Sarah Updike Goddard (January 5, 1770) was an early American printer, as well as a co-founder and publisher of the ''Providence Gazette and Country Journal'', the first newspaper founded in

Providence, Rhode Island Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. One of the oldest cities in New England, it was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts ...

. She worked closely with her son

William William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...

and daughter Mary Katherine, who both also became printers and publishers, forming one of the earliest influential publishing dynasties in the American colonies.

Early years and education

Sarah Updike was born at Cocumscussuc,

Rhode Island Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area and the seventh-least populous, with slightly fewer than 1.1 million residents as of 2020, but it ...

, just north of the village of

Wickford Wickford is a town and civil parish in the south of the English county of Essex, with a population of 33,486. Located approximately 30 miles (50 km) east of London, it is within the Borough of Basildon along with the original town of Basil ...

, where her parents, Lodowick Updike (anglicized from Opdyck) and Abigail (Newton) Updike, had inherited

Smith's Castle Smith's Castle, built in 1678, is a house museum at 55 Richard Smith Drive, near Wickford, a village in North Kingstown, Rhode Island, United States. Smith's Castle is one of the oldest houses in the state. It was designated a National Historic ...

, the original site of Roger Williams' trading post. Sarah was one of six children; her brother Daniel would go on to serve as attorney general of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. She was well educated, studying French and Latin in addition to more usual subjects.

Career

In 1735, she married Giles Goddard, a well-to-do physician, and they settled in

New London, Connecticut New London is a seaport city and a port of entry on the northeast coast of the United States, located at the mouth of the Thames River in New London County, Connecticut. It was one of the world's three busiest whaling ports for several decade ...

. Giles Goddard was also the postmaster in New London, and when he fell ill in 1755, Sarah served as postmaster in his place. Both of their surviving children — Mary Katherine and

— became involved in the printing and publishing businesses. 1762 Providence Gazette and Country Journal RI Nov20

Sometime after Giles's death in 1757, Sarah moved to

, where in 1762 she financed her son William to set up Providence's first print shop and an associated weekly newspaper, the ''Providence Gazette and Country Journal''. Both Sarah and her daughter Mary Katherine worked in the shop and developed into accomplished printers alongside head printer John Carter, who had apprenticed with

Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin ( April 17, 1790) was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the leading inte ...

. In 1765, due to a lack of subscribers, William suspended publication of the ''Providence Gazette'' and moved away. Sarah took over management of the print shop with the help of Mary Katherine and issued broadsides and pamphlets as well as the annual ''West's Almanack'' under the imprint "S. & W. Goddard". In 1766, she revived the ''Providence Gazette'' with "Sarah Goddard & Company" as the publisher. That same year, she printed the first American edition of the letters of the essayist and poet

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (née Pierrepont; 15 May 168921 August 1762) was an English aristocrat, writer, and poet. Born in 1689, Lady Mary spent her early life in England. In 1712, Lady Mary married Edward Wortley Montagu, who later served a ...

. She added a bookstore and bindery to her operation before selling the business in 1768 to John Carter. Goddard and Mary Katherine then moved to Philadelphia, where William had launched a new paper, the ''Pennsylvania Chronicle and Universal Advertiser''. This paper had run into trouble due to William's erratic management and many absences. Goddard took over management of the paper and provided financial support, which allowed the ''Chronicle'' to survive. However, she died within a year of the move, leaving her daughter as the paper's manager. A contemporary obituary praised Goddard for her "uncommon attainments in literature" and her "sensible and edifying conversation". In 1998, Goddard was inducted into the

Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame The Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame was established in the State of Rhode Island in 1965. Its mission statement states that the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame "exists to honor and recognize, and to extol and publicize the achievements of th ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Goddard, Sarah Updike 1701 births 1770 deaths American publishers (people) People of colonial Rhode Island American printers Women printers People from Narragansett, Rhode Island 18th-century American women writers 18th-century American businesswomen 18th-century American businesspeople