Curiosities of History: Boston, September Seventeenth, 1630-1880Wheildon, William W. (William Willder)
History
Curiosities of History: Boston, September Seventeenth, 1630-1880
Wheildon, William W. (William Willder)
Boston (Mass.) -- Description and travel; Boston (Mass.) -- History -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775
In 1721, Campbell got a new idea and printed some copies of the
"News-Letter" on a sheet of writing paper, leaving one page blank, so that
his subscribers could write their letters on that, and send the paper
abroad without extra postage. In the next year, after he had published the
paper eighteen years, he sold to his printer, Bartholomew Green.
"Published by authority" had been omitted by Campbell for two years, and
in 1725 Green restored it. In December, 1726, the title was changed to
"The Weekly News-Letter," and subsequently, in 1730, to "The Boston Weekly
News-Letter," and the numberings of the previous issues were added
together, and the total reached 1,396, in October, 1730. No other
alteration took place until the death of Green, when in Jan. 4, 1733, John
Draper, his son-in-law, succeeded him. Draper printed the "News-Letter"
for thirty years, and died November, 1762. His son, Richard Draper,
continued the paper and enlarged the title to "The Boston Weekly
News-Letter and New England Chronicle." In about a year the title was
again altered to "The Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly
News-Letter," and was decorated with the King's Arms. Richard took a
kinsman as partner, and the paper now bore this imprint: "Published by
Richard Draper, Printer to the Governor and Council, and by Samuel Draper,
at the printing-office, in Newbury Street." Richard Draper continued the
paper, and in May, 1768, a singular arrangement took place between the
"Massachusetts Gazette" (or News-Letter) and the "Boston Post Boy and
Advertiser," and both papers were "Published by authority," in other words
as government papers. Each paper was one-half "The Massachusetts Gazette,
published by authority," and the other half bore its own proper name; and
Draper called it the "Adam and Eve paper." This plan continued until
September, 1769, and then its title "The Massachusetts Gazette and Boston
Weekly News-Letter," was resumed. In May, 1774, Draper took a partner, and
the next month he died, and his widow, Margaret Draper, continued the
paper in the interest of the loyalists or tories, until the evacuation of
Boston, and then it ceased. She went to Halifax and then to England, and
there obtained a pension. The "News-Letter" was published seventy-two
years. It is a curious fact that the first newspaper established in Boston
should have got into the hands of the tories, and in the last year of its
existence, in the trying times of the revolutionary war, should have been
conducted by a woman.
* * * * *
"The New England Chronicle, or The Evening Gazette," published at
Cambridge, Sept. 28, 1775, speaks of "Mrs. Draper's Paper," in the
following paragraph:--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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