William Parks printed the first newspapers in Maryland and Virginia and was a major contributor to the early literary histories of both colonies. Lawrence Worth, a historian of colonial printing, called him the "nurse of literature and father of journalism in Maryland and Virginia." Parks was the central figure in an early case in which truth was used as a defense against a libel charge.

He was born about 1698 in Ludlow, Shropshire, England. Isaiah Thomas said that Parks was "born and bred to printing," but it is unclear precisely what he meant or where he got the idea. He implies that Parks's father may have been a printer; however, this is at odds with Wroth, who said that Parks's own printing business, established in 1719, was the first in Ludlow.

Parks began a newspaper, the Ludlow Post-Man, or the Weekly Journal, in 1719; the same year he printed several books...