John Holt, a Virginian who became a leading colonial printer in New York, was a persuasive and influential editorial voice in the independence movement. He was an able and courageous publisher and a prolific printer who maintained high standards of workmanship. Isaiah Thomas, who is considered the father of American printing, described Holt as a "man of ardent feelings, and a high churchman, but a firm Whig, a good writer, and a warm advocate of the cause of his country." A modern historian, Edwin Emery, has termed Holt "the most important Radical printer outside Boston" during the Revolutionary War era.

Holt was born in Williamsburg, Virginia, in 1721; his exact birthdate is not known. In 1749, he married Elizabeth Hunter; she was the sister of William Hunter, the public printer at Williamsburg and the joint postmaster general of America with Benjamin Franklin. The couple, according to biographer Layton Barnes Murphy...