Goddard and her brother, William, were both educated by their mother, Sarah. Sarah taught her children Latin, French and the literary classics. Their father, Giles Goddard, died when Mary Katherine was almost twenty years old. His estate allowed Sarah to loan her son enough money to begin a printing business in Providence, Rhode Island. It was the first printing business in that colony.
Sarah and Mary Katherine moved to Providence when Mary Katherine was twenty four. William began doing a lot of traveling, so it was up to Sarah and Mary Katherine to run the printing business.
William had started printing the Providence Gazette and Country Journal, but it was mother, Sarah, who really published the paper. Mary Katherine excelled at working as a typesetter, printer and journalist. Together, the two women added a bookbindery and began publishing almanacs, pamphlets and a few books.
Restless and unpredictable, William moved to Philadelphia and started another print shop and newspaper, the Philadelphia Chronicle and Universal Advertiser. His mother again provided him with financial assistance to begin the paper and, again, mother and daughter followed to help run the paper.
Sarah Goddard died not long after moving to Philadelphia, so it was up to Mary Katherine to keep the business running. William was still traveling, but he was also in the process of attempting to set up a postal system in opposition to the British postal system.
Even after the death of their mother, Mary Katherine followed her brother to Baltimore, where he started the Maryland Journal andBaltimore Advertiser. William yet again took to traveling, leaving the running of the publication in the hands of his capable sister.
While William was away on one of his sojourns, Mary Katherine appointed herself the title of Publisher by placing "Published by M.K. Goddard" on the masthead, something William did not dispute upon his return.
Around that time, Mary Katherine Goddard was named the first femalepostmaster in colonial America. At that time, newspapers were considered an essential form of communication. Being both a printer of a newspaper and postmaster, Goddard was looked upon as the "center of the information exchange." [1]
She was a popular citizen of the Baltimore area, not only for the information she provided, but also for the way she did business.
Goddard kept the newspaper printing from 1775 to 1784 - during the American Revolution when many newspapers could not print on a continual basis or had to shut down altogether. Goddard ran a bookbindery to supplement her income from the newspaper and kept the mail going by sometimes paying post riders with her own money. She also accepted the barter of food for a subscription to the paper.
When independence was declared in 1776, the signers of that document would have been executed for treason were their identities known. Copies of the Declaration of Independence were circulated without signatures.
Mary Katherine Goddard published the first copy of the Declaration of Independence with the identities of the signers revealed.
In 1784, William removed his sister's name from the masthead of the Maryland Journal and Baltimore Advertiser. There is record of Mary Katherine having five lawsuits against William around that time and, chances are, William forced his sister to quit out of jealousy over her successes.[2]
Five years later, Mary Katherine Goddard was removed from her post as Baltimore's postmaster. The reason Goddard was given for this move was that "some inferior offices would be put under the direction of the deputy here, & more traveling might be necessary than a woman could undertake."[3]
Goddard appealed to George Washington and petitioned Congress to be allowed to keep her position. Her petition was endorsed by over 200 businessmen in Baltimore, quite a feat at that time.
But no amount of petitioning would change anything. Goddard was removed from the postmaster position. She spent the remainder of her life running a bookstore in Baltimore.
Mary Katherine Goddard died in 1816.
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