John Ryan (printer)

In her book, Maudie Whelan cites W.N. Glascock as having a first-hand account of printing in Newfoundland. It is likely that Glascock is referring to the Ryan family here:^[8]

Notwithstanding that newspapers in this colony are saleable without being subject to any duty, it would appear that the profits, arising from that of even the most extensive circulation, are no more than competent to the maintenance of a family. In the instance alluded to, the various departments of exertion left no individual, young or old, male or female, unoccupied. The father took the literary lead, and wrote the leading article; the son-in-law (a half-pay purser in the navy) sometimes sported a quiet quill on a little quackery in political economy; the mother, not having much pretensions to letters, except in type (for she could assist as compositor at a pinch), collected and arranged little receipts for preserves, pickling, and pretty progeny; whilst the daughters, who were spinsters, professing total ignorance of the mystery of the latter composition, confined their talents to aiding in the composition of type, and correcting the press, which usually went on during the hour of tea, when every avowed contributor considered himself a privileged guest.^[9]

• Davies, Gwendolyn (2012). "New Brunswick Loyalist Printers in the Post-war Atlantic World: Cultural Transfer and Cultural Challenges". In Bannister, Jerry; Riordan, Liam (eds.). The Loyal Atlantic: Remaking the British Atlantic in the Revolutionary Era. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. ISBN 9781442642089.