A History of Printing in Colonial Maryland

between Plaintif and Defendant on | part of the hereof not to
fail on pain of five pounds Sterling, and fail you not at your peril, and have you then and
there his Writt. Witness | Chief Justice of our said Court this day of in
the year of our Reign &c. Anno Domini .| [Annapolis: Printed by Thomas
Reading. 1702.]

Broadside. 1 1/2 x 14 1/2 inches.

In the year 1700, William Bladen, Thomas Reading's associate in the press, petitioned the Assembly that
only printed blank forms should be used by the Provincial officers in public business, and for his encouragement
and recompense it was so ordered. See L. H. J. May 6, 1700, Archives of Maryland, 24: 60, where the following
list of forms and the prices at which they could be purchased is given:

Writs To be had at one penny or one

Citations pound of tobacco each.

Summonses

Letters Testamentary To be had at two pence or two

Letters of Administration pounds of tobacco each.

Bail Bonds

The court summons above described is one of the printed official forms provided for in the ordinance of As-
sembly here referred to. This example is crudely printed in the worst style of Thomas Reading. It is entered here
under the earliest year in which it could have been printed; that is, 1702, the first of Queen Anne. The copy de-
scribed is addressed to the sheriff of Baltimore County requiring him to produce in court as a witness one "Pat-
rick Murfy"; it is dated in script "April 20, 1714" and signed by John Stokes, clerk of the Court. The "Proceed-
ings" of the Baltimore County Court show that John Stokes took oath as clerk of the court in Nov. 1710, was
appointed or served as High Sheriff in March 1715 and took oath as clerk again in Aug. 1718. (Information from
Mr. William B. Marye of Baltimore.)
MdHS.

1703

9. KEITH, GEORGE. The | Powe,r [sic] | of the | Gospel, | in the | Conversion of Sinners | in
a | Sermon | Preach'd at | Annapolis in Maryland, | By George Keith M. A.| July the 4th |
[Annapolis:] Printed and are to be Sold by Thomas Reading, | at the Sign of the George
Anno Domini MDCCIII.|

Sm. 410. B-C⁴, D³; 11 leaves; pages [i-ii], 1-19, [20]; p. [i]: title; pp. 1-19: text, with heading, A | Sermon |
Preach'd at Annapolis July the 4th 1703.] By George Keith M. A.| I. Thess. 1.5.) [Two lines quoted].

Leaf measures: 8x6 1/3 inches. Type page, p. 2: 170 x 121 mm.

For the circumstances attending the delivery of this sermon and its publication in Annapolis see Keith,
George, A Journal of Travels from New Hampshire to Caratuck..... , London, 1706, p. 66; reprinted New York,
1851, in "Collections of the Protestant Episcopal Historical Society," which see, p. 39. Quotation of the essential
part of the passage is made in the foregoing narrative (Chapter Three). On page 52 of the New York reprint of
the Journal, Keith gives the titles of the ten treatises which he "wrote and Published in Print, in North America,
... in the years 1702, and 1703, to 1704."

In the imprint of the above entry, the words "the George" are sometimes recorded as "tho [sic] George", but
this is incorrect. The letter is not an "o," but a broken "e." The JCB. copy is evidently an earlier issue than that
in the NYHS., for on the latter title-page the misplaced comma in the word "Powe,r" has been caught by the
printer and removed.

JCB. NYHS. Leiter Collection. MdHS. (Photostat copy).

1704

10. An | Abridgement | of the | Laws I in Force and Use in I Her Majesty's Plantations;!
(Viz.) of |

Virginia, New England,

Jamaica, New-York,

Barbadoes, Carolina, &c.

Maryland,

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