A History of Printing in Colonial Maryland

there is, in general, a paucity of personal details in our knowledge of this
outstanding figure in American typographical history. The surname of Ele-
anor, his wife, is conjectural, and there is uncertainty also in regard to his
descendants. He left at his death a daughter, Eleanor, who married John
Shelton of Hanover County, Virginia, and became the mother of Sarah
Shelton, who was presumably the first wife of Patrick Henry. At Parks's
death his estate was found to be almost valueless. In the accounts filed in
connection with its settlement mention was made of a sum paid Mr. Mac-
nemara of Maryland for his services in connection with docking the entail
of a tract in that Province known as "Park Hall,"¹ and of a lot in the city
of Annapolis. This bare outline and the circumstances of his death com-
prise practically all that is known of importance in the personal life of Wil-
liam Parks.²

MARYLAND PUBLIC PRINTING ASSUMES A NEW DIGNITY

WITH THE COMING OF PARKS

Soon after the establishment of the Parks press in Annapolis, the office
of public printer of Maryland assumed a dignity which formerly it had not
possessed. Until this time the work and remuneration of the several resi-
dent printers had been determined at successive meetings of the Assembly
by ordinance and resolution, but in the session of October 1727, the status
of Parks as provincial printer, his duties in and salary for the performance
of that office were fixed by statutory enactment, as always thereafter were
the status, duties and salary of his successors. Two years were to pass, how-
ever, before the passage of this, the first law for printing in Maryland, but
from the very beginning of his residence, the relations between printer and
Assembly took on a more businesslike character than had pertained to
them in earlier days. In the March Assembly of 1725/26, Parks made def-
inite proposals as to the terms under which he would operate his press in
the service of the Province. In briefer form than in the original, these "pro-
posals³ humbly offer'd by William Parks" were as follows:

I. He would print the session laws of each Assembly for the sum of two
thousand pounds of tobacco from each county, one copy to be delivered to

¹This tract, in what was then Prince George's County, was surveyed for William Parks on April 9, 1731. It
contained 1,550 acres. It is not to be confused with another "Park Hall" surveyed for James Carroll on Novem-
ber 24, 1727, lying in what is now Carroll County, the earliest survey of land made in that county. Mr. William
B. Marye of Baltimore, has kindly transmitted the foregoing facts to the author. See also The Old Indian Road,
by William B. Marye, Part I, Maryland Historical Magazine, June 1920.

² See note on p. 73 of this narrative. See also references in Thomas, both editions; and in the William and
Mary College Quarterly, 7:11. Parks's will and the inventory and accounts of his estate are preserved in the Court
House at Yorktown, Va. Copies are in the Maryland Historical Society.

³L. H. J., March 21, 1725/26, Archives of Maryland, 35:475-476.

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