207

Thomas Perrin Smith, Second Printer of Easton. -
Easton's second newspaper, the Republican Star or
Eastern Shore Political Luminary, enjoyed a longer and
less harried existence. Its founder, Thomas Perrin
Smith, according to a letter written by his nephew,
Charles Perrin Smith of Trenton, New Jersey, was born
in Princess Ann County, Virginia, January 17, 1776.
He was the son of Perrin Smith and Margaret Wishart,
and the grandson of Charles Smith and Marga-ret Perrin.
The first American representatives of the family had
settled in Virginia in 1706.³⁵

His nephew's letter states that he was probably
not a practical printer, for there were no facilities
for acquiring such a trade in his native county.³⁶
Norfolk, however, which could not have been far from
his home, boasted a press as early as 1774.³⁷ At any
rate, Smith himself stated that he came to Easton
with no intention of establishing a newspaper; that the
Republican Star was an afterthought suggested by a
number of citizens of the shore who expressed a wish
for a second paper.³⁸

The first number of the Republican Star made its

35 Harrison, S.A. Memoranda of the annals of Talbot
county, Maryland. Biographical annals.

36 Ibid. Biographical annals.

37 McMurtrie, B.C. A history of printing in the
U.S. p. 292.

38 Easton star. March 20, 1877.