In Paris, the priest introduced Carey to Benjamin Franklin.   Carey worked as Franklin’s apprentice at a small press in the Parisian suburb of Passy. Franklin used the press to print messages from the American revolutionary government and other materials to promote the American cause at the French court.

The Marquis de Lafayette, who was two-and-a-half years older than Carey, had returned to France during the American Revolution to plan a French invasion of Ireland. He was a frequent visitor to Franklin’s press at Passy. Lafayette sought Carey’s assessment of the political situation in Ireland. Carey’s meeting with Lafayette would play an important role in Carey’s future.

The Marquis de Lafayette (1757-1834) played an important role helping to launch Carey’s career in the United States.

After a brief stint with Franklin, Carey became an apprentice in the renowned Paris printing firm founded by Françoise Didot in 1713. His son, Françoise Ambrose Didot, known as “Didot Le Jeune,” improved punch cutting and mold making essential for typography. Didot Le Jeune was the first to assign points to the size of type. In his shop, Carey was exposed to the trade from some of the best craftsmen in Europe.

Carey did not spend more than three or four months with either Franklin or Didot le Jeune. Franklin recommended Carey for a position teaching English at the Benedictine College of Pontlevoy in the French countryside.   Benjamin Franklin’s grandson, William Temple Franklin, received a letter from a student there, Jacques-Donatien Le Ray de Chaumont. He wrote that Carey had “gone mad.” He felt everyone at the school was ridiculing him. In front of a fire one evening, Carey became convinced that even his good friend was making fun of him. He challenged that friend to a duel. Terrified, the friend left the room and jumped out a window. In January 1783 Le Ray de Chaumont reported that Carey absconded from Pontlevoy, owing him twelve francs. William Temple Franklin served as secretary to his grandfather. News of Carey’s misdeeds would cloud his relationship with Benjamin Franklin in the future.[1]

ERA OF A REVOLUTION | Carey Founded the Volunteer’s Journal

[1] James N. Green, “ ‘I was always dispo’d to be serviceable to you, tho’ it seems I was once unlucky:’ Mathew Carey’s Relationship with Benjamin Franklin,” Early American Studies, V. 11, N. 3 (Fall, 2013) 548-9. See the entire article for Carey’s relationship with Franklin.