A History of Printing in Colonial Maryland

of the "Ancient City" where business and social interests were very pleas-
antly mingled.lt isthebusiness which was transacted there, however, which
must again occupy our attention.

GREEN'S MARYLAND GAZETTE, 1745-1777, 1779-1839

The fame of Green as a publisher and printer rests in the main upon his
edition of Bacon's Laws of Maryland and upon his establishment and skill-
ful conduct of the second Maryland Gazette. The latter was a weekly news-
paper which he began to issue in April 1745, and which was continued by
his wife, his sons and his grandson until December 12, 1839, a period of
ninety-four years, during which this family established a record for long
and useful service which few American newspaper concerns of that day or
of this are able to boast having exceeded.¹ Its early imprint read:

Annapolis: Printed by Jonas Green at his Printing Office in Charles Street; Where all
Persons may be supplied with this Gazette, at 12/6 a year; and Advertisements of a mod-
erate length are inserted for 55. the First Week, and is. each Time after: and long ones in
proportion.

In the following letter from Green to Benjamin Franklin,² written not
long after the establishment of the newspaper, are various matters of inter-
est in connection with the Maryland Gazette and its printer's activities:
Dear Sir,

You will receive by this Mail two Packets from Barbadoes, which came inclosed to me
from Mr. Ja. Bingham. One of them incloses the W. India Monthly Packet, which Mr.
Bingham wrote me word he sent open that I might have a sight of it. They came by Capt.
Seager.—Our Assembly added this Session 5 Pounds in each County to my Salary, but added
to the Work likewise, which I am well content with; They give me now 260 Pounds our
Currency a Year; And we are very busy in dispatching the Public Work. I wish I could get
another Hand.—The Assembly has hinder'd me from Time to go to the Courts to collect my
money, otherwise should have got you a Bill by this Time; But as soon as the Public Work
is done, or sooner, will get you a good Bill. I wish I could get another parcel of Paper from

standing in the city. It was used as the printing office of the Maryland Gazette, at its first establishment."
(Ridgely, Annals of Annapolis. 1841, p. 120). The printing house was probably in a detached building. The fol-
lowing excerpt from Riley's Ancient City, p. 119, seems to give support to this supposition. Riley has been dis-
cussing the smallpox ravages in Annapolis in 1756 and 1757. "The family of Jonas Green," he writes, "was
afflicted to such an extent that many of his customers were afraid to take the Gazette, lest they would catch the
disease. Mr. Green, whilst he expressed a doubt as to paper carrying the disease, subsequently stated that peo-
ple 'need not fear to catch the small-pox from the paper, as it was kept all the time a good distance from the
house, and beside the disease was now eradicated from his premises.'" The old house is now, 1920, occupied by
Mr.. Nicholas Harwood Green.

¹ During the Revolutionary War, from December 25, 1777, to April 30, 1779, the Maryland Gazette suspended
publication. After its resumption it continued without interruption until its final cessation sixty years later in
1839.

^f Franklin Papers, I. 6, American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia. As far as is known, this letter has not
been published previously in any collection. Permission to use it here courteously has been given by the authori-
ties of the American Philosophical Society.

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