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A History of the Maryland Press, 1777-1790
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Ellicott, but in the Fall of 1786, John Hayes enlisted his services as the
compiler of a rival publication. Goddard then turned to Benjamin
Workman of the University of Pennsylvania for his astronomical tables
and published the almanac for 1787 with a bitter attack on those who
were threatening his almanac monopoly in Baltimore. Ellicott immedi-
ately compiled an errata for Goddard's almanac and it was published in
Hayes's paper. A controversy then began in which every effort was made
to blacken Goddard's name. Nearly all of the articles were signed by
"Juvenal" who was referred to in Goddard's paper as "the Crocodile."
The Baltimore readers of the newspapers probably knew who the writer
was but the subscribers in the counties who were unable to keep up with
the gossip of the town were at a loss to discover the author. Nearly a
month after the controversy began a distant subscriber wrote Goddard
for conformation of the identity of "Juvenal" as Langworthy.
"One of our most agreeable amusements in the Country, at this gloomy season, is the perusal
of the Baltimore News-Papers. I find you are, in Mr. Hayes Gazette, attacked with a great deal
of illnature and malice; by a person under the signature of JUVENAL.—Who this JUVENAL is,
we in the country have been at a loss to determine, till lately, being at a friend's house, I was in-
formed the JUVENAL was a certain Parson Langworthy, a Professor in the Academy......." 11
About 1790, Langworthy moved to Elkton and began to collect ma-
terials tor a history of Georgia. He published a prospectus of "A political
history of the state of Georgia, from its first settlement; with memoirs
of the principal transactions which happened therein during the late
Revolution," in the Maryland Gazette or, the Baltimore Advertiser on
August 19, 1791.
It was to have been printed in two quarto volumes, but like many of
the ambitious literary ventures that were heralded by glowing prospec-
tuses of the Post Revolutionary period, it never materialized. The
manuscript, if there was one, has disappeared, and the notes and cor-
respondence widely scattered.12
Langworthy returned to Baltimore about 1795 and became deputy
naval officer of the port. In contrast to his earlier career little is known of
his activities or interests during the remaining years. He died in Balti-
more, November 1, 1802.
11 Thr Maryland Journal, January 2, 1787. In an article immediately following this letter, Goddard states that Lang-
worthy was the author of the pieces written against him. Shortly after this the controversy ended and no further articles
appeared about Goddard in Hayes's Maryland Gazette.
12 For a full discussion of Langworthy's plan to publish a history of Georgia see Leonard L. Mackall, Edward Langworthy
and the first attempt to write a separate history of Georgia ... in Georgia Historical Quarterly, Vol. VII (1923), pp. 1-17.
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