George Roulstone

Background

George Roulston was born in Boston on the 8th of October 1767.

Education

George received a fair education and learned the printer's trade in Boston.

Career

While still in his nonage Roulstone launched the Salem Chronicle and Essex Advertiser, which ran from March till August 1786. He is next heard from three years later, in Fayetteville, N. C. , where he was employed on the Gazette, later the North Carolina Chronicle. When William Blount became governor of the Territory of the United States South of the Ohio, he foresaw the advantage of a newspaper favorable to himself and persuaded Roulstone to accompany him across the mountains to the new country. Since Knoxville, which was to be the territorial capital, was as yet hardly more than a name, Roulstone set up his press temporarily at Hawkins Court House (Rogersville) and issued there, November 5, 1791, the first number of the Knoxville Gazette. It was a three-column, four-page sheet, published fortnightly, but because of the difficulty of obtaining paper and other supplies in the wilderness it was subject to variations in format and date of issue.

Paine's Rights of Man was run as a serial in the early numbers. The first issue printed at Knoxville appeared October 10, 1792. Roulstone was a man of more than ordinary capacity and judgment, and his paper made friends for himself and for Blount. Except during 1798, or a part of that year, he continued to publish the Gazette until his death early in 1804.

After the admission of Tennessee as a state he continued as public printer until his death. Other issues of his press, known only from advertisements in the Gazette are: A Sermon on Psalmody, Preached at Salem Church at the Opening of the Presbytery of Abingdon, October 12, 1786, by Hezekiah Balch, A. M. , Pastor of Mt. Bethel Church, Greenville (1794); The Sermon Given at Knoxville, February 25, 1794, in the Presence of the Governor William Blount and Assembly of the Territory South of the Ohio, by Samuel Carrick, A. M. , Pastor of the Church in Knoxville (1794); and Toplady's Translation of Zanchius on Predestination (1795).

Roulstone was clerk of the Legislative Council, one of the five commissioners of the city of Knoxville, and postmaster of the town. To facilitate the delivery of his paper he also maintained a private post. He was a trustee of Blount College (later the University of Tennessee), of which Samuel Carrick was the first head.

Achievements

• George Roulstone has been listed as a noteworthy printer, state official by Marquis Who's Who.

Connections

George was married to Elizabeth Gilliam, the daughter of Devereaux Gilliam of Nashville. She was public printer for a few years after his death, and married William Moore, public printer in 1808, who continued the "Gazette".

Spouse:

Elizabeth Gilliam

References

• The lost Roulstone imprints : with a checklist of issues from George Roulstone's Tennessee press, 1793-1804