In 1730, the colony of Virginia welcomed its first legal printer to the capital city of Williamsburg. In that year William Parks moved at least a portion of his business that year from Annapolis, Maryland where he operated as that colony's government printer.¹ Parks not only took up similar responsibilities in Virginia, but also began a monopoly that would extend through three successive businesses and serve the needs of the residents of the Old Dominion for the next 35 years.

By 1766, William Rind presented the first competition and for the next eight years at least two, and sometimes three different printing operations would be simultaneously conducted in the town. No other city in the colony would have printing until 1774, when a printing establishment was opened in Norfolk. The removal of the capital to Richmond in 1780 left Williamsburg without a printer until 1824.