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Journalistic historians last week looked back to see what manner of newspaper was the Virginia Gazette of colonial times.
Founding. On Aug. 5, 1737, the first edition of the weekly Gazette "containing the freshest advices, both Foreign and Domestick," was printed by William Parkes whose daughter Eleanor later became the mother-in-law of Statesman Patrick Henry. Mr. Parkes described himself as a "Printer, by whom subscriptions are taken . . . at 15 shillings per Ann. And Book Binding is done reasonably, in the best manner." The issues, 7½ in. wide by 12½ in. long, contained but four pages (one sheet folded like letter paper), with two columns on each page.
News. The only headlines were the names of the places from whence the "freshest advices," had come. For many years Printer Parkes devoted his front pages to despatches from England, Russia, France. Fortunate were subscribers if they found a foreign September despatch the following February. But colonists cared little how stale the news so long as it was interesting.
Modern, they read of "the late Discoveries and Improvements of Arts and Sciences. . . . Once there was War without Powder, Shot, Cannon or Mortars . . . the mob made bonfires without Squib . . . the Lover was forced to send his Mistress a Deal Board for a Love Letter."
Prohibition was a subject worthy of the public prints. "The Act of Parliament to prevent the selling of Gin, being to take place on Tomorrow, Mother Gin lay in State yesterday, at a Distiller's Shop in Swallow Street near St. James's Church; but to prevent the ill Consequences of such a Funeral, a neighboring Justice took the Undertaker, his Men, and all the Mourners into Custody."
News values were vague. Dissertations upon the hot weather in Philadelphia, arrival of muslins from the Orient, occupied as much space as his "dearly beloved Majesty" addressing Parliament.
Alteration. In January, 1775, two men, John Dixon and William Hunter, became the Gazette's joint editors. They enlarged it, added another column on each page, front-paged the motto: "Open to All Parties, but Influenced by None."
As the "official organ" of the Virginia government, the Gazette was slow in taking public notice of the Revolution. On an inside page of the issue dated May 13, 1775, readers learned of "skirmishes" in New England which had taken place April 19. One despatch, unsigned, read: "I have taken up my pen to inform you, that last night, at about eleven o'clock, 1,000 British troops fired upon the provincials. . . . Yesterday produced a scene the most shocking New England has ever beheld. . . . The first advice we had was about 8 o'clock in the morning, when it was reported that the troops had fired upon and killed five men in Lexington." Another despatch of the same date said: "The reports of the unhappy affair and the causes that concurred to bring an engagement, are so various that we are not able to collect anything consistent or regular."