CHAPTER TEN

William Goddard, Printer of Providence, New York, Philadelphia and

Baltimore, Founder of the United States Post Office—

Mary Katherine Goddard, "Printer of Baltimore

N the envisagement of the early history of typography in
Baltimore, those practitioners of the craft whose activ-
ities have been recorded in the preceding chapter merge
into a background against which stands relieved the high-
colored figure of William Goddard, a printer and jour-
nalist of four American colonies and an individual who
is known to posterity chiefly as the "Tory" founder of
the postal system of the United States. Restless, ambitious, zealous, he
plunged headlong into every project which he undertook, investing his least
action unconsciously with that vividness of personality which sets an indi-
vidual apart from his fellows even when, as in this instance, it does not exalt
him above them.

Biographers have presented William Goddard to us in contrasted colors.¹
Lorenzo Sabine, for example, has enrolled him in that questionable mar-
tyrology which we know as The American Loyalists; Isaiah Thomas, who
knew him well, has lauded him as an unregarded patriot. The facts of his
life, if studied superficially, might well be interpreted as they were by Sabine,
but it will be shown here that although Goddard became the enemy of the
popular party in Pennsylvania, yet was he to be found busily working in
the service of the colonies at a time when many former leaders of that party
were making terms with the British; that when the Baltimore mob hustled
him from the city for a supposed act of disloyalty, the Maryland Assembly

¹The limits of a single chapter permit only a skeleton outline of the activities in Baltimore and elsewhere of
William Goddard, a many-sided and active man. Brief as it necessarily is, however, the author has attempted by
the citation of numerous references and documents to make easy the path of any investigator who may be in-
spired with the worthy idea of giving William Goddard monographic treatment. For the general facts of God-
dard's life, Isaiah Thomas is a reliable guide. Scharf's Chronicles of Baltimore provides much information as to
his Baltimore enterprises. The present writer, however, is under a most particular obligation to Mr. Wm. J.
M'Clellan of Baltimore, who on August 20, 1898, August 17, 1902, and August 27, 1905, contributed articles to
the Baltimore American in which were displayed the fruits of an unremitting zeal in local antiquarianism and a
life-long enthusiasm for William and Mary Goddard. Of Mr. M'Clellan's personal courtesy and helpfulness, the
author here expresses his appreciation.

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