William Parks’s Virginia Gazette

The earliest extant edition of William Parks's weekly Virginia Gazette—the first newspaper in Virginia—covers the week of September 3 to September 10, 1736. Promising the "freshest Advices, Foreign and Domestick," the issue debuts a light-hearted column on contemporary manners called "The Monitor." This installment, appearing on the front page, describes a nighttime visitation by a strange woman in search of employment for her six daughters.