Truman PRESS, St Albans, Late 19th Century

February, 2008

Linda Smith nee Press (press.gang1 @t ntlworld.com) of Hemel Hempstead wrote: For a number of years I have been researching the Press family. Originally from Gt. Yarmouth Norfolk. We have been unable to find out what happened to Truman Press the publisher of the Hertfordshire Illustrated Review. He is listed in the Almanack at St. Albans until 1897. His wife is listed in a street directory from 1898 at Twickenham. We also know Truman was Editor of the Hertfordshire Standard and was author of a number of books. In 1930 a book of Middlesex was published author Truman Press however the family is wondering if this could have been his son who was born in St. Albans in 1886.  We have also searched all the death indexes and have not found him. Would you have any ideas?

In responding to your question it is appropriate to start by briefly looking at the history of the Hertfordshire Standard newspaper as revealed by the entries in Kelly's Hertfordshire Directory, the British Library Newspaper Catalogue, and relevant publications by Truman Press which I either own or which are listed in various library catalogues. It should be noted that the St Albans Almanack was published by the publishers of the Hertfordshire Advertiser and while copies are available covering the period from 1881 to 1900 it seems to have gone out of its way to avoid mentioning its rival paper, the Hertfordshire Standard.

When newspaper stamp duty was removed in 1855 the Hertfordshire Advertiser quickly appeared, and was without local opposition until 1877, when the Hertfordshire Standard appeared to represent the Conservative views, as opposed to the Advertiser's Liberal stance.

In 1882 the Hertfordshire Standard was owned  and published by the Hertfordshire Standard Newspaper Company Ltd, Chequer Street, St Albans. It was published on Wednesday and Saturday by the printer William Cartmel, at the Hertfordshire Standard Steam Printing Works in Victoria Street. The company secretary was Albert Clerk and manager Arthur Williams. In the 1881 census Arthur was described as a 22 year old newspaper agent living at the Standard Office, Chequer Street. [There is no relevant entry in the St Albans Almanack for 1883 in Chequer Street, and W. Cartmel is simply described as a printer in Victoria Street.]

By 1886 the Hertfordshire Standard was owned, published and printed by William Cartmel from the Hertfordshire Standard Steam Printing Works in Victoria Street.

In 1886 Truman Press was editing the Hertfordshire Standard  and wrote a Pen Political Portrait column. This led to the book Hertfordshire Men of Mark which was published in 1887. It was written by Truman Press, editor of the Hertfordshire Standard, and printed by William Cartmel, Victoria Street. It was described as "Volume 1" but there is no evidence that any later volumes ever appeared. [It should be noted that Truman Press was born at Yarmouth, Norfolk, in 1866 and in the 1881 census was an apprentice journalist in Yarmouth. He married in Islington, Middlesex, in 1885. His son, Truman Victor Press was born in St Albans in 1886.]

In 1890 The Herts Standard & St Albans Citizen was owned and published by Truman Press (who was living at Gordon Villa, Worley Road, St Albans), from Victoria Street, and was still being printed by William Cartmel.   The 1891 census lists Truman Press as a 26 year old newspaper proprietor.

In December 1890 a paper called the Barnet Times was launched which was later known as the Finchley Telegraph & Barnet Times and finally Barnet Times & Finchley Telegraph. The paper apparently ceased to be published in 1906. In October  1891 the Watford Times was launched. After a year it became the Watford Times and Advertiser, and in 1893 became the Watford Times and County Advertiser - which closed in 1896.

In 1892 Hertfordshire County Homes was published at Victoria Street St Albans,  described as the Offices of the "Hertfordshire Standard," the "Watford Times,", The "Barnet and Southgate Times," and the "Finchley Telegraph". The illustrations were by a local artist, F. G. Kitton, and while the author of the text is not stated it was probably Truman Press. The work was printed by William Cartmel. (Neither the Watford Times or the Barnet & Southgate Times were listed in 1890.)

In 1893 the Hertfordshire Illustrated Review was published in monthly parts at 1 shilling a part. It was, "conducted and edited by Fred. G. Kitton, Truman Press, and Arthur Smith." from Victoria Street, St Albans, and at least initially printed by Paternoster Steam Press, 11 Ivy Lane, London E.C. [Information from cover of the April 1893 issue.] At the end of the year a bound "Volume The First" was published which left out the covers and adverts of the monthly issues and credited the printing to the Paternoster Steam Press and to Gibbs & Bamforth, St Albans. This raises the question as to whether the printed was changed (to William Cartmel's main rival in St Albans) during the year. I have discovered no issues after December 1893.

In 1894 Truman Press authored Gloucestershire lives social and political which was published in London.

In 1894 Kelly's lists "Press  Truman, publisher & sole proprietor of 'The Herts Standard & St Albans Citizen' and publisher & part proprietor of 'The Herts Illustrated Review,' Victoria Street. See Advertisement". The description of St Albans in the directory, (which was republished in 1895)  says the Review was published on the 14th of March, June, September and December) It also lists "Cartmel William, general printer & stationer; over 50 years experience, "Herts Standard"  steam printing works, Victoria street" and, under Barnet, "Barnet Times (Truman Press, proprietor, pub sat) 104 High Street, High Barnet". There is no Watford Times listed. However  in 1895 a rival paper, The St Albans Clock Tower , started publishing - although it only had a short run, ceasing publication in 1897.

Also in 1895 Truman Press authored Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire & Rutland: some of their leaders, social and political, published in London and "Printed Exclusively for subscribers." The following year he authored two more books: The County of Surrey: with illustrated biographies (published St Albans, 140 copies for private subscription) and The County of Kent and many of its family records (published St Albans,  published only for subscribers).

In 1896 a letter appeared in The St Albans Clock Tower which comments on the way material for Truman & Manning Press's books was obtained. See Observations on Truman Press's Publications.

In 1897 Truman Press is listed for the last time as living at Gordon Villa, Worley Road, St Albans, in the St Albans Almanack and from 1898 his wife is listed as living in Twickenham (as a married woman rather than a widow  in the 1901 census). The St Albans Almanack lists Cartmel W. at 6 Victoria Street and the Herts Standard, Press T. at 8 Victoria Street in both 1897 and 1898 but only Cartmel in the next available issue for 1900. [8 Victoria Street was the building before the Victorian public library (now a public house) in Victoria Street.]

In 1899 Kelly's lists both the The Herts Standard & St Albans Citizen and Barnet Times as being published by Truman Press & Co while William Cartmel has dropped the "Herts Standard" from the description of his printing works in Victoria Street.

In 1899 another rival, the St Albans Gazette & County Advertiser started publishing. This only survived until 1907.

While the Almanack fails to mention the Standard in 1900, the 1900 Kelly's Street Directory for St Albans clearly records the Herts Standard & St Albans Citizen, owned and published by the Herts Standard Printing Co Lim. on Friday, in Victoria Street.

In 1901 searches of the census for Truman Press (including likely misspellings and possibly relevant  "T.P." entries in prisons, etc.) prove negative.

In 1902 the The Herts Standard & St Albans Citizen and the Barnet Times were both being published by The Herts Standard Printing Co. Limited. Neither are listed in the county directory for 1908 and the Standard is known to have ceased publishing in 1907. The 1907 Kelly's street Directory for St Albans lists five papers, the Barnet Times, the Finchley Telegraph, the Harpenden Mail, the Herts Standard and the Southgate Times being published by The Herts Standard Printing Co. Limited in Victoria Street. none are mentioned in its 1909 edition.

The above events suggests that the Hertfordshire Standard had problems when competing with the successful Hertfordshire Advertiser (established 1855), run by the Gibbs family which had newspaper publishing experience dating back to the Aylesbury News, first published in 1836. Within five years of first publication the company was being managed by a 22 year old Arthur Williams. Not long afterwards the printer appears to have taken it over and less than ten years after its creation its editor was the 20 year old Truman Press.

At some stage Truman also became the publisher and proprietor and started to publish a number of sycophantic books which were probably sold on the basis "I am publishing this book on ... and it would be a great shame if you were not included. There will only be a limited number published and these will be for subscribers only, so if you want a copy you can have five copies for only ... in advance." The preface to Hertfordshire Men of Mark apologises for the absence of a chapter on the Marquis of Salisbury - saying he deserved a whole book on his own - and one wonders if the young Truman Press was shown the door when he tried to sell the idea of the book to the Marquis.

In addition Truman started to launch other local newspapers, perhaps to use spare capacity at William Cartmel's stream printing works. The Watford Times appears to have never properly got off the ground (there were four competing Watford papers in the 1895 Kelly's) but the Barnet Times ran for some years. In 1893 the monthly Hertfordshire Illustrated Review was published but abandoned after one year, and it may be that Gibbs and Bamforth were called in to finish the first years publication at a lower cost than the London publishers to ensure that the people who had taken out a year's subscription in advance for a bound copy were not left short. If things were tight the appearance of the St Albans Clock Tower in 1895 could have been significant. What appears to have happened is that in 1896 or 1897 Truman Press was no longer in St Albans and by 1898 his wife had set up home without him in Twickenham.

In St Albans a company, Truman Press & Co was set up to run the Hertfordshire Standard and the Barnet Times - which it seems that William Cartmel may have stopped printing the papers - or was at least no longer proud enough of the fact to continue to name the works after the Standard. The company was either taken over or renamed the Herts Standard Printing Co. Ltd. but the papers had closed by 1907.

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So what happened to Truman Press? Given the circumstances described above his income from the Hertfordshire Standard could well have been under significant pressure in 1895/6. The situation could have been made much worse if he was planning to publish further books such as the books on Surrey and Kent, and had collected advanced subscriptions which had been used as income - leaving no money for the actual publication of the books.

It is dangerous to come up with any firm theory about what happened without consulting the Hertfordshire Standard at the time, if only to get a date for the time he stopped being editor, and the time the ownership of the paper passed to the Truman Press Co. (Information on this company may be held in the National Archives - under BT 31.) However it is useful to look at the options, so that one can consider where it would be appropriate to look for evidence.

1. Truman Press died in office. If this happened it would be reported at length in the Hertfordshire Standard. The apparent absence of a death registration and the fact that his wife described herself as married in 1901 counts against this theory.
2. Truman Press became bankrupt or was convicted for fraud. If this happened it would be difficult for the Hertfordshire Standard not to publish something - especially as the scandal would have been considered extremely newsworthy by its main competitor, the Hertfordshire Advertiser. There would also be bankruptcy and/or criminal records. [People on prison, hospitals and other institutions sometime recorded people by their initials in census returns. A check of the 1901 census for "T.P." born in Norfolk circa 1866 proved negative.]
3. The family (possibly including his wife's family) decided Truman was a liability and quietly moved him out of the way.  There is a possible example of this happening in the Gibbs family which published the Herts Advertiser - with George Washington Gibbs vanishing from the printing shop in St Albans and turning up as a customs officer in Liverpool, together with his family. As the evidence suggests that Truman Press separated from his family this seems less likely.
4. Truman Press simply did a runner. Perhaps the most likely possibility. At about the same date one of my relatives "disappeared" on a family day trip to Southend and the message went out that he was "assumed  drowned" in the sea. Twenty years later he resumed contact with his family from Australia! This suggests it could be worth checking Canadian and Australian censuses around 1900 to see if he was there under his own name. If this happened both the publisher and probably the local Conservative party [do committee minutes still exist from this period?] would not have wanted the paper to fold, and would want to minimise the effect of the loss of their editor. If the Truman Press Co already existed the shareholders would also have an interest. (If the paper was actually owned by the Truman Press Co, and the paper was edited by Truman Press, the directory may well not have made the distinction.)
5. His wife walked out on him, and Truman moved into lodgings and may have continued editing the Hertfordshire Standard beyond 1897. (This possibility should not be overlooked.)

To progress this further you will need to look at copies of the Hertfordshire Standard, and there are copies of a fair number of issues at HALS. The first issue will undoubtedly say why it has been published and should identify its initial editor, owners and backers - and this may provide useful background to the politics of what happened. (If you can name the backers I may be able to tell you more about them). Issues around 1886 could identify who was editing the paper before Truman Press, and when he first acted as editor. Who owned the paper is very relevant as perhaps Truman became editor because her brought the paper - and maybe Truman Press Ltd was created at this stage. Between 1892 and 1896 there may be adverts for publications relating to both books he wrote and others he may have planned to write but which never appeared in print. Issues around 1896 should help to date when he last edited the paper and may give a clue as to what happened. If he suddenly left a look at the Herts Advertiser for the period (microfilm in the St Albans library) may be very revealing if he left under a cloud! The transfer from Truman Press Ltd to the Herts Standard Printing Co Ltd could perhaps also be tracked down by looking at selected issues. The final closure might also be of interest in case Truman Press was still involved (perhaps as a director) from a distance.

Once some more precise information has been obtained from the paper it may be appropriate to look at other records - company registration records, bankruptcy and/or court records - but it is too early to plan this out.

The 1911 census, when it goes online next year may show whether Truman Press was then living in England, and if so what his occupation was.

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There is an additional problem in that in the 1930s Truman Press wrote at least three additional books - which sound as if they were produced in a similar way to the earlier books. These were The Book of Middlesex (published Twickenham, 1930, in a limited edition of 200 copies), Somerset County Houses and Villages (published Twickenham 1831 and printed by Walker for the author in an edition of 100 copies) and Truman's Book of Devon (published in Exeter in 1933 apparently as the Spring number of Truman's Country Quarterly - a publication I have been unable to trace.) It should be noted that the first two of these were published at Twickenham (where Truman's wife lived) - and while the author's name is given as Truman Press it is possible the author was his son Truman Victor Press.

One possible clue to who wrote the later books could be signatures. The one shown here comes from the cover of Hertfordshire Men of Mark may be art work rather than a real signature - but genuine signatures will be on the original master copy of the marriage certificates - which will be the copy in the church register. If one can then find an author signed copy of one of the 1930's books the identity of the author should be clear, and we will know if Truman Press senior has returned.

As it happens a signed copy of The Book of Middlesex is currently on sale online [link] and if you are not interested in buying it the bookseller might supply you with a copy of the signature if you explain why you want it (i.e. whether it is by father or son) and promise to let him have information on which was the author

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In responding to the above Linda provided further background information on the Press family, including the following points relevant to the situation in Hertfordshire

I decided to check the publications on COPAC to see if any were published in St Albans (none were) but I have added notes as appropriate. In fact very few library copies were located - suggesting that all these were very limited circulation publications - as were those by Truman Press.

Frederick Edmund Press

Also living in St. Albans was another of Truman's brothers Frederick Edmund Press. He married Lillie Ada Evans and their son Reginald Gurney Press was born in 1897 in St. Albans. Fred & Lillie's daughter, Rose was born in 1900 in Carshalton Surrey where they were running a tobacconist shop.  It would seem all 3 brothers could have left St. Albans at the same time. 

Their mother died in 1898. Could extra funds from her estate encouraged the move?

William Henry Press

I had another look at the 1894 Kelly's directory for Hertfordshire. Under the Newspaper section for Watford it lists the following papers:

• Watford Leader, 146 Queen's Road & 254 High Street; Henry Trevor Gardiner, proprietor & publisher; published tuesday. See Advertisement
• Watford Observer, 15 Queen's road, Thomas John Peacock, proprietor & publisher; published sat.
• Watford Post, 42 High Street. West Herts Post Newspaper Co. proprietors & publishers; Thomas Charles Warren, manager; published tuesday morning.
• West Herts Post, 42 High Street. West Herts Post Newspaper Co. proprietors & publishers; Thomas Charles Warren, manager; published fridays.

However, in the general traders heading for Watford I found the following entry, which had been omitted from the above list:

• Watford Times & County Advertiser (Truman Press, proprietor & publisher; published thursday), 101 High Street.

In the Private Residents section for Watford I also found:

• Press William Henry, Twyford Villa, Cassio Road.

It therefore seems very likely that William Press was acting as editor of the Watford Times. Watford Central Library has a large collection of directories, including Watford street directories for the period, which may well give more information.

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It will be interesting to find out when and why Truman Press, and other members of the Press family, left Hertfordshire, and to fill in details of the histories of the other short-lived newspapers in the "Press" empire.

June 2008

Additional information relating to 1896 added above