withdrawn from the imprint and that of " William Bradford in New York" was substituted. When the elder Bradford started The New York Gazette November 8, 1725, his name, as the seller of The American Weekly Mercury in New York, was removed. On December 13, 1739, The Mercury was "printed by Andrew and William Bradford," a partnership, however, which lasted only about eleven months, when The Mercury was again printed by Andrew Bradford. After his death on November 23, 1742, the next issue, December 2, was put in mourning with the in- verted column rules. His widow, Cornelia Bradford, suspended the paper for one week on account of the death of her husband and then continued the black borders for the next six weeks. Later, with Isaiah Warner as a partner, she published The Mer- cury until October 18, 1744, when she again became the sole proprietor. The paper bore her name in the imprint so far as can be learned until its suspension early in 1747.
Andrew Bradford, like other colonial editors, had his troubles with the civic authorities, for on January 2, 1721, he printed an item which read, "our General Assembly are now sitting and we have great expectation from them at this juncture that they will find some effectual remedy to revive the dying credit of this Province and restore us to our former happy circumstances." The Provincial Council saw a criticism of its actions in this paragraph and summoned its publisher on February 21 to ex- plain why such an item was inserted in his paper. In its defense Bradford said the notice was written and inserted by a German printer without authority and that he regretted exceedingly its publication. With the usual reprimand and with a warning never to publish anything in the future about the affairs of any of the colonies, he was discharged.
This punishment was mild compared with the one that he re- ceived for printing some communications from Benjamin Frank- lin signed "Busy Body." These communications by Franklin, while simply insisting that th9se in authority should be inspired with a public spirit and with a love of their country, so offended the Governor and his Council that they arrested Bradford, sent him to jail, and later bound him over to the court. In colonial days editors did not seem to mind being locked up in jail: edit-
