89

of the finn of Bobbin and Hardin of Cockhanagh, near
lonaghan, in Ireland, At the time of his father¹ s
bankruptcy in the financial and political crisis in
Ireland in 1786, Thomas Dobbin was apprenticed to a
printer. He completed his apprenticeship on January
1, 1793,⁵¹ and it must have been soon after this date
that he emigrated to the United States, perhaps to
join his elder brother, Archibald Dobbin, junior, who
had come to this country a few years before and had
settled at Alexandria, Virginia, where he was engaged
in commercial pursuits in connection with milling

flour for exportation.⁵²

The Federal Gazette of Baltimore contains one al-
lusion to Thomas Dobbin's personal appearance:

Mr, Thomas Dobbin has repeatedly insulted a
certain person in public company, and if he
continues to be abusive,-his gigantic form
shall not protect him from meeting retaliation.⁵³

Since the Federal Gazette was a rival of Dobbin's news-
paper, the "gigantic form" could be taken as truth or
as an antonym. Edward T. Schultz in his History of
Freemasonary in Maryland corroborates the description
by the statement that

It is said that he [Dobbin] was a man of

51 Penniman, T.B. The early history of the
"Baltimore American", p. 273-274.

52 Schultz, E.T. History of Freemasonry in
Maryland, v. 2, p. 327.

53 Federal gazette. November 3,1802.