William Hunter

William Hunter Sr. (1700–1761) was a Colonial printer and publisher for the Colony of Virginia in British America during the reign of George II of Great Britain. William Hunter was of Scottish lineage firmly established by his parents William Thomas Sempill Hunter Sr. from Clackmannanshire, Scotland and Elizabeth Cunningham from Corsehill, Ayrshire, Scotland.

Hunter was a resolute bachelor during adulthood along the Virginia Peninsula. He had a natural son William Hunter Jr. as an out of wedlock arrangement which excluded a marital union with Elizabeth Reynolds a resident of Colonial Williamsburg.

Proprietor of Colonial Williamsburg Print Shop The Colonial Williamsburg Print Shop was built by William Parks in 1736. The colonial American timber-framed structure was recognized as the first letterpress printing establishments for the Colony of Virginia in the 18th century.

In 1743, William Hunter was apprenticed as a compositor with William Parks. By 1749, Hunter was delegated as shop foreman for the Colonial Williamsburg Print Shop. In 1750, upon the interment of William Parks, the Colonial Williamsburg publishing operations were lateral to William Hunter acquiring the typesetting talents of John Holt and a brother John Henry Hunter (1714–1774).

The print shop would persevere the publishing of the Colony of Virginia laws, House of Burgesses of Virginia journals, Virginia Almanack, and Virginia Gazette reasonably appeasing the social conscience of the governing British Crown during 18th century loyalism in British America.

The Hunter print shop sustained cordial relations with Colonial Williamsburg clergy publishing journals and sermons for ministers as John Camm, Samuel Davies, and George Whitefield. The clerical relations would flourish during the House of Burgesses litigating the Two Penny Act which eventually coerced Patrick Henry deliberating the ethical dilemma of the Parson's Cause of 1763.