Clementina Rind ( - 1774)

Williamsburg

Printer

Clementina Rind (d. September 25, 1774) exemplifies colonial businesswomen as the first female printer in Virginia. She may have been born about 1740 and might have arrived in Maryland in the 1750s. The date when she married printer William Rind there is unknown. The couple settled in Williamsburg, Virginia, in 1765, and William Rind began publishing the Virginia Gazette on May 16, 1766. When he died in August 1773, Clementina Rind continued publishing the newspaper without missing an issue. She maintained the Virginia Gazette as a nonpartisan newspaper that, in addition to political news, contained a wide range of articles that indicated a special interest in science, philanthropy, and education. She appealed to her female readers by including poems and letters of advice.

Rind petitioned the General Assembly to be appointed the colony's public printer, and in May 1774 she was elected by a two-to-one margin over two male printers. In 1774 her shop printed A Summary View of the Rights of British America, Thomas Jefferson's thoughts on the excesses of the British Parliament and King George III. The mother of five children, Clementina Rind died in 1774 and was buried probably next to her husband in Bruton Parish Church graveyard.


2000 Virginia Women in History honoree, Virginia Foundation for Women and Delta Kappa Gamma Society International.

Image Courtesy of the Library of Virginia.