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Revision as of 21:06, 13 November 2021
William Parks | |
---|---|
Born | May 23, 1699[1] |
Died | April 1, 1750 (aged 50)[3] |
Resting place | Gosport, England |
Occupation | printer |
Known for | publisher in colonial America |
Spouse | Eleanor[1] |
Children | William Parks Jr. (christened March 20, 1720) Eleanor (christened July 1721)[1] |
Parent(s) | William Parks (Sr.) Susanna (Lowe) Parks[2] |
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 authorized as the official printer for the colonial government. He published the first newspaper in the Southern American colonies, the Maryland Gazette. He later became authorized as the official printer for the colonial government of Virginia. Parks was also the publisher and printer of the first official collection of the authentic 1733 set of Virginia’s laws, and the first colonial publisher and proprietor of The Virginia Gazette newspaper. During his lifetime Parks established four new newspapers in the colonies. Parks worked with Benjamin Franklin on several projects related to printing, most notably, the establishment of a paper mill in Virginia, the first such mill south of Pennsylvania.
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] It is uncertain whether Parks learned the printing trade in London or as an apprentice in one of the many provincial printing establishments in England.[8] 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.[9] 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.[10] The 24 page book was the first book published at Ludlow.[10] In 1720 he issued the announcement of a Prospect of the Demi Collediate Church of Ludlow and sold for one shilling each.[10]
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.[10] 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.[10]
Mid life
Parks eventually immigrated to America in 1726 where he started a print shop in Annapolis, Maryland.[11] He began publishing Maryland government documents in 1726 and published the Acts of the Assembly for the colony soon thereafter.[12] 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.[13] He did this until 1737 and was paid £200 currency yearly.[11] 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.[13][14] 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.[15]
Virginia was the first state settled in the American colonies, with no government consent to having a printing-office within its borders until 1729. The British government, along with colonial governor, Sir William Berkeley, was opposed to the introduction of printing into that colony.[16] Parks initiated the first permanent printing establishment, on Duke of Gloucester Street, in the colonial town of Williamsburg with its population of 1,500, which also kept the surrounding colonies informed. In addition to the Gazette, Parks printed books, pamphlets and tracts. Surviving examples of his work show that his first publications were printed with Dutch type, but were eventually replaced with a better type forged in England by William Caslon.[17][18] In 1727 Parks printed the laws of the state of Maryland, the first book to come out of Maryland.[19] Also 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, while encouraging 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.[20] While in Williamsburg Parks printed The Laws of Virginia in 1727 for the government of the Virginia colony, along with a work about the history of Virginia.[16]. During this time he was printing for both the Virginia and Maryland colonial governments, but later ended his service for Maryland in 1733.[21]
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.[11] He established a print shop in Colonial Williamsburg near the Capitol building on the main street known as the Duke of Gloucester.[4][22] 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.[23]
In 1732 Parks was appointed the first official government public printer for the Colony of Virginia[24] and received an annual salary of ₤120, later increased to ₤280.[25][26] He was then the formal government printer for both the colony of Maryland and the colony of Virginia.[11] He was the public printer for the government of the colony of Virginia from 1730 to 1750,[27][28] and as Virginia's official authorized printer, published the first exhaustive collection of Virginia's laws in 1733,[29][30] According to historian Thomas Ford, the prospect of becoming Virginia’s public printer is largely what convinced Parks to move from Annapolis to Williamsburg.[31]
Parks founded the Maryland Gazette newspaper in 1727, which he published continuously through 1734.[12] 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][32]official That same year, he founded Virginia's first printed newspaper, the Virginia Gazette,[7][33] The beginning issue was printed on August 6, 1736[5] whose dimensions were about twelve inches by six inches, and its subscription was fixed at 15 shillings a year.[34] Parks published the newspaper with great success for the next 14 years up until he died in 1750.[35][36] After his death, William Hunter, former deputy Postmaster under Benjamin Franklin, purchased his printing operation.[37] In 1758 Hunter would go on to reprint The Charter of the College of William and Mary, originally published by Parks in 1736.[38]
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")[39] who knew how to build a paper mill, and hired skilled craftsmen. Franklin also obtained paper making equipment and furnished Parks with rags for making paper. Construction of Virginia's first paper mill began in the fall of 1742, on Archer's Hope Creek,[40][41] and was completed sometime in 1743.[42] At times Parks employed as many as nine assistants for his paper mill and nearby Williamsburg print shop.[43][44] Historian Lawrence Wroth maintains that Parks' paper mill was not fully established until 1744.[45]
Parks advertised in the Gazettefor additional rags for his paper making on July 26, 1744,[46] and appealed to its readers to collect rags for paper-making with a poem he published therein:
Nice Delia's Smock, which neat and whole,
No man durst finger for his soul;
Turn'd to Gazette, now all the town,
May take it up, or smooth it down.
Whilst Delia may with it dispense,
And no Affront to Innocence.[47]
The Williamsburg paper mill established by Parks was the first paper mill in colonial America south of Pennsylvania.[48] 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.[43]
It is not clear as to what capacity the mill continued to operate in the years immediately following the death of Parks in 1750. Williamsburg historian Rutherfoord Goodwin speculated that it may have been taken over by William Hunter, the deputy postmaster-general under Benjamin Franklin[34] who had served as Parks's main assistant. Hunter also revived The Virginia Gazette in February, 1751 as the new proprietor who had bought the paper from Franklin, but generally did not employ its use much. 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.[46][34]
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).[49] Parks printed The Charter of William & Mary College published in 1736. A copy of the statutes are housed at the Library of Congress. He was commissioned to print a second copy of the statutes in 1744.[50] Parks also did the book binding for this work. He advertised himself as one "Who binds old Books very well, and cheap."[51] 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.[52] Parks established four new newspapers in his lifetime.[53] Two were in England: the Ludlow Post-Man and The Reading Mercury.[54] Two were in Colonial America: the Maryland Gazette[12] and the Virginia Gazette.[54]
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.[55]
Despite Parks's extensive practice of printing legal documents and records for the colonial governments in Maryland and Virginia, there remain few personal manuscripts or letters in his own handwriting that have survived, or haven't been lost, over the years. One of the few examples are housed in the library of the Maryland Historical Society; a letter addressed to Dr. Charles Carroll, Annapolis, a member of the Maryland Assembly, and a close relative of the Charles Carroll who was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. The letter concerns itself with the Maryland Assembly and its involvement in the establishment of an ironworks in that colony. Parks was the printer who was asked by Carroll to record and print the legal proceedings involved and, feeling duty bound, traveled from Williamsburg to Annapolis in 1732 to do so.[56]
Connections of America to England
There is circumstantial evidence that Parks of Colonial America is 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.[57]
Final years
Parks on March 23, 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 April 1 of that year of pleurisy and is buried in Gosport, England.[3][58][59] Before embarking on his voyage Parks placed his junior partner, William Hunter, in charge of printing operations.[31]
Before Parks died he had made out a last will and testament on March 13, 1750 about two weeks before his death, which was witnessed and signed by four persons not related. The will was read at a Court held in York County on June 18, 1750. The executor of his estate was John Sheldon. Parks left his sister Jane Spitsburg "fifty pounds current money of Virginia". To her children he bequeathed ₤100 to be divided equally. He bequeathed ₤50 to his sister Elizabeth. The Will also provided the necessary funds to satisfy all of Parks' debts. There were several other lesser details involving agreements and settlements outlined in the will. Parks closed his will thusly: "In WITNESS whereof I have hereunto set my hand and affixed my Seal this thirtieth day of March Anno. Dom. One thousand seven hundred and fifty."[60]
Parks' Williamsburg paper mill was listed among the properties sold by his trustees after his death in 1750. The question over the fate of the paper mill has been fraught with uncertainty among historians of colonial paper making. An advertisement for rags, used in the production of paper, were advertised in the April 18, 1745 issue of the The Virginia Gazette. The mill was also referred to as in operation in an undated report by Governor Sir William Gooch between the years 1746 and 1749, but nothing has since surfaced that sheds definitive light on the mill's fate after Parks' death.[61]
Samples of Parks' 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' 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
References
- ^ a b c d e Parks 2012, p. 187.
- ^ a b Parks 2012, p. 186.
- ^ a b Evans 1903, p. 416.
- ^ a b c Parks 2012, p. 128.
- ^ a b c Flora 2002, p. 547.
- ^ Gooch 1926, p. 8.
- ^ a b c McKerns 1989, p. 541.
- ^ Wroth 1926b, p. 9.
- ^ Wroth 1926a, p. 9.
- ^ a b c d e Wroth 1922, p. 74.
- ^ a b c d Bryson 2000, p. 525.
- ^ a b c Kent 1978, p. 17.
- ^ a b Mellen 2009, p. 30.
- ^ Wroth 1926a, p. 41.
- ^ American Weekly Mercury, April 4, 1728, p. 4.
- ^ a b Moore 1886, p. 215.
- ^ Ford 1958, pp. 3–5.
- ^ Tyler 1907, p. 28.
- ^ Thomas 1874, p. 320; Moore 1886, p. 208.
- ^ Mellen 2009, p. 31.
- ^ Thomas 1874, p. 320.
- ^ Daily Press, July 23, 1950, p. 43.
- ^ Daily Press, February 27, 1983, p. 27.
- ^ Wroth 1926a, p. 42.
- ^ Ford 1958, p. 8.
- ^ Carlson 1978, p. 411.
- ^ Wroth 1926a, p. 41-42.
- ^ Kent 1978, p. 20.
- ^ Federal Writers' Project 1952, p. 130.
- ^ The Times Dispatch, March 12, 1939, p. 54.
- ^ a b Ford 1958, p. 11.
- ^ Thomas 1874, p. 332.
- ^ The Evening Sun, July 21, 1950, p. 5.
- ^ a b c Tyler 1907, p. 236.
- ^ Flora 2002, p. 174.
- ^ Berthold 1970, p. 23.
- ^ Wroth 1926a, p. 67.
- ^ Statutes 1910, p. 212.
- ^ Wroth 1926a, p. 134; Bidwell 2013, p. 162.
- ^ Weeks 1916, p. 33.
- ^ Tyler 1907, p. 30.
- ^ Daily Press, July 19, 1957, p. 37.
- ^ a b Lemay 2006, p. 391.
- ^ Ford 1958, p. 12.
- ^ Wroth 1922, pp. 72–73.
- ^ a b Bidwell 2013, p. 162.
- ^ Copeland 2000, p. x.
- ^ Wroth 1922, p. 72.
- ^ Bryson 2000, p. 526.
- ^ Wroth 1926a, p. 208; Tyler 1907, pp. 134, 143.
- ^ Wroth 1926a, p. 208.
- ^ Daily Press, September 16, 1984, p. 121.
- ^ Dargan 1910, p. 4.
- ^ a b Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Essay.
- ^ A History of The Virginia Gazette, Essay.
- ^ Carlson 1978, pp. 408–409.
- ^ Wroth 1926a, p. 11-12.
- ^ Thomas 1874, p. 334.
- ^ Krope 1983, pp. 92–97.
- ^ Parks 1922, pp. 92–93.
- ^ Wroth 1926a, p. 134.
Bibliography
- Berthold, Arthur Benedict (1970). American colonial printing as determined by contemporary cultural forces, 1639-1763. New York : B. Franklin. ISBN 978-0-8337-02616.
- 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.
- Carlson, Patricia Ann (October 1978). "William Parks, Colonial Printer, to Dr. Charles Carroll". The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography. 88 (4). Virginia Historical Society: 408–412. JSTOR 4248253.
- Copeland, David A. (2000). Debating the issues in colonial newspapers : primary documents on events of the period. Westport, Conn. : Greenwood Press. ISBN 978-0-3133-09823.
- Dargan, Marion (1910). "Crime and the Virginia Gazette 1736-1775". Bulletin: Sociological Series. 1–2 (6). University of New Mexico Press: 4.
- Federal Writers' Project (1952). Virginia: A Guide to the Old Dominion. US History Publishers. ISBN 1603540458.
- Evans, Charles (1903). American Bibliography: 1730-1750. Blakely Press. OCLC 317114866.
- Flora, Joseph M. (2002). Companion to Southern Literature. LSU Press.
- 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 978-0-9104-12209. Google book
- Gooch, William h (1926). William Parks. William Parks Club.
- Kent, Allen (1978). Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science, Volume 24. CRC Press. ISBN 0824720245.
- Krope, Carl R. (1983). "Some New Light on William Parks". The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography. Vol. VII. pp. 92–97.
- Lemay, J. A. Leo (2006). The Life of Benjamin Franklin, Volume 2: Printer and Publisher, 1730-1747. University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 978-0-8122-38556.
- 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 978-0-3132-38192.
- Moore, John Weeks (1886). Moore's Historical, Biographical, and Miscellaneous Gatherings, in the form of disconnected notes relative to printers, printing, publishing, and editing of books, newspapers, magazines. Concord, N.H., Printed by the Republican press association.
- Parks, William (April 1922). Wroth, Lawrence C. (ed.). "Will of William Parks, The First Printer in Virginia". The William and Mary Quarterly. 2 (2). Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture: 92–96. JSTOR 1921438.
- Parks, A. Franklin (2012). William Parks: Colonial Printer. Penn State Press. ISBN 978-0-2710-52120.
- Statutes (January 1910). "Statutes of the College of William and Mary". The William and Mary Quarterly. 18 (3). Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture: 212–214. JSTOR 1915701.
- Thomas, Isaiah (1874). History of Printing in America. Vol. I. New York, Burt Franklin.
- Tyler, Lyon Gardiner (1907). Williamsburg, the old colonial capital. Richmond, Va. : Whittet & Shepperson.
- Weeks, Lyman Horace (1916). A history of paper-manufacturing in the United States, 1690-1916. New York, The Lockwood trade journal company.
- Wroth, Lawrence C. (1922). A History of Printing in Colonial Maryland, 1686–1776. Baltimore : Typothetae of Baltimore.
- Wroth, Lawrence C. (1926a). The Colonial Printer. Courier Dover Publications. ISBN 0486282945.
- Wroth, Lawrence C. (1926b). William Parks, printer and journalist of England and colonial Williamsburg. The William Parks Club; Appeals Press, Inc. Richmond.
- "Printer and Binder". Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. 2013. Retrieved 14 October 2013.
- "A History of The Virginia Gazette". Daily Press. The Virginia Gazette. 2013. Retrieved August 14, 2021.
Newspaper sources
- "Advertisements". The American Weekly Mercury. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. April 4, 1728. p. 4.
The said Post-Office will be kept at the house of Andrew Bradford in Philadelphia, and William Parks in Annapolis; and Notice shall be hereafter given of all other Places on the Road, that shall be fix'd on for the Reception and Delivery of Letters.
- "Colonial Printing Press will open in Williamsburg Tuesday". Daily Press. Newport News, Virginia. July 23, 1950. p. 43. Retrieved August 14, 2021 – via Newspapers.com .
- "Williamsburg had its own freedom of press battle". Daily Press. Newport News, Virginia. February 27, 1983. p. 27. Retrieved August 14, 2021 – via Newspapers.com .
- "Colonial Printing Plant Restored at Williamsburg". The Evening Sun. Hanover, Pennsylvania. July 21, 1950. p. 5. Retrieved August 15, 2021 – via Newspapers.com .
- "Biography of William Parks, Early Printer". Daily Press. Newport News, Virginia. July 19, 1957. p. 37. Retrieved August 21, 2021 – via Newspapers.com .
- "Virginia's first Public Printer began Williamsburg Gazette in 1730". Daily Press. Newport News, Virginia. September 16, 1984. p. 121. Retrieved August 21, 2021 – via Newspapers.com .
Further reading
- Goodwin, Rutherford (1937) "The Williamsburg Paper Mill of William Parks the Printer". The Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America. The University of Chicago Press on behalf of the Bibliographical Society of America. 31 (1): 21–44 JSTOR=24296497
- Pasley, Jeffrey L. (2003) The tyranny of printers" : newspaper politics in the early American republic ISBN 978-0-8139-21778
- Wroth, Lawrence C. (July 1922) Report of Executors of Estate of William Parks, The First Printer in Virginia The William and Mary Quarterly pages: 202-209; Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture; vol. 2, (3) JSTOR 1916074
- "A History of Journalism". The Times Dispatch. Richmond, Virginia. March 12, 1939. p. 54. Retrieved August 14, 2021 – via Newspapers.com .