CHAPTER XII

THE ZENGER TRIAL

AMONG the children of the Palatines imported by
Governor Hunter in 1710 was a lad of thirteen by
the name of John Peter Zenger. Instead of pro-
ceeding to the Palatine colony, his widowed mother
and her little family remained in New York. There
Peter was bound apprentice to William Bradford,
.then a well-known printer, for a term of eight
years, at the end of which time he set up an office
of his own. He evidently found himself hard
pressed for the means of living, since one finds him
in 1732 applying to the consistory of the Dutch
Church of New York and proposing that, since he
had so long played the organ without recompense,
he might take up a voluntary subscription from
the congregation and that the members of the
consistory should head the paper as an example
to others. The consistory agreed to allow him
provisionally the sum -of six pounds, New York

13 193