Part 3

A SUMMARY VIEW OF THE RIGHTS OF BRITISH AMERICA. SET FORTH IN SOME RESOLUTIONS INTENDED FOR THE INSPECTION OF THE PRESENT DELEGATES OF THE PEOPLE OF VIRGINIA. NOW IN CONVENTION.

By a NATIVE, and MEMBER of the HOUSE of BURGESSES. _by Thomas Jefferson._

WILLIAMSBURG: Printed BY CLEMENTINA RIND.

The most important pamphlet printed in Williamsburg was _A Summary View of the Rights of British America_, from the pen of Thomas Jefferson. Lying ill up-country in August of 1774, when Virginia’s legislators were convened in Williamsburg to send off delegates for the First Continental Congress, Jefferson wrote his tract to suggest instructions that might guide these delegates at Philadelphia.

The _Summary View_ was read aloud by Peyton Randolph in his home on Market Square to a room filled with Virginia patriots. It was too radical for some, but moving to all. It was at once set in type by Clementina Rind, Williamsburg’s only woman printer. Among the first to purchase a copy was George Washington, who noted in his diary that it cost him three shillings ninepence. The pamphlet was reprinted in Philadelphia and London and has been described as second only to the Declaration of Independence in charting the American course toward independence. John Adams of Massachusetts testified that the _Summary View_ gave Jefferson “the reputation of a masterly pen” among Congress delegates in 1776 and won for the Virginian his assignment to draft the Declaration.

To the Williamsburg printer we owe a word of thanks for the important part that he has played in the affairs of this early Virginia capital—affairs that had notable influence on the course of American history. Since civilization began, the communication of ideas has largely depended upon the written word. The eighteenth-century printers of Williamsburg—and all America—served that need at a time of great moment, when the destiny of the emerging ideals of political democracy, free speech, a free press, and freedom of conscience was uncertain. They had the privilege of enlisting their craftsmanship in the service of freedom, peace, and plenty, goals that continue to beckon mankind.

To the printer’s art, then, we wholeheartedly render the tribute which J. Markland pronounced in _Typographia_, in 1730, as he saluted Governor Gooch and Printer Parks for giving Virginia its first press:

“_Happy the Art, by which we learn Gloss of Errors to detect, The Vice of Habits to correct, And sacred Truths, from Falsehood to discern! By which we take a far-stretch’d View, And learn our Fathers Vertues to pursue, Their Follies to eschew._” _1730-1780_

_The Master Printers of_ Williamsburg _1730-1780_

1730-1750 _William Parks._ Printer and publisher in three English towns and in Annapolis before he opened the first printing office in Williamsburg in 1730; founded the _Virginia Gazette_ in 1736; died in 1750.

1751-1761 _William Hunter._ Probably learned printing as an apprentice to Parks, whose foreman he became; bought the printing office from Parks’s estate in 1751; was jointly with Franklin deputy postmaster-general for the colonies from 1753 until his death in 1761.

1761-1766 _Joseph Royle._ Born in England; became Hunter’s foreman about 1758 and married Hunter’s sister; co-legatee, with Hunter’s minor son, of the printing business; died in 1766.

1766-1773 _William Rind._ Came from Maryland to Williamsburg in 1766 on the invitation of Jefferson and other “hot Burgesses” who thought Royle too submissive to the governor; established a rival _Virginia Gazette_ and continued it until he died in 1773.

1766-1779 _Alexander Purdie._ Born and trained in Scotland; was foreman to Royle, whose will bequeathed him an interest in the business along with Royle’s minor son and William Hunter, Jr.; took John Dixon as partner, and himself stepped out when young Hunter came of age in 1774; established a new printing office and issued a third _Virginia Gazette_ until his death in 1779.

1766-1780 _John Dixon._ Had been Royle’s business manager before the latter’s death, and thereafter married his widow; partner in turn of Purdie, William Hunter, Jr., and Thomas Nicolson; moved to Richmond in 1780.

1773-1774 _Clementina Rind._ Widow of William Rind; continued his printing business for one year—from his death in 1773 until her own in 1774.

1774-1777 _John Pinkney._ Continued the Rind printing business and _Gazette_ on behalf of the Rind children from Clementina’s death until some time in 1777.

1775-1777 _William Hunter Jr._ Natural son of William Sr., who bequeathed him the printing shop, lot, and half-interest in the business; on coming of age became active partner of Dixon; partnership dissolved in 1777; Hunter, a loyalist, followed Cornwallis to Yorktown in 1781 and thence to exile.

1779-1780 _Thomas Nicolson._ Succeeded William Hunter, Jr., as Dixon’s partner in 1779; the firm moved to Richmond the following year.

1779-1780 _John Clarkson._ Nephew of Alexander Purdie; continued Purdie’s _Gazette_ and printing business for about a year in partnership with Augustine Davis.

1779-1780 _Augustine Davis._ Had been one of Purdie’s printers; with Clarkson continued as successor to Purdie until 1780.

_Henry Bowcock_, _William Stark_, and _Robert Miller_ were connected with printing in Williamsburg during the years 1730-1780, but it is not known in what capacity.

_Suggestions for Further Reading_

Bernard Bailyn, ed., _Pamphlets of the American Revolution, 1750-1776_. Vol. I: _1750-1765_. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1965.

Susan Stromei Berg, comp., _Eighteenth-Century Williamsburg Imprints_. New York: Clearwater Publishing Co., 1986.

Charles E. Clark and Charles Wetherell, “The Measure of Maturity: The _Pennsylvania Gazette_, 1728-1765.” _William and Mary Quarterly_, 3rd Ser., XLVI (April 1989), pp. 279-303.

Richard Beale Davis, _A Colonial Southern Bookshelf: Reading in the Eighteenth Century_. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1979.

Hannah Dustin French, “Early American Bookbinding by Hand,” in Helmut Lehman-Haupt, ed., _Bookbinding in America: Three Essays_. Portland, Me.: Southworth-Anthoensen Press, 1941.

Rutherfoord Goodwin, “The Williamsburg Paper Mill of William Parks, the Printer.” _Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America_, XXXI (1931), pt. 1.

Dard Hunter, _Papermaking in Pioneer America_. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1952.

John Edgar Molnar, _Publication and Retail Book Advertisements in the “Virginia Gazette,” 1736-1780_. Ann Arbor: University Microfilms International, 1978.

C. Clement Samford and John M. Hemphill II, _Bookbinding in Colonial Virginia_. Williamsburg: Colonial Williamsburg, 1966.

Cynthia Z. Stiverson and Gregory A. Stiverson, “The Colonial Retail Book Trade: Availability and Affordability of Reading Material in Mid-Eighteenth-Century Virginia,” in William L. Joyce, David D. Hall, Richard D. Brown, and John B. Hench, eds., _Printing and Society in Early America_. Worcester: American Antiquarian Society, 1983.

Isaiah Thomas, _The History of Printing in America, with a Biography of Printers, and an Account of Newspapers_. 2nd ed. Albany: American Antiquarian Society, 1874.

Lawrence C. Wroth, _The Colonial Printer_. Portland, Me.: Southworth-Anthoensen Press, 1938.

——, _William Parks: Printer and Journalist of England and Colonial America_. Richmond: William Parks Club, 1926.

_The Printer in Eighteenth-Century Williamsburg_ was first published in 1955, inaugurating this series of craft pamphlets. Written originally by Parke Rouse, Jr., then director of publications at Colonial Williamsburg, it was revised in 1958 by the late Thomas K. Ford, editor, and has been reprinted in 1964, 1970, 1974, 1978, 1985, 1987, 1990, 1993, 1995, 1997, and 1999.

Transcriber’s Notes

—Retained publication information from the printed edition: this eBook is public-domain in the country of publication.

—Silently corrected a few palpable typos.

—In the text versions only, text in italics is delimited by _underscores_.

—Transcribed the text of specimen pages.

—Where possible on specimen pages, retained long-ſ and ligatures (but not typefaces) in the UTF and HTML versions.