The Virginia Gazette was the colonial newspaper in Williamsburg, Virginia. Beginning in 1736 and remaining in Williamsburg until 1780. The Virginia Gazette after 1766 was actually two or three newspapers published by competing publishers. In 1780 with the removal of the Capital of Virginia to Richmond the printers moved also. The earliest newspaper in Fredericksburg is the Virginia Herald begun in 1787. Therefore the Virginia Gazette represents a unduplicated source of advertisements and announcements of activities in Fredericksburg and the surrounding counties during the colonial period. A comprehensive index of the Virginia Gazetter as published in Wiliamsburg was prepared and published under at the College of William and Mary upon the recommendations of the Advisory Committee of Historians of Colonial Williamsburg, Inc, and funded with grants from the Rockefeller Foundation as well as funds from Colonial Williamsburg, Inc., and the Institute of Early American History and Culture at the College of William and Mary. Many individuals participated in the created under the direction of Dr. Hunter D. Farish, Director of Research at Colonial Williamsburg. After he died in 1945, Lester J. Cappon became the director and Stella Duff became the senior editor. Virginia Gazette Index, 1736-1780 was published in 1950 by The Institute of Early American History and Culture, Williamsburg, Virginia.
This volume being long out-of-print and yet an essential reference for colonial history in Virginia, the relevant entries for Fredericksburg, Falmouth, Spotsylvania County and Stafford County were scanned by Kristin Schenning, a student researcher in the Center for Historic Preservation at Mary Washington College. Researchers using this material will please recognize that the only articles included in the indices below made direct references to the place. Biographical references have not been scanned for inclusion. Copies of the microfilm copies of the Virginia Gazette issues here indexed are available for review at the Simpson Library, Mary Washington College, Fredericksburg, Virginia. Please address any questions about the materials below to Gary Stanton, Director of Research, Mary Washington College, Center for Historic Preservation. Select the relevant subject area to see a table of the references.
An s in the date column indicates that this refers to a supplement in the newspaper issue.
The date ranges for the publishers according to the published index are:
| William Parks | 1736-50 |
| William Hunter | 1751-61 |
| Joseph Royle | 1761-65 |
| Alexander Purdie & Co. | 1765-66 |
| Alex. Purdie & John Dixon | 1766-75 |
| William Rind | 1766-73 |
| Clemintina Rind | 1773-74 |
| John Pinkney | 1774-76 |
| Alex. Purdie | 1775-79 |
| John Dixon & William Hunter Jr. | 1775-78 |
| John Dixon & Thomas Nicolson | 1779-Apr., 1780 |
| John Clarkson & Augustine Davis | 1779-Dec., 1780 |