A Proclamation – Prince Edward Island, James Robertson, 1789

In 1787, at the invitation of the Lieutenant-Governor of St. John’s Island (later Prince Edward Island), James Robertson (1747 – 1816), a Loyalist from New York, moved his press from Shelbourne, Nova Scotia to Charlottetown. On September 15, 1787, he published the initial issue of The Royal American Gazette and Weekly Intelligencer of the Island of Saint John, the colony’s earliest newspaper. 

Robertson had first settled in Shelbourne, Nova Scotia where he, along with his brother Alexander, initially started The Royal American Gazette. After Alexander’s death around 1784, Robertson continued to publish the newspaper for at least two more years. 

Upon his arrival on Prince Edward Island, there was no existing printing office, and neither the records of the House of Assembly nor the acts of the legislature had ever been published. Robertson addressed this by publishing the current laws but faced difficulties with the provincial government over his fees. Although he was appointed King’s Printer by the London government, he did not receive the promised salary.

Following the American Revolution, Britain imposed an embargo on American goods, which affected Canadian territories, including Prince Edward Island. The island, managed by absentee landlords, suffered from limited trade, scarce cash, and occasionally severe food shortages until the embargo was lifted in 1789. Robertson printed the proclamation announcing the end of the embargo. 

Unable to support himself, Robertson went to Quebec in 1789, leaving his journeyman, William Alexander Rind, to continue printing the paper. By 1790 he was back in Britain, still petitioning for a salary as King’s Printer. Whether he was successful is not recorded but within a few years he was in Edinburgh where he set up as a printer.