Richard Pue (died 1722) was an Irish

newspaper publisher Publishing is the activities of making information, literature, music, software, and other content, physical or digital, available to the public for sale or free of charge. Traditionally, the term publishing refers to the creation and distribu ...

bookseller Bookselling is the commercial trading of books, which is the retail and distribution end of the publishing process. People who engage in bookselling are called booksellers, bookdealers, book people, bookmen, or bookwomen. History The foundi ...

, and proprietor of

Dick's Coffee House Dick's Coffee House was a significant Irish coffeehouse in the 17th and 18th century. Dick's was one of Dublin's most famous and long-lasting coffeehouses, established by Richard Pue in the late 17th century, at some point before July 1698. Pue ...

Life

The date and place of Richard Pue's birth is unknown. He established Dick's Coffee House, Skinner's Row, Dublin sometime before July 1698. Pue became a freeman of

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

in 1701 as a member of the Dyers' Guild. On 25 December 1703 he began publishing ''Impartial Occurrences'' with Edward Lloyd. This paper was delivered by post across the country, with Pue acting as editor until 1706. The paper ceased in February 1706, reappearing in February 1712 as ''Pue's Occurrences''. In late December 1705, Lloyd and Pue jointly published a satirical attack on Protestant dissent by Jonathan Swift called ''

A tale of a tub ''A Tale of a Tub'' was the first major work written by Jonathan Swift, composed between 1694 and 1697 and published in 1704. The ''Tale'' is a prose parody divided into sections of "digression" and a "tale" of three brothers, each representin ...

''. They also printed the ''Votes of the Irish house of commons'' (nos 1-65) between July and October 1707 and May and June 1709. Owing to Pue's political leanings, Dick's was a centre for residual Protestant Jacobite interest in Dublin, with

Robert Rochfort Robert Rochfort (9 December 1652 – 10 October 1727) was a leading Irish lawyer, politician and judge of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. He held office as Attorney General for Ireland, Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer, ...

and his allies frequenting the

coffeehouse A coffeehouse, coffee shop, or café (), is an establishment that serves various types of coffee, espresso, latte, americano and cappuccino, among other hot beverages. Many coffeehouses in West Asia offer ''shisha'' (actually called ''nargi ...

. Pue increasingly became a

Tory A Tory () is an individual who supports a political philosophy known as Toryism, based on a British version of traditionalist conservatism which upholds the established social order as it has evolved through the history of Great Britain. The To ...

, and became increasingly intolerant of Jacobite opinion, informing Dublin Castle of "papist murmuring" in 1707 and Jacobite activities in Dick's. From 1710, he published or republished Tory pamphlets on topics such as the trial of

Henry Sacheverell Henry Sacheverell (; 8 February 1674 – 5 June 1724) was an English high church Anglican clergyman who achieved nationwide fame in 1709 after preaching an incendiary 5 November sermon. He was subsequently impeached by the House of Commons and ...

in London. In 1714 after the accession of the Hanoverian monarchy, Pue suffered for his earlier Tory support, being imprisoned briefly by the Irish house of commons in February 1715. This was part of an overall purge of Dublin's Tory press, with Pue being taken in custody again in November 1717. He left Ireland for a time, returning in late December, publishing ''Pue's Occurrences'' again on 4 January 1718. He held a number of auctions from Dick's from the 1720s, as well as selling "eye water" and other health elixirs. Pue was a successful printer who was not sworn into the Printers’ Guild. Pue died in early 1722, and was buried at the church of Church of St. Nicholas Within, Dublin on 10 May 1722. His wife

Elizabeth Elizabeth or Elisabeth may refer to: People * Elizabeth (given name), a female given name (including people with that name) * Empress Elisabeth (disambiguation), lists various empresses named ''Elisabeth'' or ''Elizabeth'' * Princess Elizabeth ...

took over his businesses after his death, and in turn was succeeded by their son

Richard Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic language">Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' and ''*hardu-'' 'strong, brave, hardy', and it therefore means 'st ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pue, Richard Businesspeople in coffee 1722 deaths 18th-century newspaper publishers (people) Irish publishers (people) Date of birth unknown 18th-century Irish businesspeople