City Readers Digital Historic Collections at the New York Society Library

Francis Childs was born on October 23, 1763 in Philadelphia (Nat'l Archives). A protege of John Jay, he learned his trade from Library member William Dunlap, and, with assistance from Benjamin Franklin, opened a printing shop in New York at age twenty-one (Nat'l Archives; Frasca 178-180). He went into business with Library member John Swaine on July 2, 1789 (Nat'l Archives). Among his publications were the New York Daily Advertiser, the third daily paper in America, founded in 1785; the American Price-Current, printed in 1786; and the National Gazette, printed from 1791 to 1793 (Burrows and Wallace 289; Durfee 40). As printers to the Congress of the United States, Childs and Swaine published the House Journal for the first and second sessions of the First Congress (Gov't Printing Office). Appointed New York State printer in 1790, he published a broadside of the first state census (Nat'l Archives). Having taken notes at the state ratification convention in Poughkeepsie for the Federal Constitution, he published the most complete account of the convention debates (Schechter 125). He subsequently lived and worked in Philadelphia and Colchester, Vermont, representing the latter in the General Assembly in 1808 (Durfee 40-41). Childs was a trustee of the New York Society Library in 1792.

He married Sarah Blanchard on July 28, 1787.

He died in Burlington, Vermont, on October 12, 1830 (Durfee 40-41).