The Huntingdon, Bedford, Cambridge and Peterborough Gazette was founded in Huntingdon by Mrs Elizabeth Carter Hatfield in 1813 as a weekly comprising 4 pages and costing 7d. It advocated liberal reformist principles and was published from London under W. Hatfield and Company (Elizabeth’s husband was William Hatfield).

Their son Weston Hatfield was printer and editor of the Cambridge & Hertford Independent Press founded in 1818 and the two papers were merged in 1819 to become the Huntingdon Bedford & Peterborough Gazette & Cambridge & Hertford Independent Press. Weston Hatfield continued as editor. In a tribute to him on his death in 1837 it was said that he strove for ”the attainment of all possible good calculated to benefit and enlighten his fellow man and enfranchise his brother citizens”. His mother died the following year and on 11 May 1839 the paper was renamed the Cambridge Independent Press.