Anne Catharine Hoof Green (c. 1720-1775)
MSA SC 3520-14736
Biography:
Born in Holland around 1720, Anne Catharine Hoof Green ascended to the helm of Maryland’s most prominent printing press upon the death of her husband in 1767. Years of prior printing experience equipped her with the knowledge and skills to be successful, all while fulfilling the duties expected of an eighteenth-century woman and mother. Over 250 years after her death, historians continue to regard Anne Catharine Hoof Green as a pillar of printing history. [1]
Historians have yet to uncover substantial material shedding light on the early life of Anne Catharine Hoof Green. It is unclear when exactly she came to the British colonies. The earliest known record related to Hoof Green originates from her marriage to Jonas Green in Philadelphia on April 25, 1738. [2] Shortly after their marriage, and with Anne pregnant with their first child, the couple moved to Annapolis, Maryland, where Jonas set up a printing shop. [3] The couple had a total of fourteen children born between 1738 and 1760, only six of whom survived to maturity. [4]
Upon their arrival in Annapolis, Jonas Green worked to establish himself as a respected printer and publisher in the colony. In 1738, he was appointed as the printer of the province of Maryland. [5] Having obtained a license to print in the colony, Green also began publishing the Maryland Gazette. While the position provided him with steady government work, the income it yielded could be irregular and added a financial burden to the burgeoning Green family. Even though his printing skills were undisputed and he completed his duties on time, Green was not a strong businessman. Though extremely popular in his social group, Jonas Green died deeply in debt. [6]
On November 1, 1743, Jonas Green found himself unable to pay a considerable debt to Daniel Dulany. In order to avoid punishment, Green mortgaged Rachel, an eleven-year-old Black girl who he enslaved. “I Jonas Green of the City of Annapolis Printer stand Justly Indebted…[to] Daniel Dulany of the same Place Esqr. [for] Forty three pounds fifteen Shillings Current money of Maryland and the Interest thereof,” the mortgage contract began. “I the said Jonas Green…Do Bargain and Sell unto the said Daniel Dulany…one Negro Girl named Rachel aged about Eleven Years.” Four years passed before Green could gather enough funds to pay Dulany back—and officially re-enslave Rachel. On August 22, 1747, Daniel Dulany legally declared that his debt with Green had been settled and that he had “no right or Claim” to Rachel. The mortgage contract filed amongst the Anne Arundel County land records are the only known account of Rachel’s life. It is unknown what role she had in the Green household and/or business. She does not appear in Jonas Green’s 1767 probate inventory. Rachel is one of two individuals known to have been enslaved by Jonas Green. [7]
The Green print shop was a family business. As matriarch, Anne Catharine Hoof Green not only reared her children, she sought additional sources for supplemental income. On July 1, 1746, Anne notified the readership of the Maryland Gazette that she was selling “CHOICE good COFFEE, at Half a Crown a Pound.” Two months later, she placed another advertisement. This time, she sold raisins at the rate of 18 pence per pound. And in March 1749, Anne sold chocolate out of the Annapolis post office where Jonas served as post-master. [8]
It is highly probable that Anne Catharine Hoof Green was involved in the Green family printing business during her husband’s lifetime. When Jonas Green died in the spring of 1767, Anne seamlessly carried on printing the laws of Maryland and publishing the Maryland Gazette; the newspaper did not miss an issue. Indeed, she urged her readership to continue supporting the newspaper. On April 16, 1767, Anne informed the public that her husband and the printer of the colony, Jonas, had died the previous Saturday evening at the Green home on Charles Street in Annapolis. Immediately below that obituary, Anne addressed the public directly: “I flatter myself, that, with your kind Indulgence and Encouragement, Myself, and Son, will be enabled to continue [the Maryland Gazette] on the same Footing” as before Jonas’s death. [9]
For fourteen months, Anne Catharine Hoof Green managed and operated the Green press without receiving compensation for her labor. Finally, in June 1768, the Maryland General Assembly acknowledged her work, agreed to furnish her with backpay, and appointed Green the printer of the colony of Maryland under the same terms and conditions as her late husband. With the government license in-hand, Green joined Dinah Nuthead as the only women printers in the history of colonial Maryland. [10]
Within three years, Anne Catharine had paid off much of Jonas’s debt, collected money from those indebted to Jonas’s estate, and purchased the family’s long-time home and business. She firmly requested payment from approximately 1,200 of her husband’s debtors. If they did not cooperate, Green broadcasted in the Maryland Gazette, she would “pursue every legal Method, for their speedy Recovery.” In addition to getting the business on better financial footing, Anne rearranged the physical placement of the shop and supplies to be in closer proximity to the house, so that she could blend her roles as mother and businesswoman with more fluidity. [11]
Anne Catharine Green not only printed the Maryland Gazette and documents for the government, but she is also credited with publishing an almanac, political pamphlets, the bylaws of the city of Annapolis, and Maryland currency (the only colonial woman to do so). Green also printed “the first book produced in Maryland with an engraved title page” in collaboration with Thomas Sparrow, the ward of and apprentice for the Green family. [12] The variety of products produced by the Green print shop under Anne Catharine’s management as “master printer” is remarkable; built upon and surpassing the oeuvre of her husband, Jonas. [13]
Under Anne Catharine Green’s stewardship, the Maryland Gazette cemented its place as Maryland’s paper of record so much so that it remains a vital archival resource for researchers seeking to understand colonial America up to and through the American Revolution. [14] As historian Jane Wilson McWilliams has written, the importance of the Maryland Gazette – which ran from 1745 to 1839 with little interruption – “cannot be overstated”:
“Jonas Green and his successors printed international and national news…they did not hesitate to report interesting news gathered from visitors to town, ship captains recently arrived in the Severn, private letters, and other personal sources. During the eighteenth century, the paper carried the proceedings and laws of the General Assembly, government proclamations, accounts of murders and unusual crimes elsewhere in Maryland, and not as much local news as we’d like. Usually advertisements filled half the paper, and they are as valuable as the news for the information they give on the conditions and clothing of runaway slaves and servants; the locations of peripatetic tavern keepers, shopkeepers, and craftsmen; the identifying marks of lost horses; owners and fees of stud horses; merchandise imported; sales of personal and real property; the services of visiting specialists such as oculists and dentists—in short, the whole aspect of the times…Read and discussed in State House and tavern, coffeehouse and parlor, the Maryland Gazette played an essential role in colonial Annapolis.” [15]
As the only newspaper in Maryland until 1773, the Greens possessed some measure of influence in their community. Anne Catharine Hoof Green rarely contributed comments on the events related in the paper, setting a precedent for journalistic neutrality at the Gazette. Instead, Green allowed individuals from multiple perspectives to print pieces in the paper. However, during tumultuous times, her position as editor and printer gave her the unofficial role of “gatekeeper for political debate.” [16]
One of the most important editorial decisions she made was to print the "Antilon" and "First Citizen" letters. These letters, eight in all, published from January to July 1773, made up a debate between rising country party politician Charles Carroll of Carrollton (First Citizen) and veteran of the conservative court party Daniel Dulany, Jr. (Antilon). Carroll and Dulany represented two sides of a debate over representative government, the English constitution, and taxation in Maryland. Annapolitans swarmed the Anne Catharine’s print shop on Charles Street clamoring for the next issue containing the debate. Carroll’s perceived performance in the First Citizen-Antilon debate catapulted him into the “pantheon of country party leaders,” setting him on his way to becoming a signer of the Declaration of Independence three years later. In printing and encouraging the exchange of these letters, Anne Catharine Green provided a platform for not only political news, but also where political ideas could be exchanged freely and productively leading up to the American Revolution. [17]
Two years following the death of her husband, after reversing the financial fortunes of the Green press, Anne Catharine Hoof Green commissioned a portrait of herself from the renowned painter and fellow Marylander, Charles Willson Peale. Sitting at a small table – perhaps contemplating her late husband’s death yet undeterred by the prospect of her future – Green posed for Peale with an important document in her hand. Under the small table, Green held not flowers nor needlework, but a copy of the government contract that vested her “Annapolis Printer” in 1768. Her posture and her possessions convey how Anne Catharine Hoof Green grasped the gravity – and rarity – of her position as printer of Maryland. A copy of her portrait hangs at the Maryland State House in Annapolis, while the original portrait is on display at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. [18]
On March 23, 1775, Anne Catharine Hoof Green passed away. Her sons, Frederick and Samuel, seamlessly continued operating the family printing business in the wake of her death—just as their mother did eight years before. The obituary that appeared in the March 30 issue of the Maryland Gazette, presumably written by Frederick, described her as, “of a mild and benevolent disposition.” She had served as the printer of the province – formally and informally – since 1767. She was considered, "an example to her sex," in both her public and family life. [19]
Anne Catharine Hoof Green’s work, life, and legacy remain crucial aspects of any study on the history of printing in colonial America. In 1984, the Maryland Delaware D.C. Press Association inducted Green into the association’s Newspaper Hall of Fame. In 2010, she was inducted into the Maryland Women’s Hall of Fame. [20]
Updated April 2026
Endnotes:
[1] The late Dr. Mark Leone, Distinguished University Professor of Archaeology and Director of Archaeology in Annapolis, wrote “come to represent the capacity of women in the 18th century Annapolis and Maryland to free themselves from the legal and social constraints imposed on women.” Letter of support from the late Dr. Mark Leone for Green's Maryland Women's Hall of Fame Nomination.
[2] "Philadelphia Christ Church Register of Marriage," Pennsylvania Archives, Harrisburg: Second Series, VIII (1880), 105; Christ Church (Philadelphia, Pa.), “Baptisms, marriages, and burials, Christ Church, 1719-1750,” Philadelphia Congregations Early Records, accessed 07 April 2026.
[3] Jean Russo, "2010 Maryland Women's Hall of Fame Nomination"; Barbara J. Little, “Ideology and Media: Historical Archaeology of Printing in Eighteenth-Century Annapolis, Maryland,” (PhD diss., State University of New York at Buffalo, 1987), 118-137; 138-154, Maryland State Archives (Library, 1050 P9, Little); Jonas Green worked for Benjamin Franklin in Philadelphia. For more on this relationship, see the following: Letters, Jonas Green to Benjamin Franklin (25 July 1747) and Jonas Green to Benjamin Franklin (04 July 1752) National Archives and Records Administration: Founders Online, accessed 13 April 2026; “Green, Jonas (1712-1767), Printer,” Franklin Papers, accessed 13 April 2026; For more on Benjamin Franklin and his sister-in-law Ann Franklin – who was an accomplished printer in her own right – see the following: “Chapter Three: Ann (Smith) Franklin: Printer, Publisher, and Editor; Newport, Rhode Island, 1734-1763,” in Hudak, Early American Women Printers and Publishers (The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1978): 33-130; Emily Peterman, “Speaking in Relief: Women in the Early American Printing Industry,” Massachusetts Historical Society (11 April 2023); “Notes on the Journey from Boston to Philadelphia in 1723 [c. 29 November 1783],” National Archives and Records Administration: Founders Online, accessed 13 April 2026; “An inauspicious arrival for the ambitious Benjamin Franklin,” Penn Today (05 October 2023); Valerie-Anne Lutz, “Notes revealed Ben Franklin’s date of arrival in Philadelphia,” American Philosophical Society (02 October 2023); “Benjamin Franklin, 1706-1790,” Penn Libraries: University Archives & Records Center.
[4] Russo, “2010 Maryland Women's Hall of Fame Nomination”; “A Chartered City, 1708-1764,” in Annapolis, City on the Severn, by Jane Wilson McWilliams (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011): 54.
[5] Proceedings and Acts of the General Assembly, 1737-1740 [Archives of Maryland Online, 40: 178, 380, 408, 522].
[6] David C. Skaggs, "Editorial Policies of the Maryland Gazette, 1765-1783," Maryland Historical Magazine 59, no. 4 (December 1964), 341-342; Little, “Ideology and Media,” (1987); PREROGATIVE COURT (Testamentary Papers) 1767, Jonas Green, Box 74, folder 31 [MSA S541-83]; PREROGATIVE COURT (Inventories) 1767, Jonas Green [MSA SM11-95].
[7] On August 1, 1756, an Annapolis barber named William Logan sold to “Negro Dick a Slave belonging to Jonas Green…one Quart of Rum without a Note in Writing from his Master.” Records from the Annapolis Mayor’s Court uncover Logan's serial violations of the city’s liquor laws and, in doing so, identified another individual whom Jonas Green enslaved. ANNAPOLIS MAYORS COURT (Minutes) 1765-1767, “i as Annapolis Records 3’ [MSA M44-3]. For Jonas Green’s mortgaging of Rachel, see ANNE ARUNDEL COUNTY COURT (Land Records) 1740-1744, RB 1: 325-326 [MSA CE 76-18]; ANNE ARUNDEL COUNTY COURT (Land Records) 1744-1748, RB 2: 474 [MSA CE 76-19]; Barbara J. Little, “Ideology and Media: Historical Archaeology of Printing in Eighteenth-Century Annapolis, Maryland,” (PhD diss., State University of New York at Buffalo, 1987), 127-129, Maryland State Archives (Library, 1050 P9, Little). Neither Rachel nor Dick appear in Jonas Green’s inventory conducted upon his death in 1767. Two indentured servants, however, are named in the inventory. PREROGATIVE COURT (Testamentary Papers) 1767, Box 74, Folder 31 [MSA S541-83]; PREROGATIVE COURT (Inventories) 1767, Jonas Green [MSA SM11-95].
[8] Lawrence C. Wroth, A History of Printing in Colonial Maryland: 1686-1776 (Baltimore: Typothetae of Baltimore, 1922), 90; Maryland Gazette (02 July 1761), (November 1764); Maryland Gazette Collection, 01 July 1746, 23 September 1746, 16 March 1749 [MSA SC2731, SCM1-images 252, 294; SCM2-image 44]; Marianne Ellis Alexander, "Anne Catherine Green, 1720-1775: Public Printer," in Notable Maryland Women (Cambridge, Md: Tidewater Publishers, 1977), 170.
[9] Margot Mohsberg, “Ink Trails Through Home,” The Capital, May 15, 2001, accessed 09 August 2010; Wroth, 90; “Annapolis, April 16,” and “To the PUBLIC,” Maryland Gazette, 16 April 1767 [MSA SC2311-1-11, image 253]; Leona M. Hudak, "Anne Catharine (Hoof) Green (1767-1775)," in Early American Women Printers and Publishers, 1639-1820 (Metuchen, N.J.: The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1978), 266. Return to text
[10] Proceedings and Acts of the General Assembly, 1766-1768 [ Archives of Maryland Online: 61: 287, 314, 322-323, 343, 394-395, 455-458]; Hudak, 267; For more information on Dinah Nuthead, see the following: Lawrence C. Wroth, “The St. Mary’s City Press: A New Chronology of American Printing,” Maryland Historical Magazine 31, no. 2 (June 1936); “Chapter One: The Nuthead Press of Jamestown, St. Mary's and Annapolis—William Nuthead, the Inaugurator of Printing in Virginia and Maryland—Dinah Nuthead, his Successor,” in A History of Printing in Colonial Maryland: 1686-1776, by Lawrence C. Wroth (Typothetae of Baltimore, 1922): 1-16; “Chapter Two: Dinah Nuthead, Annapolis, 1696-1702,” in Hudak, Early American Women Printers and Publishers (The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1978): 25-32; Henry M. Miller, “Nuthead and the Story of ‘M’,” Historic St. Mary’s City, accessed 13 April 2026; “Preface,” in Proceedings and Acts of the General Assembly, 1693-1697 [Archives of Maryland Online, 19: preface 9]; “Dinah Nuthead Devoran Olney Asa,” Dr. Lois Green Carr Women’s Career Files [MSA SC 4040-1145-1]; MARYLAND STATE ARCHIVES (Accession Problems and Miscellaneous) 1685-1693 [MSA T68-14-1].
[11] “All Persons having just Claims against the Estate of Jonas Green…,” 07 May 1767 [SCM6-image399] and “The Subscriber being anxious to settle…,” 08 October 1767 [SCM7-image 65] in Maryland Gazette [MSA SC2731]; “Parcel 31: Lot 42” in Annapolis Lot Histories and Maps, volume II, pp. 516-518 [MSA REF 1091, MD HR].
[12] McWilliams, Annapolis, City on the Severn, 70-71, 87; Alexander, 169; Lawrence C. Wroth, A History of Printing in Colonial Maryland: 1686-1776 (Typothetae Of Baltimore, 1922): Archives of Maryland Online, 435: 88; For an example of currency, see “Maryland two dollar note dated March 1, 1770,” Willard Mumford Collection [MSA SC 6244-3-9]; Willard R. Mumford, “Barter, Bits, Bills, and Tobacco: The Story of Money in Early Maryland,” The Maryland State Archives and the Maryland Historical Trust (2002).
[13] Carrie Kiewitt, "2010 Maryland Women's Hall of Fame Nomination."
[14] Skaggs, 341; Hudak, 274; Maryland Gazette, 9 September 1773.
[15] McWilliams, Annapolis, City on the Severn, 44; Elihu Riley, 'The Ancient City': A History of Annapolis, in Maryland: 1649-1887, (Annapolis, MD: Record Printing Office, 1887), 98.
[16] Gregory A. Stiverson, letter in support of "2010 Maryland Women's Hall of Fame Nomination."
[17] Peter Onuf, Maryland and the Empire, 1773: The Antilon-First Citizen Letters (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1974), 15; McWilliams, Annapolis, City on the Severn, 83-86.
[18] “Anne Catharine Hoof Green,” by Charles Willson Peale, 1769 (Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, NPG.91.152); “Anne Catharine Hoof Green (1720-1775),” Maryland State Archives, Artistic Properties Commission, (Maryland State House, Senate Committee Room), reproduction, 2015; Russo; Hudak, 276.
[19] Maryland Gazette, 30 March 1775.
Return
to Anne Catharine Hoof Green's Introductory Page
|
Tell Us What You Think About the Maryland State Archives Website!
|