The Nuthead Press • William and Dinah Nuthead
yet no such copy has been discovered, the necessity for evidence of this
character is now less imperative because of the greater existing knowledge
of the life and activity of William Nuthead, and because through the dis-
covery of a broadside printed in Maryland a few weeks after the presumed
publication of the "Declaration" at St. Mary's City, the burden of the claim
has been shifted to a more firmly established base. In the following section
of the narrative the broadside which is here referred to will be described
and discussed.
THE FIRST EXTANT ISSUE OF THE MARYLAND PRESS,
THE ASSEMBLY "ADDRESS" OF 1689
The services of William Nuthead to the Associators were not concluded
by the printing of their "Declaration." Soon after the publication of that
document, addresses from various sources began to be drawn up for pre-
sentation to the King, some of them by the Protestant supporters of the
Revolution, others by Protestants who had remained loyal to the Proprie-
tary and his government. In the class first described was an "Address" from
the Assembly, which, in the official manuscript copy transmitted to his
Majesty, was dated "September 4,1689." This copy, as it turned out, was
received by the Lords of Trade on December 31, 1689,1 but fearing with
good cause that it had been captured by the French,2 Coode wrote to the
Privy Council on December 17th and stated in the letter that he was send-
ing enclosed additional copies of the "Declaration" and of the "Address"
of the Assembly.3 On February 7, 1689/90, Lord Shrewsbury turned over
to the Lords of Trade Coode's letter4 and a printed copy of this "Address,"5
printed it seems before its adoption by the delegates, but certified as an
authentic copy in the following words written across its bottom margin by
the Clerk of the Assembly: "This is a true coppy of the Original. Attested
per John Llewellin Clk Assembly."
The title and description of this broadside, preserved in the Public Rec-
ord Office, London,6 is as follows:
The | Address | of the Representatives of their Majestyes Protestant | Subjects, in the
Provinnce (sic) of Mary-Land Assembled. |
1 Archives of Maryland, 13:239 and 240, where it is reprinted with the Lords of Trade indorsements.
2 Archives of Maryland, 8:167.
3 Archives of Maryland, 8:151 and 152.
4 Archives of Maryland, 8:152. Lord Shrewsbury was one of his Majesty's principal secretaries of state. For
an account of him see "Talbot, Charles, 12th Earl and only Duke of Shrewsbury" in the Dictionary of National
Biography.
5 Archives oj Maryland, 13: 231 and 232, where it is reprinted with the Lords of Trade indorsements.
6 Old reference for this paper in P. R. O. was America and West Indies. No. 556, B. D., p. 6. Noted in the ms.
calendar of Maryland papers in P. R. O. compiled by Henry Stevens, now in the Maryland Historical Society, as
B. T. Maryland, vol. 1. B. D., p. 6. Its present number is C. O. 5/718.
[7]
|
|