Matthew Carey

Matthew Carey. . , Matthew Carey was born in Ireland on January 28, 1760. By the age of 17, he had become a printer and a bookseller and brought out his first pamphlet. His second pamphlet criticized the Irish Penal Code. Threatened by the British authorities because of his work, he fled to France in 1779. In Paris, he met Benjamin Franklin, who immediately hired him. returning to Ireland a year later, Carey became instrumental in the work to bring about legislative freedom in Ireland. For his political activism he was imprisoned in 1784. Upon his release, he fled to America and arrived here in Philadelphia on November 15, 1784. General Lafayette lent him money for his new life in the United States., In Philadelphia he established himself as a printer and a bookseller. He created the "Pennsylvania Herald," the first newspaper to furnish accurate reports of legislative debates, along with the "Columbia Magazine" and "American Museum," also a magazine. He printed the first American version of the Douay (Roman Catholic) Bible as well as the King James Bible. He wrote extensively during his lifetime on numerous matters, from politics to philosophy to history to economics and to public works. He was an original member of the American Sunday School Society and founded the Hibernian Society in 1790. In 1808, he was president of the St. Joseph Society for the education of orphans of both sexes, which was sponsored by Holy Trinity Church in Philadelphia and was the oldest incorporated Catholic orphanage in the United States. In 1825 he retired, leaving his business to his son, Henry C. Carey. Henry joined with his brother-in-law, Issac Lea to establish Carey, Lea and Carey, the largest printing house in the United States at the time. Matthew Carey died in 1839.