The 4 January 1739 issue of the South Carolina Gazette was the first published under Elizabeth Timothy's direction, publicly announcing her role as editor.
On 4 January 1739, the South Carolina Gazette appeared with Elizabeth Timothy formally identified as the paper's editor and publisher. This issue is considered the first concrete, dated documentary evidence of her editorship in print, following her takeover of the business just days earlier after her husband Lewis Timothy's death.
The announcement in the paper itself signaled to readers, advertisers, and the colonial government of South Carolina that a woman was now directing one of the colony's most important sources of news, legal notices, and commercial advertising. This was an extraordinary public assertion of female authority in a profession — printing and journalism — almost entirely dominated by men throughout the British Atlantic world.
Under Elizabeth Timothy's stewardship, the Gazette continued to serve as Charleston's primary newspaper, publishing colonial news, advertisements, ship arrivals, and public notices. She also used the newspaper's colophon to note that the business was being carried on for the benefit of her children, tying her professional identity explicitly to her role as a widowed mother providing for her family.
This issue marks a documented milestone in American media history: the first known instance of a newspaper in the colonies being publicly published and edited by a woman, laying groundwork for her decade-long career as publisher until she handed the business to her son Peter Timothy around 1746.