A History of Printing in Colonial Maryland

ANNE CATHARINE GREEN AND HER SONS, WILLIAM,
FREDERICK AND SAMUEL

Throughout the life of her husband, Mrs. Anne Catharine Green, the
widow of Jonas, was heard of only incidentally, but after his death in 1767,
she showed the sturdy stuff that was in her by assuming the direction of the
Green establishment and the responsibility for its completion of the govern-
ment work then in hand. At this time she must have been about forty-five
years of age; she had borne fourteen children and buried eight of them; she
had nursed her household through a smallpox epidemic and through the
infinitude of small ailments which must have beset so large a family. At a
time when a less aggressive woman would have been content to seek the
chimney corner, she undertook the support of her children and the accom-
plishment of important tasks in the public service.

After announcing the death of her husband, Mrs. Green's first concern
was to solicit the continued patronage of his friends and customers for the
press which she proposed to continue. "I Presume to address You," she
wrote in an appeal to the public,¹

"for your Countenance to Myself and numerous Family, left, without your Favour, al-
most destitute of Support, by the Decease of my Husband, who long, and, I have the Satis-
faction to say, faithfully served You in the Business of Provincial Printer; and, I flatter my-
self, that, with your kind Indulgence and Encouragement, Myself, and Son, will be enabled
to continue it on the same Footing..... I am willing to hope, that the Pains taken by my
late Husband, to oblige his very extensive Acquaintance, and the Character he deservedly
bore, of an honest, benevolent Man, will recommend to your Regard,

Your grateful and faithful

humble Servant,

A. C. GREEN.

The event will show that the confidence which she begged and received
from the public was not misplaced. Under her management neither the
Maryland Gazette nor the public printing suffered retrenchment or deteri-
oration.

Assisted by her son, Mrs. Green completed the "Acts" and the "Votes"
of the session of 1767, which had been left unfinished by the death of her
husband, maintaining throughout the ensuing year a sufficient number of
hands to enable her to care for whatever public business came to her for
execution. In its act for her encouragement, the Assembly of 1768 recited
these facts and declared that in all things she had performed the duty of
Printer to the Province,² and provided that for these services of the year

¹ Maryland Gazette, April 16, 1767. The son referred to in this extract was William Green.

² If a statement in the Maryland Gazette for September 22, 1768, could be taken at full value it would seem

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