JONES, William (printer)

Morning Prayer [and] Evening Prayer.

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Jones, n.d., but circa Sydney, 1833. Pair of broadsides, each 450 x 390 mm.; in fine original condition, mounted and framed. Beautiful examples of fine early printing in Sydney, unrecorded in this form. Possibly prepared for the Church Mission Society, these early broadsides were printed in Sydney at a time when virtually all religious tracts were printed in London.

These two prayers for children - to be said in the morning and evening - are exceptionally scarce early examples of local Sydney printing.. The printer was "Jones" of Bridge Street, who is known to have been active in the 1830s. Little is known about this business apart from occasional passing mentions in the Sydney Gazette (see, for example, the issues for 10 October 1835, 1 July 1837 and 6 March 1838).

What is known is that the Bridge Street printer had prepared some comparable religious broadsides, apparently for use in Church Mission Society schools. The one (only?) example recorded in an Australian collection is a pair of Maori lesson sheets, the first "Christ raiseth Lazarus to life" or "Ka wa-ka-a-ra-hia a Ra-ha-ru-hi e Te Ka-rai-ti"; and the second "Children brought to Christ" or "Ka mau-ria nga ta-ma-ri-ki ki Te Ka-rai-ti" (see Williams, A Bibliography of Printed Maori to 1900, no. 13, where a likely date of publication of 1833 has been suggested for these particular lesson sheets).

Given that the present sheets are of a similar size to the Maori examples, it is likely that these were prepared around the same time, possibly also for the Church Mission Society. This hypothesis is supported by Jones' printing of an apparently similar single-sheet 'morning and evening prayer for children, in English' among several other lesson sheets prepared in 1833 (Williams, Bibliography, no. 12).

Certainly their sentiments are touching and as relevant for their purpose today as they were in the early nineteenth century: 'Keep us from wicked thoughts and bad tempers; make us try to learn all that we are taught' (from Morning Prayer); and from Evening Prayer: 'Make us try to remember all that we have learned to-day'. Of the handful of locally printed educational works which predate these broadsides, very few have survived; indeed many are known only through advertisements in newspapers of the day. These ephemeral broadsides are rare survivors.
Not in Ferguson; not in Ingleton; not in Williams, 'Bibliography of Printed Maori to 1900', but see 12 and 13.

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