Goddard, Sarah

Goddard, Sarah (b. Updike)

(1700–77) printer; born in Cocumscussuc, R.I. Wellborn and well-educated by the standards of the times, when her doctor husband died, she backed her son William Goddard in starting the first printing firm and newspaper in Providence (The Gazette) in 1762. In 1765 she took over the enterprise herself; in 1768 she sold the firm and followed her son to Philadelphia where she provided both financial and administrative support to his printing operations.