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

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approved by the Governor’s Council, and then signed by the governor himself. 108
But printer Royle could not stay completely out of public controversy.
The dispute over the Two-Penny Act, also known as the Parson’s Cause,
brought printing of the first overtly political pamphlets to Virginia in the mid-
1750s, and caught printer Royle between the two sides. This dispute between
burgesses and Church of England ministers over pay produced some sharp attacks,
with Burgesses Landon Carter and Richard Bland on one side, and Reverend John
Camm on the other. Bland wrote the Virginia legislation, which passed in 1755
and—in effect—negated a pay raise for the clergy when the price of tobacco rose. 109
While the British authorities eventually disallowed this, it was a controversial act
and created a considerable split in local public opinion. Carter paid for the printing
and sold some of his own writings, including one entitled, “Rector Detected.” His
diary noted, “Printer sent me up 50 copies of my Pamphlet [Rector Detected]
against Cam [sic]. Sent 18 over to [shopkeeper] A. Ritchie to sell at 15d. each.”
Royle published two pamphlets from the burgesses, and then refused the first of
Camm’s responses, apparently because the pamphlet was considered too
inflammatory. It sharply attacked the burgesses, the source of Royle’s annual salary.
With no available outlet in Virginia, Camm instead turned to the Maryland press
and got his response published in Annapolis. 110
It became something of a tradition in Virginia to turn to Maryland to print
what could not be published in Williamsburg. This was a transatlantic
phenomenon, similar to what was happening in Europe. Writers in countries where
108 Journals of the House of Burgesses of Virginia, 10: 11, 22, 38, 158-9, 164-6, and 221.
109 The pay of Virginia ministers had been written into law in pounds of tobacco, rather than
in rare currency. When tobacco prices tripled, the Virginia legislature passed a law allowing
tobacco debts to be paid in currency at the former equivalency, in essence cutting back what would
have been a pay raise for the clergy.
110 Botein, “ ‘Meer Mechanics’,” 169, noted that while Annapolis printer Joseph Green had
no problem printing anything critical of Virginia authorities, he could not print anything critical of
the Maryland proprietors or leading families.