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BALTIMORE'S NON-PARTISAN NEWSPAPER PRINTERS

John Hayes, Dean of Baltimore Printers. At the
beginning of the last decade of the eighteenth century,
only three printing firms were operating in Baltimore,
William Goddard and his brother-in-law James Angell,
.th© Baltimore branch of the Wilmington firm of Samuel
and John Adams, and John Hayes. Of these, the only
one who continued into the nineteenth century was
John Hayes.

His career as publisher of the Baltimore Maryland
Gazette from 1783 until January 6, 1792 has been cov-
ered in Joseph Towne Wheeler's The Maryland Press
1777-1790; but since the publication of that book in
1938, some further information has come to light. Yet
Hayes remains an enigmatic figure. He was a good
printer and a successful business man. As far as
statistical records go, there is a fairly complete
record of his life; he was a member and officer of at
least two Baltimore societies; from the point of view
of his Imprints, he was one of the most important
Baltimore printers of the 1790's, and he was editor
of one of the city's two leading newspapers for near-
ly nine years, However, there seems to be a complete
absence of personal details which might give an idea
of the difficulties lie had to face, how he overcame