One reason why Virginia did not have a newspaper earlier
than 1736 will be found in an assertion of Sir William Berkeley
who was Governor of the Colony for thirty-eight years. In his
report to the Lords of the Committee for the Colonies in 1671
he said: "I thank God we have not free schools nor printing; and
I hope we shall not have these hundred years. For learning has
brought disobedience and heresy, and sects into the world; and
printing has divulged them and libels against the government.
God keep us from both." On August 6, 1736, however, William
Parks brought out at Williamsburg The Virginia Gazette. This
first paper in Virginia has been described as "a small dingy sheet,
containing a few items of foreign news, the ads of Williams-
burg shopkeepers, notices of the arrival and departure of ships;
a few chance particulars relating to persons or affairs in the
colony; and poetical effusions celebrating the charms of Myr-
tilla, Florella or other belles of the period."
Parks was made "Printer to the Colony," at a salary of two hundred pounds payable in tobacco, the currency of the time. If he was unsuccessful in establishing his paper on a per- manent basis, it was through no fault of his, but due to the opposition to a free press in the colony. In his announcement Parks stated a subscription price of fifteen shillings per annum, and after commenting on the newspapers published in the other colonies, he said: "From these examples and the encouragement of several gentlemen on the prospect I have of success in this ancient and best settled colony of Virginia, I am induced to send forth weekly newspapers here, not doubting to meet with as good encouragement as others, or at least as may en- able me to carry them on."
The Gazette published by William Parks is not to be confused with The Virginia Gazette started on January 3, 1751, by Wil- liam Hunter though the latter may be in a certain sense considered as a revival of the first paper in Virginia. With issue Number 52, on December 27, 1751, Hunter said:
This paper concludes the first year of The Gazette publication and as I have been at a great expense, as well in printing as sending them to dif-
