William Parks (publisher)

Williamsburg print shop and Post Office on Duke of Gloucester Street.

William Parks Print Shop & Post Office
Colonial Williamsburg reconstruction^[4]

Colonial Williamsburg printing press

Inking the press types

Printing work replicated

Wikimedia Commons has media related to William Parks.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Williamsburg print shop.

William Parks (May 23, 1699 – April 1, 1750) was a printer and journalist in England and Colonial America. He was the first printer in Maryland officially authorized as the printer for the public for the colonial government. He published the first newspaper in the Southern American colonies, the Maryland Gazette. He later became the officially authorized printer for the public for the colonial government of Virginia. Parks was the publicizer and printer of the first official collection of the authentic 1733 set of Virginia’s laws. He was the first colonial publisher and proprietor of the Virginia Gazette newspaper. He established a paper factory in Virginia, which was the first mill south of Pennsylvania. Parks worked with Benjamin Franklin on several projects related to printing.

Early life[]

Parks was born in Ludlow, Shropshire, England on May 23, 1699.^[1] He learned printing as a trade and became the first newspaper publisher where he maintained printing houses at Ludlow, Hereford and Reading.^[5][6][7] In Ludlow, Parks was doing general printing prior to 1719 and started publishing the Ludlow Post-Man on October 9, 1719. This was five days after Daniel Defoe starting publishing the London newspaper Daily Post of which Parks copied directly several paragraphs of it without acknowledgement.^[8] In 1719 Parks printed the first edition and 1720 the second edition of a small collection of sermons entitled The most important question, What is Truth by the preacher Samuel Jones of St Chad's Church in the county town of Shropshire in Shrewsbury, England.^[9] The 24 page book was the first book published at Ludlow.^[9] In 1720 he issued the announcement of a Prospect of the Demi Collediate Church of Ludlow and sold for one shilling each.^[9]

Parks and his wife Eleanor were married December 25, 1719.^[1] There is a March 20, 1720, baptismal record at the Ludlow Parish Register of William, son of William Parks and Elianor. The name of Park's wife here then shows that he is the same printer later connected to Annapolis and Williamsburg in the Thirteen Colonies, as nearly the same name shows in American printer Park's will as Eleanor.^[9] In 1721 he moved to Hereford where he published two books. In July 1723 Parks operated a printing business in Reading, where he published The Reading Mercury with one D. Kinnier.^[9]

Mid life[]

Parks eventually immigrated to America in 1726 where he started a print shop in Annapolis, Maryland.^[10] He began publishing Maryland government documents in 1726 and published the Acts of the Assembly for the colony soon thereafter.^[11] In 1727 he became the first "public printer" (aka: "printer to the public") for the government of the colonial of Maryland, and was commissioned to print all government documents.^[12] He did this until 1737 and was paid ₤200 currency yearly.^[10] Also in 1727 he began publishing the first newspaper in the Southern colonies, the Maryland Gazette which carried news from the other colonies and England.^[12] He soon became postmaster there.^[7] His print shop served as the stage coach stop in Annapolis. The Philadelphia American Weekly Mercury newspaper featured an advertisement on April 4, 1728, which mentions the stagecoach stopping in Annapolis at Parks's post office for the sending and receiving of individual letters and packets of letters.^[13]

In 1727 Parks published the first political pamphlet in the region. It was composed by an anonymous writer and argued in favor of controversial tobacco regulation. It laid the groundwork for a move away from private debate by only the political elite rulers toward public discussion of political matters. It encouraged others to get involved in such public discourse. The publicizing of the political decision introduced the medium of print as a vehicle for civil discourse and broadening political decision-making more toward a government by the people for the people.^[14]

In 1730 the Virginia government invited Parks to come to Virginia, a colony of 114,000 people, to print all the laws and public periodicals paying the same as he received in Maryland, which was increased later.^[10] He established a print shop in Colonial Williamsburg near the Capitol building on the main street known as the Duke of Gloucester.^[4][15] In 1737 he moved to the print shop familiar today as the tourist attraction on lot 48.^[4] It is a two story building and served as Virginia's post office and Williamsburg's bookshop, stationary store, and book bindery. The Parks family lived above the shop for their home.^[16]

He became the first official government public printer for the Colony of Virginia. Parks was then the formal government printer for both the colony of Maryland and the colony of Virginia.^[10] He was the public printer for the government of the colony of Virginia from 1730 to 1750,^[17][18] and as Virginia's official authorized printer, published the first exhaustive collection of Virginia's laws in 1733,^[19][20]

Parks founded the Maryland Gazette newspaper in 1727, which he published continuously through 1734.^[11] In the Maryland Gazette he printed the poetry of Ebenezer Cook and Richard Lewis. He also printed the ecclesiastical views of Reverend Jacob Henderson, the legal views of colonial lawyer Daniel Dulany and the views of other figures not very well known in the colonies at the time. Parks relocated from Annapolis to Colonial Williamsburg permanently in 1736, where he was elected as Williamsburg's postmaster.^[5] That same year, he founded Virginia's first printed newspaper, the Virginia Gazette.^[7][21] The beginning issue was printed on August 6, 1736.^[5] He published the newspaper for the next 14 years until he died in 1750.^[22]

Williamsburg paper mill[]

The history of Parks's Williamsburg paper mill began with his journey to Philadelphia in the fall of 1742 to seek opinions from Benjamin Franklin and discuss how to go about such a project. Franklin then advertised in the Pennsylvania Gazette for a contractor who knew about building a paper mill, and for associated craftsmen. Together, Parks and Franklin interviewed various people who responded to the ad. When Parks had to return to Williamsburg, he left Franklin in charge as his agent. Franklin hired a German contractor (Johan Conrad Shutz or "Scheetz") who knew how to build a paper mill, and hired skilled craftsmen. Franklin also obtained paper making equipment and furnished Parks with rags for the making the paper. Construction on the paper mill began in the fall of 1742, and was completed sometime in 1743.^[16] At times Parks employed as many as nine assistants for his paper mill and nearby Williamsburg print shop.^[23][24]

Parks advertised for additional rags for his paper making in the local newspaper on July 26, 1744.^[25] The Williamsburg paper mill established by Parks was the first paper mill in colonial America south of Pennsylvania.^[26] The first paper mill built in Virginia was on Archer's Hope Creek.^[27] Historian J. A. Leo Lemay has speculated that the reason Franklin was so interested in seeing Parks getting started in the paper making business is that he wanted to promote American industry. He saw Parks had already opened a print shop in England, Annapolis, and Williamsburg and wished him to get involved in making paper since he was such a good business entrepreneur organizer and his endeavors would benefit everyone in the long run for commerce.^[23]

It is not clear whether the mill continued to operate after the death of Parks in 1750. Williamsburg historian Rutherfoord Goodwin speculated that it may have been taken over by William Hunter, the new proprietor of the Virginia Gazette, who had served as Parks's main assistant. However, it is known that Hunter bought paper from Benjamin Franklin in 1751 and generally did not use Virginia paper. Thus it is also possible that Parks's paper mill was shut down and the equipment sold from the estate to Johan Conrad Shutz, the German contractor, for his new Pennsylvania mill.^[25]

Works[]

Parks's major printing production as an official government printer consisted of the 1733 Virginia Code, fourteen volumes of Acts of Assembly, and ten volumes of the Journal of the Burgesses House. He also printed John Mercer's extensive Exact Abridgement of All Public Acts of Virginia (1737, 1739) and New Kent County justice George Webb's sizeable edition of The Office Authority of Justice of the Peace (1736).^[28] Parks printed The Chapter of William & Mary College published in 1736. Parks also did the book binding for this work. He advertised himself as one "Who binds old Books very well, and cheap."^[29] He also printed a Virginia Almanack with was used by the colonists for accounting journals. He published in 1742 one of the first cookbooks, which was titled The Compleat Housewife authored by one E. Smith. Parks also published playbills announcing theatricals at the first Williamsburg theater.^[30]

Parks established four new newspapers in his lifetime.^[31]

• Two were in England: the Ludlow Post-Man and The Reading Mercury.^[32]
• Two were in Colonial America: the Maryland Gazette^[11] and the Virginia Gazette.^[32]

Parks has been given credit for these "firsts" -

Newspaper in Virginia.

Postmaster of Virginia.

Newspaper in Maryland.

Literary works in Virginia.

Paper factory south of Pennsylvania.^[33]

Connections of America to England[]

Parks of Colonial America has circumstantial evidence as being the same William Parks of Ludlow in England. Besides both having the same wife'e name, both had the same trade with consecutive periods of activity which were similar in nature related to being a printer and newspaper publisher. In the inventory of the American Parks' estate is a negro slave named Ludlow. Parks' estate of 1,550 acres in Prince George's County, Maryland, surveyed in 1731 for him was named "Park Hill" at the time. At the towns of Oswestry and Bitterley in the county of Shropshire in England are well known famed estates with the same name. The list of subscribers to the Collection of the Acts of Virginia, published by American Parks in 1733, has a set of names of thirty-seven residents of England of which seven were past residents of Shropshire and one from Bitterley.^[34]

Later life and death[]

Parks in 1750 traveled on the passenger ship Nelson going to England to collect additional supplies for his printing press in Virginia. While on board he died on March 23 of pleurisy and is buried in Gosport, England.^{[35] [36]}

Samples of his publications[]

• 

  1719 British newspaper "The Ludlow Post-Man"

• 

  1720 The most Important Question What is Truth Explained and Enlarged

• 

  1723 British newspaper
  "The Reading Mercury"

• 

  1724 Parks's British newspaper "Half-Penny London Journal"

• 

  Maryland Gazette
  Dec 3 - 10, 1728

• 

  Virginia Gazette
  Sept 3-10, 1736

• 

  College of William & Mary charter and statutes 1736

• 

  George Webb's 1736
  office of "Justice of Peace"
• 

  Complete collection of the 1727 Laws of Maryland

• 

  1730 Typographia
  An Ode on Printing
• 

  1733 Acts of Assembly for the Colony of Virginia

• 

  1747 History of Discovery and Settlement of Virginia

See also[]

• Jane Aitken

• Louis Timothee

• Elizabeth Timothy

• John Holt (publisher)

• Isaac Collins (printer)

• David Hall (publisher)

• Joseph Royle (publisher)

• William Hunter (publisher)

• Alexander Purdie (publisher)

References[]

Bibliography[]

• Bidwell, John (2013). American Paper Mills, 1690-1832: A Directory of the Paper Trade with Notes on Products, Watermarks, Distribution Methods, and Manufacturing Techniques. UPNE. ISBN 978-1584659648.

• Bryson, William Hamilton (2000). Virginia Law Books: Essays and Bibliographies, Volume 239 (Google eBook). American Philosophical Society. ISBN 0871692392.

• Federal Writers' Project (1952). Virginia: A Guide to the Old Dominion. US History Publishers. ISBN 1603540458.

• Flora, Joseph M. (2002). Companion to Southern Literature. LSU Press. ISBN 0807126926.

• Ford, Thomas K. (1958). Printer in Eighteenth Century Williamsburg: An Account of His Life and Times and of His Craft. Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia: Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. ISBN 0910412200.

• Gooch, William h (1926). William Parks. William Parks Club.

• Kent, Allen (1978). Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science, Volume 24. CRC Press. ISBN 0824720245.

• Lemay, J. A. Leo (2006). The Life of Benjamin Franklin, Volume 2: Printer and Publisher, 1730-1747. University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 0812238559.

• Mellen, Roger P. (2009). The Origins of a Free Press in Prerevolutionary Virginia: Creating a Culture of Political Dissent. Edwin Mellen Press. ISBN 978-0773438774.

• McKerns, Joseph P. (1989). Biographical Dictionary of American Journalism. Greenwood Press. ISBN 0313238189.

• Parks, A. Franklin (2012). William Parks: Colonial Printer. Penn State Press. ISBN 978-0271052120.

• Thomas, Isaiah (1970). History of Printing in America. Weathervane Books. ISBN 051717202X.

• Wroth, Lawrence C. (1926). William Parks. Richmond, Virginia: The William Parks club.

• Wroth, Lawrence C. (1964). The Colonial Printer. Courier Dover Publications. ISBN 0486282945.