A History of Printing in Colonial Maryland

The project was now carried out with diligence. The book was set, printed
and distributed among the counties within one year following its authori-
zation,for in May 1701, we find a reference to itwhich leaves us in no doubt
as to these facts and as to certain of its features. On May iyth Bladen was
summoned to the Lower House and told by the Speaker "of the many Erata's
Comitted in printing the body of Laws." Whereupon, the record con tinues,

"it was required by the house tht he cause the Erata's to be fourthwith printed and sent
into the severall Countys. To which he readyly concurred and promised to gett the same
forthwith printed and sent out ....."^l

THE UNIQUE COPY OF THE "LAWS" OF 1700 IN THE

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

There has been preserved in the Library of Congress a volume which the
bibliographers of that institution have identified as the collection of laws
which has been described here as having been printed on the Bladen-Read-
ing press of Annapolis in the year 1700. Unfortunately the title-page of this
unique copy has disappeared, so that one is compelled to turn to the evi-
dence of circumstance to verify the attribution. Briefly summarizing the
preceding pages, the circumstances related in them are found to be these:

In the year 1700 William Bladen established a press and a printer in An-
napolis for the purpose of printing laws and other governmental matters.

In the session of May 1700, in answer to his petition, William Bladen was
given permission by the Assembly to print a body of Maryland laws.

In the session of May 1701 William Bladen was ordered by the Assem-
bly to have printed and distributed throughout the counties a list of errata
committed "in printing the body of laws."

Keeping these facts in mind one takes up a volume of Maryland laws in
the Library of Congress and finds that it contains a dedication "to my Hon-
oured and Ingenious Friend Mr. William Bladen at the [Port] of Annap-
olis," and this personage is complimented by the unknown editor for his
cleverness in having devised so excellent a scheme for the benefit of the
Province and of himself as the printing and publication of a body of laws
at a price sufficiently cheap to enable all persons to purchase a copy of the
volume containing it;² and further that the laws which make up the collec-
tion comprise the body of Maryland laws confirmed by the Assembly on
the same day that Bladen was given permission to print the laws of the
Province, together with the additional laws passed in that session; and fi-

¹L. H. J., May 17, 1701, Archives of Maryland, 24:198.

² Archives of Maryland, 38:427, gives as much of the "Dedication" as remains decipherable in the Library of
Congress copy.

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