Journalist; born in
London,
England, about 1724; was engaged in bookselling in
London, and failing, came to
America in 1760, and established a book-store in
Philadelphia the same year.
In 1761 he opened one near the foot of Wall Street, New York, where his New York
Gazeteer, a weekly newspaper, was established in April, 1773.
It was soon devoted to the royal cause, and his trenchant paragraphs against the “rebels” made him detested by the
Whigs.
To sarcasm he added good-natured ridicule.
Isaac Sears, a leader of the Sons of Liberty, was so irritated by him that.
with a company of light-horsemen from
Connecticut, he destroyed
Rivington's printing establishment in November, 1775, after which the latter went to
England.
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Walnut Street front of the State-House.
(from an old print of the period.) |
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Appointed king's printer in New York, he returned late in 1776 with new printing materials, and in 1777 resumed the publication of his paper under the title of
Rivington's New York loyal gazette.
Late in the year he changed it to
Royal gazette.
Shrewd and unscrupulous, after the defeat of Cornwallis (1781), he perceived the hopelessness of the royal cause and endeavored to make his peace with the
Whigs by secretly sending information to
Washington concerning public affairs in the city.
This treason was practised until the evacuation of the city by the
British.
When the loyalists fled and the
American army entered the city (1783),
Rivington remained unharmed, to the astonishment of those not in the secret.
He changed the title of his paper to
Rivington's New York gazette and universal Advertiser.
But his business declined, as he had lost the confidence of both Whigs and Tories, and he lived in comparative poverty until his death in July, 1802.
