The Origins of a Free Press in Prerevolutionary ... - Web Publishing

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This author claimed that Royle acted as though he was dependent upon a license to
print, and that the governor was checking everything before it could be published.
This view is one of a press tightly controlled by the royal governor, and describes a
press that was not suited to the needs of political allies (later referred to as the
“patriots”) attempting to oppose official British colonial taxation policies. Such a
tightly controlled government press was a challenge to the evolving concept of civic
discourse and a free press. Writers were constantly forced to turn to presses
elsewhere to print anything critical of the British government or the local governor,
and readers also had to look elsewhere for broader discourse. Such censorship of the
local press could also, of course, have been the result of several other factors: the
printer might simply have been more timid than others, his personal loyalties may
have been closer to the British ministry, and it was always easier to print matter
critical of one government in another jurisdiction where the local government was
not the focus. Whatever the reasons, local patriots found the printer too
conservative to allow them to express their dissenting opinions.
Press Competition Comes to Virginia
While it was often inferred that Royal Governor Francis Fauquier kept
tight control over the output of the press, he was a popular governor. A young
Thomas Jefferson, often a guest at the governor’s dinner table, later referred to
“Fauquier, the ablest man who ever filled the chair of government in
Williamsburg.” 20 Fauquier followed the unpopular Governor Robert Dinwiddie,
and in contrast to his predecessor, was quick to form partnerships with local leaders,
including the powerful House Speaker and Colony Treasurer John Robinson. 21 The
20 Jefferson to L. H. Girardin, Jan. 15, 1815, Library of Congress, Jefferson Papers. Also
quoted in Dumas Malone, Jefferson, the Virginian, vol. 1, Jefferson and His Time (Boston: Little,
Brown, 1967), 1:75.
21 See also Greene, “Landon Carter and the Pistole Fee Dispute,” 66-69, for Dinwiddie
angering burgesses by his unilateral actions.