Ornamental Separator

The Third Virginia Gazette

Printers

  • William Duncan (1774–1775)
  • John Hunter Holt (1775)

The first Virginia newspaper published outside of Williamsburg was the Norfolk-based Virginia Gazette, or Norfolk Intelligencer, founded by William Duncan in 1774. It did not last long. John Hunter Holt, the son of New York revolutionary printer John Holt (who had once worked for William Hunter), took over the paper in 1775. His vociferously revolutionary publication, however, drew the ire of the colonial government.

This letter, printed in another Virginia Gazette, documents Dunmore’s seizure of Holt’s press. Virginia Gazette (Dixon and Hunter), Oct. 7, 1775, p. 3. See in context.
This excerpt from Purdie’s Virginia Gazette is a message from printer John Hunter Holt addressed to Lord Dunmore. He informs Dunmore that “as a partial retaliation for the loss he has sustained by his lordship’s seizure of his types,” he has taken Dunmore’s horses. Virginia Gazette (Purdie), Oct. 20, 1775, supplement p. 2 See in context.

Fearing for his safety amid revolutionary tumult, Governor Dunmore had fled Williamsburg to a ship in the York River. Angered by Holt’s attacks on him, Dunmore sent troops to raid Norfolk and seize Holt’s press on September 30, 1775. Using this printing press, Dunmore’s men briefly published their own version of the Virginia Gazette. 1

This essay in Purdie’s Gazette responds to some material published in Dunmore’s Gazette. Virginia Gazette (Purdie), Feb. 23, 1776, p. 1. See in context.

Learn More

The First Virginia Gazette

The Second Virginia Gazette

The Fourth Virginia Gazette

Virginia Gazettes

Sources

  1. Robert G. Parkinson, The Common Cause: Creating Race and Nation in the American Revolution (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, for the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, 2016), 146–48; Gerald Holland, “The Seizure of the Virginia Gazette, or Norfolk Intelligencer,” Journal of the American Revolution, Jan. 20, 2016.