A History of Printing in Colonial Maryland

MR. WILLIAM BLADEN PROPOSES TO ESTABLISH A PRESS

In the period intervening between the two recommendations, however,
William Bladen, then clerk of the Lower House, had made a proposal which
was to result eventually in the printing of the compiled laws, and in the
establishment of the typographic art upon a stable basis in the Province.
On October 1, 1696, the burgesses made the following representation to the
Upper House:

"Upon proposall of William Bladen Clerk of this House that a printing press would be
of Great Advantage to this province for printing the Laws made every Sessions &c and
that he the said Bladen at his own proper cost and charges would send for such press with
the Appurtenances provided his Excellency the Governor would give him Leave to make
use of the same this House are of opinion that the same will be of Great advantage to this
Province & humbly desire his Excellency will be pleased to Give leave to the said Bladen
to make use thereof when arrived according to his proposal."¹

Immediately the recommendation of the Lower House as expressed in
this message was approved, provided the petitioner should give "security
according to his Majesty's Royal Instructions to his Excellency."²

From the phrasing of Bladen's proposal to the Assembly one acquires the
impression that he intended tosend outside of the Province for his printing
equipment, a necessity which would have existed only if Dinah Nuthead
had sold her press, or if it had become too old and worn for use. Whatever
the case may have been with regard to Dinah's equipment, however, the
sense of Bladen's words makes it manifest that her printing office had closed
its doors within five months of its establishment. Lacking the opportunity
to purchase her plant for any reason, almost certainly Bladen would have
been forced to send to England for his press and letters, and even there, he
would have experienced difficulty in procuring decent fonts of type. The
event will show that from whatever source he obtained his plant, he was
compelled in the end to satisfy himself with a second-hand equipment where-
of the types and furniture were notably worn and broken.

At the time of his proposal to the Assembly, William Bladen was a youth
of three and twenty years of age, but he was then the same industrious and
versatile man that he continued to be throughout his life in the Province.
Born in 1673 of a well-known Yorkshire family, he came to Maryland some-

¹U. H. J., October 2,1696, Archives of Maryland, 19: 466.

²These instructions to Nicholson, dated March 8,1694 (Archives of Maryland, 23: 549), were composed in the
usual terms in which instructions regarding printing were transmitted to colonial governors at this time. See ante,
instructions to Lord Howard of Effingham in 1690, and Copley's instructions of August 26, 1691 (Archives of
Maryland, 8: 279): "And forasmuch as great inconveniences may arise by the Liberty of Printing within our
Province of Maryland, you are to provide by all necessary Orders that no person use any Press for printing upon
any occasion whatsoever, without your special! License first obtained."

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