By Annabeth Hayes
“By my marriage with the widow of Mr. George Roulstone late printer to the State, I have become possessed of the most extensive printing office that ever has been used in this state…” - William Moore, January 26, 1809, The Carthage Gazette
In 1809, printer William Moore wrote an editorial in the Carthage Gazette concerning his business ties and the paper’s future. To properly explain how he came to own the paper and the prestigious printing office, he briefly mentioned his marriage to Elizabeth Roulstone, widow of the late State Printer. What Moore failed to mention is that when George Roulstone died in 1804, Elizabeth Roulstone was more than just a 27-year-old woman left to take care of her five children. She was also responsible for continuing operations of the printing office, and, in doing so, fulfilled her late husband’s term as State Printer. When his term was up, she decided to compete in the state election under her own name.
Born in Virginia around 1777, Elizabeth spent the majority of her life in East and Middle Tennessee. Her father, Devereux Gilliam, fought at the Battle of Kings Mountain during the Revolutionary War, and for his service, was granted land in the Territory of the United States South of the River Ohio, which would later become Tennessee. Around 1785 when Elizabeth was about eight-years-old, her family moved to this new frontier and established a small community called Gilliam’s Station near Knoxville, where the French Broad and Holston rivers met. By 1794, Elizabeth married a printer named George Roulstone.
1795 Map of Southwest Territory by Joseph Scott (Tennessee State Museum collection, 2018.14.5)
Three years earlier, Territorial Governor William Blount actually recruited Roulstone to bring his printing press to the Southwest Territory. Blount saw the need for the territory to produce and distribute news and information if the region was to become a state. Under the vision of Governor Blount, Roulstone established the Knoxville Gazette, Tennessee’s first newspaper. Although it was first printed in Rogersville, the Knoxville Gazette was named in anticipation of the settlement of the future Capitol. Roulstone’s role in the Southwest Territory, and eventually the state of Tennessee, continued to grow. As was typical for early newspaper publishers, Roulstone also became Knoxville’s first postmaster. By 1797, he was officially elected as the State Printer, and in 1801, he was also chief clerk of the senate. Additionally, he published the first book in the state, The Laws of the State of Tennessee, considered the area’s most important legal text at the time. After its publication, the book was commonly referred to simply as Roulstone’s Laws.
Printing Press reproduction (Tennessee State Museum collection, 91.48)
Print shops were often family-run businesses, and it is very likely that during Roulstone’s rise to success, his wife Elizabeth worked alongside him as a silent yet vital partner. When The Laws of the State of Tennessee was published in September 1803, George Roulstone wrote a letter to Andrew Jackson concerning Jackson’s purchase of the book and subscription to the Knoxville Gazette. In the letter, Roulstone tells Jackson that he has “been confined to my bed” for the past several days.” Less than a year later, Roulstone died at the young age of 36. Roulstone may have still been sick while attempting to finish printing the book, which makes it very likely that Elizabeth stepped in to assist her husband and was crucial to the book’s completion. When referring to the book as Roulstone’s Laws, we should consider the possibility of the title name referring to both Roulstones.
Laws of the State of Tennessee (Tennessee State Museum collection, 2017.26.2)
At the time of George’s death the next year, he had only just been re-elected to his position of State Printer. Documents note that his executors completed his duty of printing documents on behalf of the state. His executors, however, were Elizabeth’s father and brothers-in-law who had no experience in printing. Instead of trying to learn the business, it is more likely that they turned to Elizabeth, who had already been working with her husband for ten years. When elections for the office of State Printer opened again in 1806, Elizabeth decided to run for the office under her own name. The ballot came down to her and another Knoxville printer named George Wilson, who had been a frequent competitor of the Roulstones. Elizabeth won the election by a landslide –at least in terms of 19th century elections. After defeating Wilson by 28-7, Elizabeth Roulstone became Tennessee’s State Printer and first female elected official. With this office, Elizabeth also assumed the responsibility of producing all of Tennessee’s official documents during her term. The 1806 Acts of the General Assembly bear the name of Elizabeth Roulstone, State Printer.
With her own professional success, Elizabeth followed in the footsteps of other female printers that came before her. There are documented instances in the 18th and 19th centuries of women publicly running print shops after their husbands’ deaths. In the 1730s, Benjamin Franklin’s brother, James, ran a print shop in New England. When James died in 1735, his widow Ann Franklin took over the shop and even became official printer of Rhode Island. Some of these women continued to operate these shops independently, while others gave control to their new husbands or sons when they came of age. Printing often offered women a way to utilize their education in a respectable yet profitable way
Work table donated to the Tennessee Historical Society in 1921 by Ripley Gilliam Roulston, the great-grandson of George and Elizabeth Roulstone, dated 1840 to 1855 (Tennessee State Museum collection, 5.1)
For Elizabeth, her time in the public spotlight and documentary record was overshadowed when she remarried William Moore at the end of 1806. A Tennessee legislator and Major Colonel in the Revolutionary Army, Moore had no experience in the printing business. Nevertheless, because of the laws of the time, he gained control over all of Elizabeth’s assets upon their marriage, including the Roulstone press. He even gained control over her title as State Printer; after their marriage, all legal documents refer to “William Moore, on behalf of his wife Elizabeth Roulstone, public printer” or simply, “William Moore, State Printer.” The next year, Moore ran for the position of State Printer, once more against George Wilson. This time, the race was closer, with Moore achieving victory with just a 22-17 margin. Despite his election as State Printer, it is likely that he either learned the trade of printing from his wife or that she continued to carry on the business under his name.
After Elizabeth’s daughter Charlotte died in 1808, the family decided to move the printing press and newspaper to Carthage in Smith County. They renamed the paper the Carthage Gazette in honor of their new town, and Moore published his editorial the following year. Although Elizabeth’s name does not appear before the public again until her death in 1824, she held an important place in Tennessee history. As Tennessee’s first female elected official and owner of a successful print shop, she might have even been an encouraging example for other women of her time. In 1814, just eight years after Elizabeth’s election, a woman named Rebecca Bradford announced in the Nashville Examiner that with her husband’s recent death, she would now be in charge of publishing the newspaper. The legacies left by women like Elizabeth Roulstone and Rebecca Bradford paved the way for other women to make their mark on their community in the years after them.
(Charlotte Roulstone Sampler (Tennessee State Museum collection, 2009.39.1)
Annabeth Hayes is the decorative arts curator at the Tennessee State Museum