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Thomas Whitemarsh

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Thomas Whitemarsh (? - 1733), sometimes spelled as Whitmarsh,[1] was a printer who printed and introduced the first newspaper to the colony of South Carolina on January 8, 1731, called, the South Carolina Gazette.[2] Little is known of Whitemarsh's adolescent life in England. Whitemarsh was a journeyman under Benjamin Franklin, who had, after establishing a partnership with him, sent Whitemarsh to Charlestown in response to a call by the colonial assembly for a printer who was offering £1000 for the effort. Whitemarsh arrived there on September 29, 1730.[3] Franklin had known Whitemarsh while the latter was working in a print shop in London as a compositor[4] and came to Philadelphia and worked for Franklin.[5][6] The first printing of Whitemarsh's Gazette was issued on January 8, 1732.[4][3] Whiemarsh died of yellow fever in the summer of 1733 only a couple of years after he had printed the first issue of the Gazette.[7] The South Carolina Gazette was taken over by Louis Timothee who became its proprietor and editor.[8]

Whitemarsh's purchases of printing supplies, books and almanacs were recorded in Franklin's Ledgers A and B (above, p. 172);[9]

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