James Gordon Bennett was born at New Mill, Keith, in Banffshire, on the north-eastern coast of Scotland, about the year 1800.  His relatives were Roman Catholics, and he was brought up in a Catholic family of French origin.  In his fourteenth year, having passed through the primary schools of his native place, he entered the Roman Catholic Seminary at Aberdeen, for the purpose of studying for the priesthood of that Church.  During the two or three years which he passed here he was a close student, and acquired the basis of an excellent education.

In 1817 he came into possession of a copy of Benjamin Franklin’s autobiography, which had been recently published in Scotland.  The perusal of this little book changed the course of his whole life.  It induced him to abandon all thoughts of the priesthood, and to try his fortune in the New World, in which the great philosopher had succeeded so well before him.  A little more than a year later he left Glasgow, and in May, 1819, being now about twenty years old, landed at Halifax, Nova Scotia.  He had less than twenty-five dollars in his purse, knew no vocation save that of a book-keeper, and had not a friend on this side of the ocean.

He secured a few pupils in Halifax, and gave lessons in book-keeping, but his profits were so small that he determined to reach the United States as soon as possible.  Accordingly he made his way along the coast to Portland, Maine, where he took passage for Boston in a small schooner.  He found great difficulty in procuring employment, for Boston then, as now, offered but few inducements to new-comers.  He parted with his last penny, and was reduced to the most pressing want.  For two whole days he went without food, and a third day would doubtless have been added to his fast had he not been fortunate enough to find a shilling on the Common, with which he procured the means of relieving his hunger.  He now obtained a salesman’s place in the bookstore of Messrs. Wells & Lilly, who, upon discovering his fitness for the place, transferred him to their printing-office as proof-reader; but his employers failed about two years after his connection with them began, and he was again thrown out of employment.

From Boston he went, in 1822, to New York, where he obtained a situation on a newspaper.  Soon after his arrival in the metropolis he was offered, by Mr. Wellington, the proprietor of the “Charleston (S.C.) Courier,” the position of translator from the Spanish, and general assistant.  He accepted the offer, and at once repaired to Charleston.  He remained there only a few months, however, and then returned to New York.