Today, we think of printers printing newspapers full of editorial opinion and reports about news and events. But today’s newspapers developed beneath a centuries-long struggle for political hegemony and the shaping of new religious metaphors more in keeping with the age.
First Two Centuries of Printing
Johannes Gutenberg (1398-1468) is credited with being the first European to use movable type and his first major work was the Bible. Tensions developed as more people could read and interpret it. The division between Catholics and Protestants divided rulers and the ruled in the Atlantic world.
In 1671, Virginia’s Royal Governor, Sir William Berkeley, wrote, “I thank God there are no 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...God keep us from both.”
Two Chesapeake Bay colonies were home to printer William Nuthead, who was the first to use the printing press to "divulge" learning there.
First Printer in Colonial Virginia
Berkeley successor, Thomas Culpeper, had a run in with the press, though probably not in the capital city of Jamestown. Historian Martha McCartney, hired by Gloucester County to write a book in celebration of the county’s 350th anniversary published in 2001, thinks the printer hailed from Gloucester.
In her book, With Reverence for the Past, McCartney uses information from York County Deeds, Orders, and Wills (6:484) to support her conviction. “In late 1682 or very early 1683, William Nuthead, an indentured servant in the employ of Gloucester County clerk of court John Buckner, printed ‘ye acts of assembly made in James City in November 1682, and several other papers, without license.’ On February 21, 1683, when the Governor’s Council convened, John Buckner was interrogated about ‘his presumption’ in allowing printing to occur. Buckner said that he had ‘several times commanded ye printer not to let anything whatsoever pass his press before he had obtained his Excellencies licence and that no acts of assembly are yet printed, only two-sheaves, which were designed to be presented to his Excellency for his approbation of ye print.’” John Buckner and William Nuthead were ordered to post a bond guaranteeing that they would not print anything else without receiving approval from the Governor first. McCartney notes that neither Buckner nor Nuthead owned land in Jamestown. “It is very likely,” says McCarney, “that the illicit printing episode occurred in Gloucester County at Marlfield where both men resided.” Marlfield was Buckner’s home in northwest Gloucester.
First Printer in Colonial Maryland
Maryland ranks second behind Massachusetts as the American colony where printing was establish and sustained. After his Virginia printing episode, William Nuthead moved his craft to St. Mary’s, Maryland, in 1685. As a printer in Maryland’s first capital city, the primary work of Nuthead’s shop involved printing forms for the government. The first piece identified as printed there is dated August 31, 1685. This predates the establishment of printing by William Bradford in Philadelphia.
Nuthead’s press was located in the St. Mary’s town center, and has been reconstructed on a site where archaeologists discovered lead printing type. Nuthead worked with his wife, Dinah.
First Woman Printer in Colonial America
In 1695, Dinah Nuthead inherited her husband's printing press. She moved to Annopolis within a year of her husband’s death since the Maryland government was relocated there.
First Newspaper Printer in Maryland and Virginia
William Parks printed the first newspapers in Maryland and Virginia. Parks worked in Annapolis from 1726 until 1737. He also set up a printing office in Williamsburg, Virginia and ran the two offices for nearly a decade.
Sara E. Lewis - Sara E. Lewis is a writer and publications consultant. As a freelancer, she writes and produces marketing materials and especially enjoys ...
