Sarah Updike Goddard: Colonial Woman of the Press

by John Dower


by Marilyn Harris

The Providence River during the colonial era. Courtesy of the John Carter Brown Library.

   Sarah Updike Goddard, although mentioned in, among others, Notable American Women, Rhode Island Founders from Settlement to Statehood, American National Biography and 18th Century American Women, as well as in numerous books and historical studies of colonial printing, has remained largely unknown. At a time when it was rare for women to be involved in business outside the home and late in her life, she became the second printer in Providence (the first being her son), and owner/editor of the Providence Gazette, a woman more than able to run a business on her own. Her devotion to the “mystick art of printing”i was second only to her devotion to family and friends. 

     Through both her mother and father, who were first cousins, Sarah traced her ancestry back to Richard Smith, Sr. and his wife, Johan. In the 1630s the Smiths brought five children to the New World, two sons and three daughters, including the two who would become Sarah’s grandmothers: Katherine Smith Updike and Joan Smith Newton. When Richard Smith, Jr. died without children in 1692, Smith Castle and their Cocumscussoc property passed to Katherine’s oldest son, Lodowick Updike, who had married Joan’s daughter Abigail Newton. 

     Sarah Updike Goddard was one of seven children born to Lodowick and Abigail (Newtown) Updike. At that time there was no official registry of birthdates. Estimated dates were often calculated from subsequent events. For example, The Op Dyck Genealogy probably assumed her position in the family (See Figure 1) because of the order in which the heirs were listed in both parents’ wills.ii

  Further, sources generally placed her year of birth “around” 1700, largely based on the fact that her well-known son William was verifiably born in 1740 and she was assumed not to have given birth much after the age of 40.iii 

     On the other hand, numerous sources referred to her having been educated with her brothers or by her older brothers’ tutors. However, using their given birthdates, they would have been well into their educations before she was even born; therefore, it is possible that she was born at least a few years earlier. In any case, Sarah’s roots were firmly buried in Rhode Island colonial history. 

     Growing up as a child in Smith’s Castle (or Updike Mansion as it came to be known), Sarah Updike was at the beginning of the Narragansett Plantation era, entering a world of wealth and privilege. In addition to her six siblings, Sarah was part of a large extended family, including the children of her married older brothers and sister, and numerous aunts and uncles with their own large families. There was probably no shortage of family events to attend in addition to opportunities to visit and be visited by other plantation families and to participate in Newport society. Like other young women of her social class, she was home- schooled, but “Sarah’s education included not only the subjects usual to the day but also French and Latin from tutors who lived in the Updike household.”iv 

     As was said of her brother’s education, “Such an education bespeaks a household with financial means and intellectual interests far beyond the average.”v 

  Sarah and her family, as well as many other Narragansett Planters, were members of the Anglican Church and religious services at St. Paul’s Church would have been a large part of her life. After years of meeting in private homes, Old St. Paul’s Church (Naraggansett Church) had been erected at a site a few miles from Smith’s Castle, funded “. . . . by the voluntary contributions of the Inhabitants. . . .”vi (i.e., the Plantation owners). 

     In 1721 Rev. James MacSparran came to Narragansett and succeeded Rev. Christopher Bridge as the second rector. After marrying into the wealthy Gardiner family, he lived the life of a country gentleman and slave-owner, serving as their religious leader for over thirty-six years. In 1735 it was Dr. MacSparran who officiated at Sarah’s wedding. 

While many of Sarah’s extended family lived in close proximity, there were other branches scattered throughout New England and even in the southern colonies. With few good roads, most travel, at least to those homes within a reasonable distance, would have been made on horseback. Sarah probably learned to ride on a now-extinct horse breed known as the Narragansett Pacer, first recognized as a breed the year she was born. It was eminently suited to the muddy cowpaths that often served as Rhode Island roads.

      There is some question as to how Sarah met her future husband, Dr. Giles Goddard. In 1720 Sarah’s older sister Esther had married Thomas Fosdick, a physician from New London, Connecticut. They had four children over the next ten years, so it is not unlikely that Sarah would have gone to visit their family. “Probably Sarah met Giles [Goddard] during visits to her sister Esther and therefore did not come as a total stranger to New London after her marriage.vii 

     On the other hand, there is an indication in her obituary that Sarah spent some years of her youth in Boston, probably with her great-aunt Elizabeth Viall’s family. Her mother Abigail had lived with Aunt Elizabeth in her teens as well. It may have been there that they became acquainted since we know Giles was originally from Boston. In any case, the following record of her wedding appeared in the Rhode Island, Vital Extracts: 

UPDIKE, Sarah, of Capt. Lodowick, and Dr. Giles Goddard of Groton, married at the home of the bride by Dr. James MacSparran Dec. 11, 1735viii

  Unlike Massachusetts Puritans, Anglican worshippers celebrated Christmas so Smith Castle would probably have been beautifully decorated as the family welcomed the many wedding guests. Perhaps there was even snow to soften the landscape. Sarah’s aged father and mother were alive to celebrate with the young couple and their mutual friend Dr. MacSparran officiated at the ceremony. 

     Gravely missed, however, was her older brother Richard, who had died suddenly the previous spring, leaving a large family. This was particularly hard on Sarah’s father, who came to rely ever more heavily on Sarah’s brother Daniel for help with the management of the plantation. Probably soon after celebrating the Twelve Days of Christmas with family and friends, Sarah and her new husband left for Connecticut where Giles was establishing himself as a physician. 

     Dr. Giles Goddard was born in 1703, the second of four sons of William and Elizabeth (Fairfield) Goddard, both born in Boston, as were Giles and his siblings. There are no records as to Dr. Goddard’s training as a physician; it is possible that he attended medical school in Boston, but it is more likely that he apprenticed with an established doctor for a period of time. In any case, he showed up as a young doctor in Groton, Connecticut in 1725 when he is recorded as participating in a subscription to build a church “conforming to Church of England laws. . . .”ix 

    Rev. James McSparran (also Sarah’s minister back in Wickford) had for several years been making occasional visits to New London to minister to Giles and a group of fellow believers, who now proposed to erect an Episcopal house of worship, which would become St. James Church. 

  In the first few years after their 1735 marriage, Sarah and Giles lived in Groton, a small seaport village just across the Thames River from New London. The next few years were a time of great joy and great sorrow for the couple. In 1736 their first child, Catherine, was born, but died at the age of two months. Soon afterwards, Sarah also lost her father Lodowick at the age of almost 92. In 1738, their daughter Katherine Mary Goddard was born, probably also in Groton. By 1740, the Goddard family was in New London, where William was born. There was apparently one more child born in 1742, who also died, followed in a few years by Sarah’s mother. By 1743 the Goddards lived in a house on Bradley Street, not far from the newly constructed St. James Episcopal Church. In addition to practicing medicine, Giles served as New London’s postmaster. 

     Much of what is known of Giles Goddard comes from the 1735-1757 diary entries of a New Londoner, Joshua Hempstead, who apparently was a patient as well as a friend. While many of his entries did not give much detail, ”I was up to Doctr [sic] Goddards in the middle of the Day,”x there were a few that provided a glimpse into the doctor’s medical practices. One such entry reported: 

I sent for Doctor Goddard & he came & considered my Case and Says tis the Same Distemper that hath of late prevailed among Children & Directs to a drink of Strong Tea made of the bark of Sassafrax [sic] Roots boiled with Lignum vitia Saw dust.xi

Although this may sound strange to modern ears, Lignum Vitae (Latin for "wood of life") came from a Caribbean hard wood and chips of the wood were used at the time to brew a tea for treatment of a variety of medical conditions from coughs to arthritis. 

    During those years Sarah was involved with her growing family, helping her husband build his practice, and with the community, social and church responsibilities expected of the well-educated wife of a prominent citizen of New London. As was common for the time, she educated her children at home. Judging by their future accomplishments, she did a fine job preparing them for careers reflecting her and Giles’ interests in both printing and the postal system. 

  By the time his son William was a teenager, Giles Goddard was becoming increasingly incapacitated by gout and more and more responsibility was falling upon Sarah, including taking over the duties of postmaster in Groton. In 1755 they made the decision to place William as an apprentice to James Parker who, in partnership with John Holt, had established the Connecticut Gazette newspaper in New Haven. Interestingly, Parker and Holt also served as postmaster and deputy postmaster respectively. This combination of printing and postal service was not uncommon at the time as it gave a printer ready access to news from around the colonies. 

    The Goddards were to continue this practice in succeeding years. Two years into Williams’ apprenticeship, his father Giles died in New London. 

The diarist Hempstead recorded the death of Dr. Giles Goddard on January 31, 1757: 

“. . . aged between 50 & 60. He hath been decrepid with the Gout &c Several years & of late Confined to his house & Bed.”xii 

     Dr. Goddard left his widow with a sizeable inheritance with which she was able to maintain the home in New London for herself and her daughter while William was completing his apprenticeship. During this time, Parker and Holt had also established the New York Gazette and William was able to gain valuable experience at that enterprise as well. William’s apprenticeship ended in 1762 and the family’s future brought them back to Rhode Island. 

    The population of Providence in 1762 was around 4000. There was only one house on Westminster Street and carriages could not travel above Empire Street because of a hill. Although it was the second largest city in Rhode Island, Providence was largely over- shadowed by Newport. There were two political factions in the colony: the Newport faction headed by Samuel Ward and the Providence faction led by Stephen Hopkins. These two men alternated as governor several times between 1758 and 1767 as the power shifted between them as well as between their two cities. 

    The printing of business, government and legal forms formed a large part of a colonial printing enterprise, eliminating the need for laborious longhand copying. However, because there was no printing press in Providence, all government printing jobs were sent to Newport and the recently established Newport Mercury, the only newspaper in the colony, was the mouthpiece of Samuel Ward. Stephen Hopkins felt it was time to overcome this handicap and he began a search for a printer to open shop in Providence; he chose William Goddard. 

     At the age of approximately 62, Sarah Updike Goddard embarked on a new phase of her life. Within a few months of the end of William’s apprenticeship, she financed her son’s establishment of the first printing and publishing business in Providence. Sarah invested 300 pounds, almost half of the inheritance she had received from Giles, for this startup. Further, Sarah and Mary Katherine moved to Providence to support the day-to-day operation of the business, which included a book and stationery store as well as the printing shop. 

       “In the conduct of this first printing venture . . . begun in July 1762, Goddard was aided by the business acumen, good judgment, and strong maternal affection of Sarah, his mother, and by the practical skill in printing, soon acquired, of his sister Mary Katherine.” xiii The first publication under the William Goddard imprint was a broadside announcing the Fall of Morro Castle at Havana followed by a theatrical playbill.xiv 

  On October 20 1762, (William’s 22nd birthday) the first issue of Providence’s first newspaper, the Providence Gazette and Country Journal, was published with Sarah and Mary Katherine’s help. During its years of publication, the 4-page weekly newspaper included: Page 1 – largely London news; Page 2 - clippings from other colonial papers and reports brought in by sea captains; Page 3 - entertainment pieces such as poems and essays and opinion pieces (usually anonymous or with a pseudonym) with the last column largely advertisements; Page 4 - public announcements and advertisements. 

     It is entirely possible that Sarah contributed anonymous essays to the newspapers. It is probable that she managed the financial affairs since William’s later financial problems did not indicate a great interest or expertise in that part of the business. She certainly promoted his interests through her extended Rhode Island family connections and social contacts, The Goddard press was responsible for the publication the following year of the first of Benjamin West’s Rhode Island Almanacs, calculated specifically for the meridian of Providence with the tides of Narragansett Bay and other pertinent information for the farmers and mariners of Rhode Island.xv 

    Some feel that Sarah, with her plantation and mercantile background, was instrumental in suggesting the need for this useful publication to her son. As the colonies moved toward the Revolutionary War, political essays crept in, fueling the movement toward independence. 

  The years 1764-1765 were volatile times in the colonies. The Stamp Act and colonial opposition to it played an important role in defining some of those grievances which eventually led to the break with England. In December of 1764 an influential pamphlet in opposition to the Stamp Act written by Stephen Hopkins (The Rights of Colonies Examined) was printed by Goddard. Issues of the Gazette in the succeeding months frequently contained articles or pseudonymous letters commenting on the pamphlet or on the Stamp Act itself. 

     While interest in the topic was heated, it apparently did not do much to increase the paper’s subscription list. It was not long after this that William decided to leave Providence in search of more lucrative business opportunity. He suspended publication of the Gazette and left for New York. His mother, with the assistance of Mary Katherine, took over the operation of the printing and publishing business, the book and stationery shop, the paper mill, which they had purchased, and the postmaster position in his absence. 

  The extent to which William was involved in the Providence firm after May 1765 is unclear. William himself was not forthright about the arrangements. In The Partnership (a book he later wrote describing difficulties with his Philadelphia partners) he stated: “And whereas the said Sarah Goddard held and possesses in partnership [italics mine] with William Goddard, a printing office at Providence . . . . “xvi which makes her sound as having equal authority. In another place in that same book, however, William says:

“At that time I had a very complete office in Providence under the superintendence of Mrs. Sarah Goddard, my mother . . . [italics mine]. “ 

  The words “I” and “superintendence” seems to imply he viewed her more as an employee. We do know that William had joined the New York printing shop of John Holt in New York as a silent partner. Although he visited Providence frequently and may have provided some guidance, Sarah was increasingly in charge of the Providence firm. 

    In late 1765 and early 1766, while William traveled regularly between New York and Providence, the firm’s publications bore the imprint Sarah & William Goddard (sometimes S. & W. Goddard), the first time Sarah’s name appeared in connection with the business and making her officially the second printer in Providence. The output included West’s Almanac for 1766, a 60-page theological pamphlet, broadsides and sermons. On August 24, 1765 A Providence Gazette, Extraordinary (headed Vox Populi, Vox Dei) was printed. It was a special edition, devoted almost exclusively to opposition of the Stamp Act. 

   Printers, publishers, and lawyers were the most negatively affected by the Act which required that newspapers and other documents be printed on stamped paper from England. Publications from the Goddard print shop became increasingly pro-Whig. The debate over the Stamp Act probably made for some interesting discussions at Updike family gatherings as much of the extended family considered themselves Loyalists.

  Another significant publication advancing the colonials’ opposition to the Stamp Act was a pamphlet, “A Discourse Addressed to the Sons of Liberty at a Solemn Assembly near Liberty Tree in Newport, February 14 1766,” published under the imprint of William and Sarah Goddard. This was credited with sparking the formation of similar groups in other colonies. xvii 

     The year 1766 was a busy one at Sarah Goddard and Company, the “company” being her daughter, Mary Katherine, an active wielder of a printer’s stick. There was enough work to warrant an assistant; Samuel Inslee was hired. In addition to the usual broadsides, sermons, and almanacs, Sarah published the first American edition of Lady M--y W----y M------ e: Letters . . Written During Her Travels in Europe, Asia and Africa. Lady Wortley’s letters to female friends in the volume provided “. . . intimate glimpses into the women’s world of Eastern Europe and the Middle East”xviii and were immensely popular. This was an ambitious project for a small printer, being over 200 pages long.

  Meanwhile, the Goddard Bookshop imported books from London, offering its Providence customers contact with the outside intellectual world. And it did not just offer the usual religious books; the shop stocked titles such as the Tattler (a British literary and society journal), Tom Jones, The Rambler (a series of short papers by Samuel Johnson), and The Adventures of Roderick Random (a picaresque novel by Tobias Smollett).xix 

  The choices were undoubtedly reflective of Sarah’s wide-ranging literary interests. Under Sarah’s supervision, even the paper mill was beginning to show a slight profit. On August 9, 1766, Sarah was able to revive the weekly Providence Gazette. In the usual page one “Notice to the Public” she indicated that, even though William had not considered the paper a profitable enterprise, she was going ahead with it anyway, thinking it was important for the community. 

    Being a careful businesswoman, however, she did require that one-half the annual subscription cost had to be paid on receiving the first issue and that “provisions, grain of any kind, tallow, wood, wool and many other articles of country produce” would be accepted in lieu of money.xx 

     By the end of 1766 William was in Philadelphia making plans for his newest venture in partnership with Joseph Galloway and Thomas Wharton. In January, 1767 Sarah was probably proud when she reprinted a notice announcing the forthcoming appearance of her son’s Philadelphia newspaper, The Pennsylvania Chronicle and Universal Advertiser. “Modeling his plans upon the London Chronicle, Goddard tried to make his Chronicle the paper of his dreams”xxi -- a large folio with four columns instead of the usual three. It was considered the best colonial newspaper of its time and had the largest circulation. 

  The owners of the rival Philadelphia Journal, in part probably nervous about his success, began to criticize articles in Goddard’s paper, particularly those defending Benjamin Franklin. A newspaper war ensued for several weeks in the spring of 1767. William, who later claimed that it was at the insistence of his partners, inserted an attack on the various writers of the Journal, signed Lex Talionis (the Biblical law of eye for an eye). 

  After its publication, Sarah wrote a lengthy letter to her disputatious son, expressing her concern and disapproval of the Lex Talionis article and urging forbearance. In part, she advised: 

 “It is with aching heart and trembling hand I attempt to write, but hardly able, for the great concern and anxious fears the sight of your late Chronicles gave me to find you deeper and deeper in an unhappy uncomfortable situation. In your calm hours of reflection, you must see the impropriety of publishing such pieces . . . . attacking writers of one of the opposition newspapers. . . for everyone who takes delight in publicly or privately taking away any person’s good name, or striving to render him ridiculous, are in the gall of bitterness, and in the bonds of iniquity, whatever their pretense may be for it. . . . I heartily wish it was within the reach of my faint efforts to convey to you what threescore and almost ten years experience has taught me, of the mere nothingness of all you are disputing about, and the infinite importance and value of what you thereby neglect and disregard . . . the law of universal love . . . . xxii

     Apparently he took her rebuke to heart and they reconciled, because starting in June, she regularly included articles from the Chronicle on the pages of the Gazette. 

    In August John Carter came from Benjamin Franklin’s Philadelphia office to work with her and soon afterwards became her partner. The Gazette was now published under the imprint of Sarah Goddard and John Carter. 

  In addition to her business skills, Sarah possessed a high degree of interest in and knowledge of the political scene. In December of 1767 the Chronicle was the first in the colonies to publish John Dickinson’s “Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania to the Inhabitants of the British Colonies,” a series of 12 essays written by a Pennsylvania lawyer and legislator. Sarah recognized their importance and wrote to her son: 

 “Our friend Judge Chase and I think it would be a good scheme in you to print the Farmer’s letters in a pamphlet, and that soon, as they appear to be the completest pieces ever wrote on the subject in America. They are universally admired here.xxiii 

  Dickinson’s letters were widely reprinted and read throughout the colonies and were recognized as important in uniting the colonists against the Townshend Acts. It would indeed have been highly profitable for William to publish those pamphlets. Unfortunately, his partners did not share his political views and opposed the project, further increasing the friction present almost from the beginning of their partnership. 

     The year 1768 was to bring another great change in Sarah’s life. Possibly in the belief that Sarah might moderate her son’s ideas, in May Galloway and Wharton proposed that William should sell the Providence business and move his mother and sister to Philadelphia. “They promised to ‘take a genteel house’ for the family and to ‘advance a sum sufficient to set up her [Sarah Goddard] in a store of books and stationery.’ Money was also to be allowed to the mother ‘for her superintendence of family affairs.’” xxiv 

     At first, William was opposed to the idea, but he was eventually convinced that it was in his best interests. He wrote to Sarah, who replied that she preferred to remain in Providence: 

. . . . for my life is almost at a close, and I can hardly think of removing so near the period of my days into a strange part of the world, to launch a new set of acquaintance, and to leave all my former ones, the companions of my youth, and the supporters of my old age . . . .xxv

  At the urging of his partners, William went to see her in person. Later he wrote: “This I did and laid the prospect before her and she from motives of maternal tenderness consented to leave an easy agreeable situation and a multitude of amicable friends, and my sister agreed to accompany her.”xxvi William relinquished his position of postmaster, which Sarah had been maintaining in his absence, and the November 5th issue of the Providence Gazette carried Sarah’s farewell to Providence.xxvii It was obviously hard for Sarah to leave. 

  A week later the print shop and the Providence Gazette was sold to John Carter for $550.00 (it remained in his possession until 1814). Things did not go as planned in Philadelpia. According to William’s later account, his partners Galloway and Wharton did not follow through on their promises to provide suitable housing for the Goddards and William was forced to make the arrangements himself. Also according to William, Wharton then objected to his choices, saying: “A house in an alley would answer thy purpose well enough” to which William replied, “. . . as we did not come out of an alley, we will not be driven into one . . . .”xxviii Apparently, Wharton also objected to a small press which Sarah had received for the purpose of printing forms from home; she returned it. In late 1769, Sarah wrote to her sister about the physical difficulties she had adjusting to life in Philadelphia: 

 “This Serves to Acquaint you that altho I have been much indisposed this winter, that through the goodness of God I am in a better State of Health than I have been for Sometime when I first came to this City the Air and Climate did not seem to agree with me. If I Stay I hope it will become more Natural.”xxix 

     In December Sarah deeded the remaining Connecticut properties she had inherited from her husband to William, in return for which he promised to allow her support from the Philadelphia shop. During William’s frequent trips, some on postal business and some of which involved his continuing partnership and financial problems, Sarah and Mary Katherine maintained the Philadelphia office, newspaper and shop as they had done earlier in Providence. 

Early in January, 1770, while William was traveling in New York, he received a letter from his mother offering sympathy and support for his current difficulties and reassuring him that the Philadelphia Chronicle was doing well, with new subscriptions every day. The very next day he received word from a friend that his mother had died on Friday, January 5th. Mary Katherine also wrote, urging him to return to Philadelphia as soon as possible. 

     Sarah Updike Goddard was buried on Sunday, January 7, 1770 in Christ Church’s Burial Ground, 5th & Arch Streets, Philadelphia.  A lengthy anonymous memorial appeared in the January 20, 1770 issue of the New York Gazette (later reprinted in the February 10, 1770 Providence Gazette). Such a long obituary was unusual in the 18th century for anyone, much less a woman. The anonymous author, saying he was “no relation to the family and ... not intimately acquainted. . . “after a biographical summary, ended by writing: 

. . . . Her uncommon attainments in literature were the least of valuable parts of her character. Her conduct through all the changing trying scenes of life, was not only unblameable, but even exemplary – a sincere piety, an unaffected humility, an easy agreeable cheerfulness and affability, an entertaining, sensible and edifying conversation, and a prudent attention to all the duties of domestic life, endeared her to all her acquaintance, especially in the relations of wife, parent, friend and neighbour. The death of such a person is a public loss, an irreparable one to her children! xxx 

  Some have criticized the eulogy, as not giving Sarah enough credit for her part in her son’s career and in the colonial newspaper and printing worlds; she probably would have considered it the highest compliment since it stressed her personal, rather than business, traits. 

  Her children’s future successes would probably have brought great joy to her. Mary Katherine continued to run businesses for her brother for many years and excelled as a publisher of several of his newspapers, became Baltimore’s first postmaster, and became famous for publishing the first signed copy of the Declaration of Independence, at some risk to her own life. 

     William, besides his printing and publishing career, was recognized as an American patriot of the Pre- and Revolutionary Period and as creator of the Constitutional Post for intercolonial mail service. When the Postal Service Act was passed in 1792, his ideals of open communication and freedom from governmental interference formed the basis of the new system, although to his disappointment Benjamin Franklin, rather than he, was appointed First Postmaster General. Later in life, William married Abigail Angell and they had one son and four daughters, who carried Sarah’s ideals into future generations. 

END NOTES

 i From Poem in Providence Gazette, March 17, 1765.

 ii Charles Wilson Opdyke, The Op Dyck Genealogy (Albany, NY: Week, Parsons & Co., 1889), pp. 91-93.

 iii Opdyke, op cit., p. 87.

 iv Ward L. Miner, “Goddard, Sarah Updike,” Notable American Women, Vol. II, p. 56-57/ 

v Ward L. Miner, William Goddard, Newspaperman (Duke University Press: Durham, NC, 1962), p. 11-12. 

vi Woodard, p. 66.

 vii Miner, William Goddard, Newspaperman, p. 11. 

viii Rhode Island, Vital Extracts, 1636-1899 [database on-line], Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014 (accessed 2/18/2018).

 ix Ed. Benjamin Tinkham Marshall, A Modern History of New London County, Connecticut.Vol. I (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing, 1922, p.388. (Excerpt from Diary of Joshua Hempstead).

 x Miner, William Goddard: Newspaperman, p. 9.

 xi Ibid. 

xii Ibid., p. 11.

 xiii Lawrence C. Wroth, The First Press in Providence. Presented at the Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society, 1942, p. 356.

 xiv Rhode Island Imprints (1727-1800), Printed for the Rhode Island Historical Society, 1915. 

xv Wroth, p. 361. xvi William Goddard, The Partnership (William Goddard: Philadelphia, 1770), p. 26. 

xvii The John Carter Library Website, Pamphlet Wars: Arguments on Paper from the Age of Revolutions, [It is possible to view the entire scanned pamphlet at this site], Accessed on 4/3/2018. http://www.brown.edu/ Facilities/John_Carter_Brown_Library/exhibitions/pamphletWars/pages/crisis.html

xviii Ken J. Bates, A Colonial Woman’s Bookshelf (Eugene, Oregon: Wipf & Stock, 1996), pp.120-121. 

xix Wroth, p. 379. 

xx Printers and Printing in Providence, Prepared by a Committee of Providence Typographical Union No. 33 as a Souvenir of the Fiftieth Anniversary of Its Institution (Providence, RI: 1907), p. 12 

xxi Miner, p. 68. X

xii Quoted in Miner, pp. 75-76. 

xxiii Quoted in Miner, p. 82. 

xxiv Miner (with quotations), p. 84. 

xxv Quoted in Miner, p. 84. xxvi Goddard, op cit.

 xxvii Providence Gazette, Saturday, November 5, 1768, Issue 252, Page 3 Image from Genealogy Bank.com, Accessed 4/16/2018. 

xxviii Goddard, p. 22. 

xxix March 14, 1769 Letter, Updike Manuscript and Autograph Collection, Providence Public Library.

 xxx Quoted in Wilkins Updike, Esq. Memoirs of the Rhode-Island Bar (Boston: Thomas H. Webb, 1842), p. 256- 257.

“Shakespeare’s Head” today courtesy the Providence Preservation Society.