Printer, postmaster, and journalist, James Parker established printing houses in three colonies and founded several newspapers, including the first in Connecticut, the Connecticut Gazette, and the first in New Jersey, the Constitutional Courant. In his day he was considered the equal of any printer in English North America, surpassing both William Bradford and Benjamin Franklin. Parker's farflung printing business grew to be the most extensive of its kind, and his work was characterized by an unusual neatness and accuracy.

Parker was born about 1714 at Woodbridge, New Jersey, to Samuel Parker, a cooper, and Janet Ford Parker.

When Parker was eleven his father died. On 1 January 1727 he was apprenticed for a term of eight years to the printer William Bradford of New York. Apparently young Parker found his service difficult, because on 21 May 1733 his master offered a reward for the runaway apprentice in his New-York Gazette, advertising Parker as...