This biography is republished from The Dictionary of Irish Biography and was written by Turlough O’Riordan. Shared by permission in line with Creative Commons ‘Attribution’ (CC BY) licencing.
Born: Unknown, Ireland
Died: 15 November 1750
Country most active: Ireland
Also known as: Sarah Ray
Hyde, Sarah (d. 1750), printer and bookseller, was the only daughter of Joseph and Elizabeth Ray, booksellers and printers in Dublin. Her early life is unrecorded before she married (1714) John Hyde, printer and bookseller.
Succeeding him in business in Dame St., Dublin, on his death (November 1728) she continued to supply TCD with stationery, in her husband’s place, until at least 1747. Between 1728 and 1732, in conjunction with Eliphal Dobson II (d. 1732) she rented the printing house in the Stationers’ Hall, Cork Hill; Dobson had been in loose partnership with her husband. This arrangement continued with his widow Jane until 1734, when Eliphal’s stock was auctioned, signalling Jane’s retirement. The dispute between George Faulkner and the London printer Benjamin Motte, concerning the right to publish the works of Jonathan Swift in London, saw Hyde transmitting Motte’s correspondence to Swift in 1733; her husband had worked with Swift on occasion after 1711 and was well regarded by him.
Sometime before October 1734 Hyde abandoned the printing aspect of her business, letting her premises and press to Richard Reilly (d. 1741), presumably to focus on bookselling. Thenceforth Reilly printed some works for Hyde, such as N. Bernard, Whole proceeding of the siege of Drogheda (Dublin, 1735), which had been long out of print. Hyde was involved with a number of cooperative ventures with other printers through the 1730s and 1740s. This pattern of undertaking individual, as well as cooperative, publishing projects on an ad hoc basis, as well as having a more stable relationship with one or two particular printers, was the norm in the Dublin book trade at this time (Pollard, 1989).
In January 1745 she moved premises on Dame St. ‘to the opposite side of the way’ (Pollard (2000), 307). Announcing her intention to quit the business in the Dublin Journal (28 Mar. 1749), she auctioned her stock in April of that year, and sought full payment of all debts due in July. Hyde died 15 November 1750 at Donnybrook, Co. Dublin. Her prerogative will (signed 20 March 1750; proved 4 March 1751) mentions four daughters and a son, Thomas.