The Royal Gazette was a Jamaican newspaper founded in 1779 by David Douglass and William Aikman.

Published weekly, the paper was aimed at the white slave-owners and planters on the island. Originally called the The Jamaica Mercury, and Kingston Weekly Advertiser, it was written from Kingston but also include news from other parishes. The Royal Gazette included a weekly listing of marriages and deaths and a list of passengers arriving and departing the island. It also included notices of escaped slaves.

On May 22, 1795, the following ad was published in the Supplement to the Royal Gazette:

TO THE MAROONS — Five Pounds Reward

RAN AWAY … about nine weeks past, two negro men, named BOB and JACOB, the former a Chamba with the country marks in his face and marked on the right shoulder I R, heart on top … the other a creole … marked W R diamond on top of his right shoulder.

They have … been seen in Clarendon and Kingston, and higgle between those places … Whoever apprehends and brings them to their owners, or proves to a conviction that they are harbored, by a black or mulatto, shall receive the above reward, and if by a white person, Three Half Joes.