No newspaper of the American Revolutionary period is better known, or played a more significant role in support of the Patriot cause, than the Pennsylvania Journal and Weekly Advertiser, founded in Philadelphia on 2 December 1742 by William Bradford III, a third-generation member of the Bradford printing family which brought printing and the first newspapers to the middle colonies. Every student who has studied America's Stamp Tax controversy with the British is familiar with the famous "tombstone" front page of the Pennsylvania Journal, which was published the day before the tax went into effect as a sign of mourning of the death of a free press. The Journal was an early advocate of independence and was the first newspaper to print Thomas Paine's original "Crisis" essay in 1776. For his support of the revolutionary cause, Bradford earned his place in American history as the "Patriot Printer."

William Bradford III was born...