter. Most pancakes are cooked one side on a griddle and flipped partway through to cook the other side...

s had been so exactly counterfeited in New-Jersey, that none except the Officers of the Pancake Exchange could distinguish them from the originals!!! -- I solicit your friendship gentlemen, in this important business..."

Gilbert & Dean invested in the gigantic, 7-story, arguably grandiose Exchange Coffee House

Exchange Coffee House, Boston

The Exchange Coffee House was a hotel, coffeehouse, and place of business in Boston, Massachusetts in the early 19th-century. Designed by architect Asher Benjamin, it was located at Congress Square, on Congress Street, and in its day it was the largest building in Boston, and one of the tallest...

, built in Boston in 1809. When the Exchange burnt to the ground in 1818, Gilbert & Dean, as major investors, lost thousands of dollars. However the firm regained its momentum, a tribute perhaps to the business skills of Dean and Gilbert. Around 1823 the firm kept its office in the Old State House

Old State House (Boston)

The Old State House is a historic government building located at the intersection of Washington and State Streets in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. Built in 1713, it is the oldest surviving public building in Boston, and the seat of the state's legislature until 1798. It is now a history museum...

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The partnership ended "by mutual consent" in 1823. Gilbert formed a new financial business with his sons Benjamin R. Gilbert and Samuel Gilbert, Jr. (1801–1897) Dean also continued in the financial industry.

Published by Gilbert & Dean

• Boston Weekly Magazine. v.1 (1802–1803); v.2 (1803–1804); v.3 (1804–1805).
• Joseph Croswell. A new world planted, or, The adventures of the forefathers of New-England who landed in Plymouth, Dec. 22, 1620: an historical drama in five acts. 1802.

• William Sullivan. An oration, pronounced July 4, 1803: at the request of the inhabitants of the town of Boston, in commemoration of the anniversary of American independence.
• Constitution of the Boston Light Infantry: established, May, 1798, revised and ratified, January, 1803. 1803.
• Rules and regulations of the Attentive Fire Society: to which is annexed, members names, places of abode, and business. 1803.
• Peres Fobes. A sermon, delivered January 26, 1803, at the ordination of the Rev. George Barstow: over the Second Church and Society in Pembroke. 1803.
• James Kendall. A sermon, delivered at Plymouth, September 4, 1803. Occasioned by the death of the Rev. David Tappan ... who died August 23—aged fifty-one. 1803.
• Jerusalem Lodge. Jachin and Boaz; or, An authentic key to the door of free-masonry, both ancient and modern. 1803.
• Report of the committee of the town convention: The delegates from the several wards of the town of Boston, for the purpose of "considering what alterations in the county and town government may be necessary, and to devise a plan therefor," report, the following plan... 1804.
• Susanna Rowson. Miscellaneous poems. 1804.
• Order of performance, of the yearly exhibition of the Franklin Musical Society: at the Rev. Dr. West's meeting-house [i.e., Hollis Street Church, Boston], Monday evening, March 26, 1804. 1804.
• David Humphreys. A valedictory discourse, delivered before the Cincinnati of Connecticut, in Hartford, July 4, 1804, at the dissolution of the society. 1804.
• John Sylvester J. Gardiner. A sermon preached at Trinity Church
  Trinity Church, Boston (Summer Street)
  Trinity Church was an Episcopal church in Boston, Massachusetts, located on Summer Street. It housed Boston's third Anglican congregation...
  
  , December 9, 1804, on the death of the Right Reverend Samuel Parker
  Samuel Parker (Episcopal bishop)
  Samuel Parker was the second bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts.-Education and Ordination:...
  
  , D.D. Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the state of Massachusetts. 1804.
• Benjamin Dearborn. Description of the manner of using Dearborn's Facility for casting interest. 1805.
• The constitution of the Associated Housewright Society of the Town of Boston: instituted October, 1804. 1805.
• Calcutta goods at auction, on Friday, 4 October, inst. at 10 o'clock, at the wharf of Wm. Gray, jun. Esq. Charlestown: the cargo of the ship Ulysses, from Calcutta, consisting of 301 bales piece goods. 1805.
• Addresses delivered before the Boston Federal Band, on Saturday afternoon, July 6, 1805.
• Trufant's Family Almanac and Daily Register. 1806.
• Henry Alline. The Life and Journal of the Rev. Mr. Henry Alline. 1806.

Works about Gilbert & Dean

• Frank Luther Mott. "Boston Weekly Magazine." A History of American Magazines, Volume I, 1741-1850. Harvard U.P., 1930; p. 247+