Printer, James, 1640 - 1709

James Printer, alias Wawaus / Jumet, was the son of Naoas, a member of a prominent Nipmuc family and Christian convert from Hassanamesit.  Brought to live in an English household when he was five years old, Printer later attended the Indian Charity School at Harvard College.  He became a printer's apprentice for Samuel Green at the College's Press in 1659.  There, Printer helped John Eliot translate the Bible into the Massachusett language and set the type on the first American Bible to be published in the colonies and on other religious tracts. 

During King Philip's War, Printer sought safety among Metacomet's forces and acted as one of the Indian leader's scribes.  In late summer of 1675, colonial authorities imprisoned Printer, charging him with being part of the raid at Lancaster.  The following year, he was pardoned under a Massachusetts declaration of amnesty, after which he resumed his work at the Cambridge Press, assisting Eliot in printing a second edition of the Massachusetts language Bible.  At Boston in 1709, Printer and Bartholomew Green published an edition of the Psalter in Massachusetts.  Printer also served as a community leader at Hassanamesit, being a schoolmaster to five Indian families in 1698.  His family may have included sons or grandsons Moses and Ami.

Brooks, Our Beloved Kin, 1-52, 6-, 76-77, 86-87.  Peyer, The Tutor'd Mind, 46-48. Connole, The Indians of the Nipmuck Country, 100, 208.