The Fourth Virginia Gazette
Printers
- Alexander Purdie (1775–1779)
- John Clarkson and Augustine Davis (1779–1780)
The fourth Virginia Gazette came about when Alexander Purdie left his partnership with John Dixon. He started a rival paper in 1775. During parts of 1775 and 1776, as a result, there were three Virginia Gazettes simultaneously published in Williamsburg. When Purdie died in 1779, this third paper was published by John Clarkson and Augustine Davis. They moved their operation to Richmond after Virginia’s capital moved there.
The first things Alexander Purdie printed in his new Virginia Gazette were an apology for his “uncommonly large” typeface and a request that advertisers pay their postage when they sent their advertisements to them. Virginia Gazette (Purdie), Feb. 3, 1775, page 1.
