James Blow (Blaw) – printer and bookseller was born in 1676 of the Blaw family of Culross, Perthshire. He began his career as a printer with Patrick Neill who ran Belfast’s first ever printing press. James Blow married the sister of Patrick Neill and took over the business around 1705. In the next year, he printed The Saint’s Life and Death by James Kirkpatrick. Later in 1713, Blow printed the important An Historical Essay upon the Loyalty of Presbyterians (1713). The following year, he began to add secular work to his growing title of Presbyterian texts and other religious books including Bibles. It is claimed thatBlow was responsible for the production of the first English edition of the Bible in Ireland. James Blow died in Ireland in 1759.
