Pepyat, Jeremiah (c.1683–1753?), printer and bookseller, was apprenticed to John North of Dublin in 1697 and on North's death that same year moved to Joseph Ray (qv), with whom he served seven years apprenticeship; nothing else is known of his background or early life. In 1704 he set up independently in Skinner's Row and commenced a successful business. He established a good relationship with George Berkeley (qv) and published, with the English bookseller Awnshan Churchill, Berkeley's first book, Arithmetica (1707). Two years later he published Berkeley's Essay towards a new theory of vision (1709), and then his Treatise concerning the principles of human knowledge (1710). On Berkeley bemoaning the lack of publicity in London for this edition, Pepyat advised that London booksellers were adverse to selling cheap Dublin editions. Pepyat's civic standing was good; he was nominated to stand for the city common council as a stationer candidate in November 1707, and, though not elected till 1711, then served two terms. On 15 October 1714 he was appointed city stationer and printer and commenced printing proclamations, receipts, and warrants; in January 1717 he arranged for the prices paid by the city for these jobs to be standardised by an act of assembly. His yearly charges rose from £34 in 1716 to £120 in 1718 but then fell to about £60 for the next few years. 1718 marks the commencement of his decline; he was then rumoured to be in financial difficulties. Three or four years later he wrote to the lord lieutenant protesting that the office of king's stationer had been awarded to a Nicholas King, who worked in customs and had never been a stationer, while he himself had been effectively acting as king's stationer since 1715, on the recommendation of the then lord chief justice. However, this latter claim was not substantiated; it was held that Pepyat had simply started acting as king's stationer by default during the vacancy of the patent. The patent was eventually awarded to Samuel Fairbrother (qv) in October 1723, though Pepyat continued as city stationer. He was subsequently in serious debt to various merchants; as one of the proprietors in the city's development on North Strand, the complaint was made against him that he owed £45 in arrears and his failure to pay was delaying work. From 1724 he was increasingly in England, and in 1726 his younger brother Sylvanus was appointed Dublin city stationer in his stead. Little can be traced of Jeremiah after this date; he was sporadically in Dublin but remained mostly in London, residing with Mr Woodfales, a printer. A Jeremiah Pepyat, printer, and his wife were imprisoned for a debt of £830 in the Fleet prison, London, in January 1753, and were secured by the printer C. Woodfall. This is the last known reference to him.
He was succeeded in his Skinner's Row premises by his brother Sylvanus Pepyat (c.1690–1739), who was apprenticed to him in 1704 and entered into partnership with him in 1718. After taking over the office of city's stationer in 1726 Sylvanus's yearly bill for printing and stationery ranged from £52 to £159, and he was generally characterised by his extreme financial caution in contrast to his brother. His activities were mostly confined to publishing city tracts but in 1738 he published, with other stationers, Horace's Art of poetry, Harrison's Scriptural exposition of the church catechism, and Aeschylus’ Agammemnon. He died in Dublin on 4 October 1739 after a long illness and was succeeded by his sister Mary.
Mary Pepyat (d. 1759) moved premises from Skinner's Row, which she rented out in April 1740, to Silver Court, Castle St., from where she petitioned for the office of city printer on the grounds that she had transacted all of her brother's affairs during his long illness and so had shown her capability; she was appointed in July 1740, but as other printers offered to work for 20 per cent less than the prices established by the act of assembly moved up by her brother Jeremiah in 1717, it was agreed that 20 per cent would be subtracted from her bills. These ranged between £59 and £75 from 1740 to 1752 and reached £85 in 1755, the last recorded year. In 1754 she stated that her profits had been diminished by the rise in costs for paper, and the city agreed to deduct only 10 per cent from her bills. She died in Dublin on 19 October 1759. The office of city stationer finally passed out of her family's hands into those of Oliver Nelson.