A History of Printing in Colonial Maryland

public law passed by that Assembly, a sufficient indication that Zenger was
no longer a resident of the Province. It is known, moreover, that he mar-
ried his second wife, Anna Catherina Maul, in New York on August 24,
1722, and that he was made a freeman of the city in the year following his
marriage. He formed a partnership about this time with his old master,
William Bradford, with whom he printed a book in the Dutch language in
the year 1725. In 1726, his name appeared unaccompanied by any other on
the imprint of another Dutch book, and from thenceforward, he printed
alone in the Dutch, German and English languages. One of his nieces, Eliz-
abeth Becker, married Richard Curson or Curzon, the founder of the Ameri-
can family of Curzon, so that through her Zenger is associated by ties of
blood with a family of importance in Maryland and New York. At his death
in 1746, his widow, Anna Catherina Zenger, carried on his press for some
years. It was afterwards taken over and continued by John Zenger, his son
by his first wife. With the removal of Zenger from Maryland to New York,
he passes from the field of activity with which this narrative is concerned.
To discuss here the later and more important period of his life would be to
extend unduly the length of this relation by the inclusion of matter which
has been presented in detail in books and articles which are available to all
readers.¹

It is evident that the final word remains to be said on the subject of the
work of Zenger as a printer in Maryland. The silence of the Kent County
records and of the records in the Maryland Land Office together with the
absence of a single Maryland imprint bearing his name leave the question
of the location of his press as much of a riddle as ever it was. When he ap-
plied to the Assembly in April 1720 for permission to print its laws, he was
newly come to Maryland as a journeyman not long free of his apprentice-

¹ For further biographical details of Zenger and his family see Pleasants, J. Hall, The Curzon Family of New York
and Baltimore and Their English Descent. Baltimore, 1919. For a comprehensive treatment of his imprisonment
and trial, of the events which led up to this consummation and of its triumphant conclusion for American jour-
nalism, read Rutherford, Livingston, John Peter Zenger, Second New York Printer, his Press, his Trial. New
York, 1904; Hildcburn, C. R., Sketches of Printers and Printing in Colonial New York. New York, 1895; and
the article devoted to him by Isaiah Thomas in his History of Printing in America. He was defended in his trial
by Andrew Hamilton of Philadelphia, who had lived in Kent County, Maryland, shortly before Zenger's residence
there. For an interesting discussion of the extent to which this fact influenced Zenger in choosing Hamilton to
defend him, see Steiner, Bernard C., "Andrew Hamilton and John Peter Zenger," in vol. 20 of the Pennsylvania
Magazine of History. Isaiah Thomas wrote of Zenger that he "was a good workman, and a scholar, but not a
correct printer of English." Some of his later biographers, however, are not willing to follow Thomas in his asser-
tion that Zenger was a scholar, and it is generally believed that he had been used as a catspaw in the political
dispute which resulted in his imprisonment and trial. Thomas relates that during the dispute Zenger gave such
offence to a gentleman of the Council by an article in his newspaper, The New York Weekly Journal, that the irate
colonel threatened to lay his stick over the printer. Thereafter Zenger went about his affairs armed with a sword,
and the spectacle of a printer so accoutred gave Bradford the opportunity for the exercise of his powers of ridi-
cule. The "crafty old sophister," as Franklin named Bradford, took a little more than full advantage of his op-
portunity.

[52]