Jonas Green, his Family and his Associates

Philadelphia; a very favorable opportunity now offers; Mr. Daniel Rawlings b gone up the
Bay in a Schooner, and brings down Goods from Philadelphia, and would bring some Paper
for me. He went up yesterday. If you could send me such a parcel as before I'll get you a
large Bill of 40 or 45 £ Sterling and send ... (one word missing) I likewise want some var-
nish, (a bottle by the post) and 4 or 5 Pound of Lampblack by Rawlings.—My Paper sinks
fast; we now use 3 or 4 Reams a week. I have about 450 or 460 good Customers for SeaTd
Papers, and about 80 unseal'd. The Virginian's speech made a deal of Laughter here; and
was well approved of by some in that Colony; how the Baronet himself lik'd it, I have not
heard.—We have had a Severe Hot Spell of Weather; and I have been a little troubled with
Fevers; but they are, I hope, gone from me.—We are all well. I hope you are so too,—
Our hearty Respects to yourself and Mrs. Franklin, not forgetting Miss Sally.—I rejoice
to see that our brave Countrymen are to be rewarded for their Expense in taking Cape
Breton. I am, Dear Sir,

Your obliged Friend

and humble Serv.
Annapolis, July 25, 1747. JONAS GREEN.

One has in this letter a glimpse of the Maryland journalist picking up
some items of West Indian news for his Gazette;¹ one learns of his relations
with the Assembly, of his weekly circulation figures, of his need for another
journeyman, for paper and more paper, and for the lampblack which he
intended to mix with linseed oil for the manufacture of his printing ink.
The letter presents a picture of conditions so typical that it might have
been written by any colonial American printer.

Green's conduct of his journal was especially memorable during the troub-
led days when the Stamp Act was requiring the payment of a prohibitive
tax on newspapers and pamphlets. Clearly he considered that then or never
was the time for an exhibition of cheerfulness, and cheerful he succeeded
in being, though with a rueful face. When the ill-judged legislation went
into effect, Green brought out his current number headed, "Maryland Ga-
zette Expiring: In uncertain Hopes of a Resurrection to Life again." On
successive days of issue for three weeks, he published a sheet which he called,
in order of appearance, the first, second and third "Supplement" to the
last regular issue of October loth. Then after a silence of a month or more,
there appeared "The Apparition of the Maryland Gazette, which is not
Dead but Sleepeth." On January 3oth another number was issued, bear-

¹The colonial newspapers were in general dependant on "exchanges" for their news of the outside world.
Green was constantly complaining in his columns of the tardiness of other publishers in sending him their papers,
and his subscribers sometimes complained of the stateness of the news received by this method. In winter months
with roads and navigation closed, the size of the Maryland Gazette frequently was reduced to a single leaf. On
January 14, 1768, Mrs. Green wrote in a note to the public in this journal: "As the Northern Post is not yet
arrived, and the Southern One brought no Mail; and our Rivers, at the same time being frozen up, by which we
are prevented receiving any Articles of Intelligence from the different parts of the Province, we hope we shall
stand excus'd for this Single Half Sheet."

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