A History of Printing in Colonial Maryland

afterwards from one city to another, Goddard joined the staff of John Holt
sometime in the late spring or early summer of 1765. Since May 6, 1762,
when he had hired the New York business of the firm of James Parker and
Company from the principal owner, John Holt had been conducting alone
the New-York Gazette and Weekly Post-Boy, and Goddard doubtless had
cherished good expectations in joining him in its publication. He asserted
afterwards that his prospects in New York were ruined by the disagree-
ment which arose between Parker and Holt some months after his arrival
in that city.¹ Parker had determined to resume his New York printing bus-
iness and to take into his own hands the publication of the newspaper which
he had leased to Holt some years before. Holt seems to have felt himself
badly used in being compelled to turn over to his former partner the good-
will which had attached itself to the newspaper through his successful con-
duct of it during the preceding four years.² Between these two, Goddard,
the friend of both, found himself awkwardly placed, inasmuch as either
would have been offended if he had associated himself permanently with
the other. He has left it on record, however, that by his interposition, he
was able to prevent his two friends from coming to an open break,³ and
further, that Parker gave consent to his remaining with Holt until he should
be able to form a permanent association elsewhere. He worked with Holt,
therefore, until the late spring of 1766. In June of that year he set up an
establishment in Philadelphia, once more filled with that hope of success
and distinction which never entirely left him until the approach of old age
drove him to seek contentment in rural pursuits.

In the meantime, he had done more in New York than merely act as as-
sistant to John Holt in the printing of the Gazette and Post-Boy. In the vol-
uminous literature which opposition to the Stamp Act called forth, one finds
a curious publication in newspaper form, the printing of which has been
attributed by Isaiah Thomas, and others, to William Goddard. Thomas
comments on this publication in the following words:

Thomas Wharton_t Sen. and their Man Benjamin Towne, my Late Partners, With my Own is Properly Delineated_t
and their Calumnies Against me Fully Refuted...... Philadelphia: Printed by William Goddard, in Arch Street,
between Front and Second Streets, 1770. 72 pp. 8vo.

¹ The Partnership.

² Victor Hugo Paltsits in "John Holt, Printer and Postmaster," before referred to, gives the details of this dis-
agreement in so far as it was externally apparent in the pages of the newspaper, which Parker took over finally in
October 1766. The advertisements which he quotes show that there was bitterness beneath the smooth surface
which these two printers presented to the world, so that Goddard's brief account of their disagreement does not
come as a. surprise.

³ The Partnership. Goddard's representation of himself in this instance as an angel of peace is not without its
amusing elements in view of the tone of his attack upon his own partners which occupies the ensuing seventy
pages of his pamphlet.

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