Peter Edes

Peter Edes (December 17, 1756 – March 30, 1840) was a colonial American patriot and printer and an advocate of American independence before and during the American Revolution, during which he was arrested for his show of support for the patriots. After the war, he moved his shop to Boston, then to Rhode Island, and again to the District of Maine, where he became the first printer to establish a printing house. Early life and family Edes was born in Boston, Massachusetts. He received his basic education at the Boston Latin School. Peter Edes' great-grandfather, John Edes, emigrated from Lawford, England, and met and married Mary (Tufts) Edes on October 15, 1674. They had a son, also named John, who married Grace Lawrence, and became the parents of Peter Edes, the elder, and resided in Charlestown, Massachusetts, who died in 1787. Their second son, Benjamin, was Peter's father. All persons of the name Edeas or Eades living in America in the 18th century were descendants of John and Mary Edes. Their son, Peter, was a subscriber to Thomas Prince's 1736 work, the New England Annals. As an English family, they were entitled to use the family coat of arms, but the American family resented the tyranny of England and broke off all association with the English and the mother country. Printing career