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

developing, and the commercial press was an important part of this process. Printed
materials were not only a product, but they also advertised other products.
Newspapers and other printed matter expanded, part of a “consumer public
sphere.” 106
The Williamsburg print shop had become a key part of the colony’s social
fabric, and it lasted through controversies both political and religious. For thirty
years, Virginia had a succession of printers running the one print shop in the colony,
with competition only from imports from overseas or other colonies. Parks’
employee William Hunter took over the printing business in 1750. [see Appendix
for a timeline of the Virginia printers.] There was a short period without the
Virginia Gazette, but it resumed in 1751. About this time, religious controversy
started to appear in published pamphlets, with sermons against “new-light”
evangelist George Whitefield, and for and against Separatists. After 1757, Hunter
only printed what others paid for prior to publication, except for the newspaper and
almanacs. 107 When he died in 1761, his brother-in-law Joseph Royle took over the
newspaper and print shop, in the joint interest of himself and William Hunter, Jr.
The annual salary for Virginia’s official printer was increased to £350 in 1762, and
raised again to £375 in 1764. Royle must have kept good relations with the entire
government, as such pay increases had to first be passed by the House of Burgesses,
“Eighteenth-Century Williamsburg Press,” 62-63, who notes Royle sometimes noted this book
title falsely, with a small notation on the page bottom. Samuel Davies paid to have his sermons
printed.
106 Breen, Marketplace of Revolution, 130-158, 248-252.
107 Daybooks, or journals from the printing offices, tell us much about what was printed,
what made money, and who bought what. Unfortunately, only two such journals are extent,
William Hunter’s, Printing Office Journal (University of Virginia Libraries, Department of Special
Collections, vol. 1, 1750-1752) and Joseph Royle and Alexander Purdie’s Printing Office Journal
(University of Virginia Libraries, Department of Special Collections, vol. 2, 1764-1766). These
were a major source for Berg, Williamsburg Imprints, and the subsequent Berg, “Eighteenth-
Century Williamsburg Press.”
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