Biography:

Hugh Gaine (1726 or 1727-1807) was a prominent American printer, bookseller, and newspaper publisher who maintained a flourishing shop in New York City from 1752 to 1804. From 1752 to 1783 he printed and published the New-York Mercury, later the New-York Gazette, and the Weekly Mercury. Gaine acquired additional wealth through his real estate holdings in Manhattan and upstate New York, and was a founding partner of the Onderdonk paper mill on Long Island, New York in 1773. Although he supported American interests throughout most of the year 1776, his decision to continue publishing his newspaper as a Loyalist during the British occupation of New York tainted his reputation among patriot contemporaries.