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Newspaper The Intelligencer, & Petersburg Commercial Advertiser (Petersburg, Va.) 181?-1840 Intelligencer and Petersburg commercial advertiser

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About The Intelligencer, & Petersburg Commercial Advertiser (Petersburg, Va.) 181?-1840

With the motto “Amicus Plato, Amicus Socrates, Sed Magis Amicus Veritas,” the Intelligencer was Petersburg’s first newspaper and its longest-lived journal printed before the Civil War. Initially published weekly, the paper began in 1786 under William Prentis as the Virginia Gazette, and Petersburg Intelligencer in order to provide the bustling river port 25 miles south of Richmond with its own mercantile sheet. “The expansion of journalism beyond the state capital,” explains David Rawson’s work Index of Virginia Printing, “was part of a pre-war trend resulting from the incapability of the capital’s two or three weekly papers to satisfy the growing demand for commercial advertising while still carrying non-advertising matter.”

While commercial information was central to the Intelligencer, as newspapers grew more partisan, it became a fervent Federalist advocate. Its first Republican rival appeared in 1793 with the introduction of the Independent Ledger and Petersburg and Blandford Public Advertiser. With new competition, Prentis increased the frequency of the Intelligencer to semiweekly, causing his competitor to fold after only nine weeks. Another Republican newspaper, the Virginia Star, and Petersburg Weekly Advertiser appeared in April 1795 but lasted only three months. In 1800, Thomas Field formed a more enduring Republican challenger, the Petersburg Republican, which held wide circulation in localities surrounding Petersburg.

John Dickson and Edward Pescud, senior printers under Prentis, took over the Intelligencer upon Prentis’s retirement in 1804. In 1805, however, Pescud, more sympathetic with Republicans than Federalists, took over operations of the Petersburg Republican, making him a competitor with his former partner until Dickson’s death in 1814. Upon Dickson’s passing, his wife, Anna, sold the Intelligencer to Thomas Whitworth and Francis Yancey, who commenced new volume and issue numbering with their acquisition of the newspaper.

On July 16, 1815, the Intelligencer paused because of a fire in Petersburg that consumed the printing office and many more of the city’s buildings. “Almost the whole of Bolingbroke and Sycamore streets and part of Old street are in ashes,” reported the Alexandria Gazette, Commercial and Political of July 20, 1815. A large subscriber base and healthy advertising patronage allowed Whitworth and Yancey to rebuild the business quickly, and in late 1817 or early 1818, they resumed operations under the new title Intelligencer, & Petersburg Commercial Advertiser. The two men continued publishing together until the fall of 1819, when Whitworth sold his interest, making Yancey the central figure at the paper for the next 14 years. Under Yancey’s guidance, the Intelligencer evolved from a Federalist organ into a Whig newspaper.

Each issue of the Intelligencer was four pages, with seven columns per page. In a typical issue, page one was dedicated to advertisements for clothing, hats and shoes, and dry goods and groceries, while page two often contained poetry, public addresses, articles on European culture and customs, manufacturing and agricultural reports, and foreign and domestic news. Pages three and four contained additional ads, London market news, public sales, auction notices, “miscellaneous” advertisements, lottery news, law notices, and listings of properties for sale or rent. Other Virginia newspapers, like Leesburg’s Genius of Liberty, often excerpted articles from the Intelligencer and vice versa. On October 13, 1818, the Genius of Liberty accused the Intelligencer of plagiarism, writing: “When editors of public journals become so wrought upon by prejudice, envy, hatred or any of the mean and groveling passions of the human heart as to be unwilling to due credit to their brethren of the quill . . . we think it high time they retire from the field of action.”

With Yancey’s death on July 7, 1833, the Intelligencer faced five years of instability until it passed into the capable hands of John W. Syme, a young Petersburg lawyer who revived the struggling journal. “John W. Syme has become the proprietor of the Petersburg Intelligencer,” reported the Virginia Free Press of February 22, 1838. “He is a sound Whig, and his paper one of the best published in Virginia.” In 1840, Syme issued the paper three times a week; it became the Intelligencer, and Tri-Weekly Commercial Advertiser until it ceased sometime in the 1850s.

Provided By: Library of Virginia; Richmond, VA

About this Newspaper

Title

  • The Intelligencer, & Petersburg Commercial Advertiser (Petersburg, Va.) 181?-1840

Other Title

  • Intelligencer and Petersburg commercial advertiser

Names

  • Whitworth, Thomas, 1794-1874
  • Yancey, Frances Garland, 1794-1833

Dates of Publication

  • 181?-1840

Created / Published

  • Petersburg, Va. : Thomas Whitworth & F.G. Yancey

Headings

  • -  Petersburg (Va.)--Newspapers
  • -  Virginia--Petersburg
  • -  United States--Virginia--Petersburg

Genre

  • Newspapers

Notes

  • -  Triweekly,
  • -  Ceased in 1840. Cf. Cappon, L.J. Va. newspapers.
  • -  Publishers: Frances G. Yancey, <1818-1821>; R[ichard] Field & T.L. Wilson <1829>; Yancey & Wilson, <1831-1832>; R. Burchett Jr. & T.L. Wilson <1834>; Robert Buchett, Jr, 1836-1840.
  • -  Numbering begins again; issue for Oct. 3, 1831 called vol. 2, no. 88.
  • -  Dec. 9, 1825 issue has supplement.
  • -  Also issued on microfilm from Bell & Howell, Micro Photo Div.; State Historical Society of Wisconsin; UMI.
  • -  Also published in a weekly ed. <1816>-
  • -  Description based on: Vol. 30, no. (Sept. 17, 1816).
  • -  Latest issue consulted: Vol. 9, no. 129 (June 6, 1840).
  • -  Intelligencer and tri-weekly commercial advertiser (DLC)sn 86071795 (OCoLC)13999248

Medium

  • volumes : illustrations ; 59 cm

Call Number/Physical Location

  • Newspaper
  • AN

Library of Congress Control Number

  • sn84024505

OCLC Number

  • 10855656

ISSN Number

  • 2691-4859

Preceding Titles

Succeeding Titles

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Rights & Access

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Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

The Intelligencer, & Petersburg Commercial Advertiser Petersburg, Va. 181?. (Petersburg, VA), 181?. https://www.loc.gov/item/sn84024505/.

APA citation style:

(181?) The Intelligencer, & Petersburg Commercial Advertiser Petersburg, Va. 181?. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/sn84024505/.

MLA citation style:

The Intelligencer, & Petersburg Commercial Advertiser Petersburg, Va. 181?. (Petersburg, VA) 181?. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/item/sn84024505/.