Thomas Kinnersley

Thomas Kinnersley Sr is the first Kinnersley for which we can trace a definite connection to our own family. Inscriptions in a small Bible in my possession indicate that it was given in 1819 from Thomas Kinnersley Sr to his son Thomas, who then passed it on in 1824 to his own son, Thomas Bonham Kinnersley.

This Thomas Kinnersley, the primary focus of our discussion, was a publisher, printer and bookseller, born in Surrey and lived in London and later New York City.

The Printing Business

Printing was just then developing into a major industry. Quoting the book Angel of Providence listed below,

Stereotype printing was introduced into this country by Mr Ged of Edinburgh, was adopted by the University of Edinburgh, and has been extended with much success by Messrs. Watts, Wilson, Brightly, and Cock and McGowan.

Most of the illustrations in the books Thomas published were engraved by these persons.

Stereotype printing was developed by Lord Stanhope from an invention by William Ged, a goldsmith. Up until this time, printing had been done directly from the bound movable type. In the new process, the typeset of an entire page was used to create a plaster mold from which a metal copy was formed, and the printing was done off the copy. The obvious advantage was that the type itself was immediately available to create new molds. Moreover, if later printings were required they could be done without resetting the type. Stereotyping made it possible for the first time to produce printed publications that could be afforded by a wide audience.

Illustrations were produced by wood engraving, or xylography, which was found to be more suitable for long press runs than engraving on steel or copper plates. The wood primarily used for this purpose was boxwood, which is the densest wood that grows in England. Thomas Bewick, a famous engraver of birds and animals, claimed that one of his blocks was still intact after having been used 900,000 times.