Zenger,John Peter b. November 5, 1697; Passau, Upper Palatinate d.July 28, 1746; New York City
German American printer and journalist. The Zenger family, which was of noble descent, immigrated to the British North American colonies in 1710. The British government financed their trip.
Zenger’s father died during the transatlantic journey. Though his mother survived the voyage to the New World, Governor Robert Hamilton assumed financial responsibility for Zenger and his brother.Zenger apprenticed under William Bradford, New York colony’s royal printer, from 1711 to 1719. He was indentured to Bradford for much of this time. After marrying Mary White of Philadelphia in 1719, Zenger and his bride moved to Chestertown, Maryland, where he would become that colony’s first printer. When Mary White died, Zenger returned to New York and married Anna Catherine Maulin in 1723. He worked again with Bradford, but opened his own printing establishment in 1726. Zenger published textbooks, religious tracts, and open letters. One of the textbooks he published, Peter Venema’s Arithmetic (1730), was the first mathematics textbook printed in the British North American colonies.
On November 5, 1733, Zenger published the first edition of the New York Weekly Journal after allegedly having been persuaded to do so by James Alexander, a prominent, politically active colonist. The primary aim of the Journal was to counter the state-controlled newspaper, the New York Gazette, which supported Governor William Cosby. Alexander, who is believed
to have funded the paper, and his Popular Party used the Journal to attack Cosby. Countering this criticism, Cosby called for copies of the Journal to be burned in October 1734. Zenger, as the publisher of the offending material, was charged with libel, and a bench warrant for his arrest was issued a month later. Zenger spent, subsequently, nine months in prison.
The Scottish American lawyer Andrew Hamilton defended Zenger during the trial, which took place in the summer of 1735.
Hamilton argued that the antiadministration commentary printed in the Journal was true and therefore not libelous. Despite the contrary opinion of the judge, a man handpicked by Cosby, the jury accepted Hamilton’s reasoning and acquitted Zenger of any guilt. This verdict is considered the first landmark decision in the history of American press freedom.Following the Cosby affair, Zenger was appointed public printer for the colony of New York in 1737 and that of New Jersey in 1738. Despite these appointments, Zenger died in relative poverty. After the death of her husband, Anna Zenger took over the publication of the New York Weekly Journal until 1748, when John Zenger, John Peter’s son from his first marriage, took over. However, the paper was discontinued in 1751.
In honor of Zenger’s contributions to freedom of the press, the University of Arizona has awarded annually the John Peter and Anna Catherine Zenger Award for outstanding contributions that support press freedom and the people’s right to know since 1954.
Christopher Brooks
See also Printing and Publishing
References and Further Reading
Clark, Charles E. “John Peter Zenger.” In American National Biography. Vol. 24. New York: Oxford University, 1999, pp. 232-233.
“John Peter and Anna Catherine Zenger Award.” At http://journalism.arizona.edu/dept/zenger/ (cited March 20, 2004).
Putnam, William Lowell. John Peter Zenger and the Fundamental Freedom. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 1997.