For Sale: The Richmond Whig

After the death of Buckingham Notable Col. Thomas M. Bondurant in 1862, his newspaper was put up for sale following the end of the Civil War in 1866. The owners then included his heirs: Thomas L. Bondurant, Alexander J. Bondurant, George P. Bondurant, and his daughter’s husband, William P. Hall. The following advertisement ran in the Whig on October 30, 1866.

THE RICHMOND WHIG NEWSPAPER FOR SALE.

The undersigned, proprietors of the RICHMOND WHIG NEWSPAPER, conducting the same under the firm of BONDURANT, ELLIOTT & SHIELDS, have agreed to terminate the existing partnership, and have determined that this can be most readily and satisfactorily accomplished by a sale of the paper, in view of the fact that the partnership is numerous, made so by the death of Colonel Thomas M. Bondurant, whose heirs became owners of his interest in the WHIG at his death.

Accordingly they announce that the paper is for sale, and will be sold privately to any one who may meet the conditions at the time before THURSDAY, the 22^nd day of November next.

If not sold prior to that date at private sale, it will on that day be offered at public sale, at the office of the WHIG, and 11 o’clock A.M.

We deem it unnecessary to say much in regard to the WHIG, its present or its past status, before the Virginian and Southern public. For thirty five or forty years past the face of no paper has been more familiar to the Southern public than that of the WHIG, and during that period it has yielded, with unerring certainty to its proprietors, an annual average profit equivalent to six per cent on $100,000.

Of its present status it may be said that its business for the last eighteen months has been larger than in any like period of its history, and that its legitimate field is now more fully occupied over Virginia and the South than ever before the war, except where it has been unavoidably shut out by continued lack of mail facilities.

We confidently say – and this upon the faith of the two oldest proprietors, one of whom has managed the paper for the last twenty years, and the other in conjunction with him, for the last twelve years – that with a moderate amount of capital, skill and energy in the business department, and the accustomed ability and independence in the editorial, there is no better property in Virginia.

Applications addressed to BONDURANT, ELLIOTT & SHIELDS, proprietors of the WHIG Richmond, Va, will receive prompt attention; or personal application may be made to either of the proprietors at the office.

WYATT M. ELLIOTT,

JOHN C. SHIELDS,

WILLIAM P. HALL,

THOMAS L. BONDURANT,

ALEXANDER J. BONDURANT,

GEORGE P. BONDURANT.

It is remarkable that two cousins from Buckingham County, Thomas M. Bondurant and Alexander Moseley, would both contribute so significantly to this illustrious newspaper.

Click here for more about Thomas M. Bondurant.

Click here for more about William P. Hall.

For more about Alexander Moseley, consult “The Man behind Alexander Hill: Alexander Moseley,” in “At a Place Called Buckingham,” Volume Two.