First multi-page newspaper printed in the Americas
Publick Occurrences September 25th, 1690
Publick Occurrences Both Forreign and Domestick was the first multi-page newspaper published in British colonial America. After its first issue, which carried an account that offended the colonial governor, the newspaper was promptly closed down by British colonial authorities, only days later. No other newspaper would appear in the colonies until fourteen years later.
Publick Occurrences Both Forreign and Domestick was the first multi-page newspaper published in the British colonies in America. Before then, single-page newspapers, called broadsides, were published in the English colonies and printed in Cambridge in 1689. The first edition of Publick Occurrences was published September 25, 1690, in Boston,[2][3] then a city in the Dominion of New England, and was intended to be published monthly, "or, if any Glut of Occurrences happen, oftener." It was printed by American Richard Pierce of Boston, and it was edited by Benjamin Harris, who was a refugee from England who had unsuccessfully tried to establish a free press there. The newspaper consisted of four pages 7+1⁄2 by 11+1⁄2 inches (19 by 29cm), with two columns, with the last page left blank, allowing one to conveniently write a letter about its news that could be sent to another family member or friend.[4][5] Without Parliamentary support or any prospective advertising, Harris quickly published what would prove to be the first and last issue of his newspaper.[6][7] The only known copy in existence is housed in the London Public Record office, where it was discovered in 1845 by the Reverend Joseph B. Felt .[5] felt claimed that a man with the name George macmasters published the article though these claims have no basis.
The first and only issue, published on Thursday, September25, 1690(334 years ago)(1690-09-25), had an account of a battle waged by General Fitz-John Winthrop during the French and Indian Wars covering the brutal treatment of French prisoners of war. No second edition was ever printed because the account angered the colonial government, which ordered the immediate suspension of the paper, only four days later on September 29, 1690, and which referred to the paper as a "pamphlet". All remaining issues of the newspaper were destroyed. The order stated:[7][5][8]
Order of the Governor & Council, 1690
"Whereas some have lately presumed to Print and Disperse a Pamphlet, Entitled, Publick Occurrences, both Forreign and Domestick: Boston, Thursday, Septemb. 25th, 1690. Without the least Privity and Countenance of Authority. The Governour and Council having had the perusal of said Pamphlet, and finding that therein contained Reflections of a very high nature: As also sundry doubtful and uncertain Reports, do hereby manifest and declare their high Resentment and Disallowance of said Pamphlet, and Order that the same be Suppressed and called in; strictly forbidden any person or persons for the future to Set forth any thing in Print without License first obtained from those that are or shall be appointed by the Government to grant the same."
The three-page newspaper did not contain any criticism on the new licensing law for printing newspapers, or make any issues about colonial government. Instead it appealed to and informed its readers about the various current issues, i.e. the smallpox outbreak, the successful harvest produced by the "Christianized" Indians, a murder, the execution of Native American prisoners of war. It also contained a story about the king of France, Louis XIV, who supposedly was sleeping with his son's wife—though since the wife was dead at that point it may have been published as a bit of fake news meant by the staunchly Protestant Harris to undermine the Catholic king.[10] These issues were considered sensitive and questionable by colonial authorities, which led them to close down Harris' newspaper.[11]
After the prompt suppression of Publick Occurrences and the subsequent passage of the newspaper and printing licensing law, future prospective publishers were discouraged from establishing new newspapers until 1704, when John Campbell established The Boston News-Letter. Campbell diligently made efforts to begin publication of his newspaper under authority, and with the proper license. Remembering the fate of the first newsletter, Campbell was careful not to print anything that could be construed as libelous or that otherwise would offend the Governor and the council; he generally limited himself to the reprinting of material taken from the London Flying Post and The London Gazette.[12][13]
Relief printing is a family of printing methods where a printing block, plate or matrix, which has had ink applied to its non-recessed surface, is brought into contact with paper. The non-recessed surface will leave ink on the paper, whereas the recessed areas will not. A printing press may not be needed, as the back of the paper can be rubbed or pressed by hand with a simple tool such as a brayer or roller. In contrast, in intaglio printing, the recessed areas are printed.
William Bradford was an early American colonial printer and publisher in British America. Bradford is best known for establishing the first printing press in the Middle colonies of the Thirteen Colonies, founding the first press in Pennsylvania in 1685 and the first press in New York in 1693. Bradford operated continuously printing establishments for sixty-two years, heading a family that would include printers and publishers for 140 years. He was also known for controversies regarding freedom of the press. Starting his printing career in London, Bradford emigrated to America in 1685. He established, with others, the first paper mill to appear in the Thirteen American Colonies.
Daniel Fowle was a colonial American printer and publisher before and during the American Revolution, and the founder of The New Hampshire Gazette. He printed Samuel Adams' newspaper, The Independent Advertiser. He was jailed for printing a damaging account on the conduct of various Massachusetts representatives and after his trial, he lost his license to print. Dismayed with the Massachusetts government he subsequently chose to remove from Massachusetts to New Hampshire and established The New Hampshire Gazette. During the course of his printing career Fowle employed several apprentices. Using his newspaper, he openly criticized the Stamp Act in 1765. After American independence was established he was commissioned to print the state laws of New Hampshire.
Benjamin Harris was an English publisher, a figure of the Popish Plot in England who then moved to New England as an early journalist. He published the New England Primer, the first textbook in British America, and edited the first multi-page newspaper there, Publick Occurrences Both Foreign and Domestick, from 25 September 1690.
The Boston News-Letter, first published on April 24, 1704, is regarded as the first continuously published newspaper in the colony of Massachusetts. It was heavily subsidized by the British government, with a limited circulation. All copies were approved by the Royal governor before publication. The colonies’ first newspaper was Publick Occurrences Both Forreign and Domestick, which published its first and only issue on September 25, 1690. The Weekly Jamaica Courant followed in Kingston, Jamaica from 1718. In 1726 the Boston Gazette began publishing with Bartholomew Green, Jr., as printer.
The Cambridge Chronicle was a weekly newspaper that served Cambridge, Massachusetts. The newspaper was founded by Andrew Reid in May 1846. It ceased publication of its print edition in 2022, after being purchased by Gannett. It no longer publishes stories of its own, instead re-publishing regional stories from other Gannett papers.
James Franklin was an early American printer, publisher and author of newspapers and almanacs in the American colonies. Franklin published the New England Courant, one of the oldest and the first truly independent American newspapers, and the short lived Rhode Island Gazette.
Samuel Green was an early American printer, the first of several printers from the Green family who followed in his footsteps. One of Green's major accomplishments as a printer was the Eliot Indian Bible, translated by the missionary John Eliot, typeset by James Printer, which became the first Bible to be printed in British America in 1663. Members of his family who also became printers include his sons Bartholomew, Bartholomew Green Jr. and Joseph Dennie. Throughout his adult life Green also served in the Massachusetts Bay Colonial Militia, advancing to the rank of captain later in life.
William Goddard was an early American patriot, publisher, printer and postal inspector. Born in New London, Connecticut, Goddard lived through the American Revolution and American Revolutionary War, during which he opposed British rule of the colonies through his actions and publications. He was a major figure in the development of the colonial postal system, which became the U.S. Post Office after the American Revolution.
Samuel Kneeland (c.1696–1769) was an American printer and publisher of The Boston Gazette and Weekly Journal. Kneeland obtained much of his work printing laws and other official documents for the Province of Massachusetts Bay colonial government for about two decades. He printed the first Bible in the English language ever produced in the American colonies, along with many other religious and spiritual works, including the Book of Psalms. He was also noted for introducing a number of innovations to newspaper printing and journalism. He was one of many colonial printers who were strongly opposed to and outspoken against the Stamp Act in 1765. Kneeland, primarily, along with his sons, were responsible for printing the greater majority of books, magazines and pamphlets published in Boston during his lifetime.
Richard Pierce was an early American printing press owner and publisher who printed Publick Occurrences Both Forreign and Domestick for Benjamin Harris, generally considered the first newspaper printed in America.
William Parks was an 18th-century printer and journalist in England and Colonial America. He was the first printer in Maryland authorized as the official printer for the colonial government. He published the first newspaper in the Southern American colonies, the Maryland Gazette. He later became authorized as the official printer for the colonial government of Virginia. Parks was also the publisher and printer of the first official collection of the authentic 1733 set of Virginia's laws, and the first colonial publisher and proprietor of The Virginia Gazette newspaper. During his lifetime Parks established four new newspapers in the colonies. He also worked with Benjamin Franklin on several projects related to printing, most notably, the establishment of a paper mill in Virginia, the first such mill south of Pennsylvania.
Early American publishers and printers played a central role in the social, religious, political and commercial development of the Thirteen Colonies in British America prior to and during the American Revolution and the ensuing American Revolutionary War that established American independence.
Robert Bell (1732–1784) was a Scottish immigrant to the British colonies in America and became one of many early American printers and publishers active during the years leading up to and through the American Revolution. Bell became widely noted for printing Thomas Paine's celebrated work, Common Sense, a highly influential work during the revolution that openly criticized the British Parliament and their management and taxation of the British-American colonies. Bell and Paine later had a falling out over profits and publication issues. As a dedicated patriot, Bell printed many pamphlets and books before and during the revolution, many of which "glowingly" expressed his patriotic views. He also reprinted a number of popular English works, presenting them to the colonies for the first time. He ran an auction house which sold rare books in Lancaster, and in later life he toured the colonies selling off his massive book collection. After Bell's death, his printing press and other items were sold at a Philadelphia auction house to another prominent printer at an unusually high price.
Bibliography of early American publishers and printers is a selection of books, journals and other publications devoted to these topics covering their careers and other activities before, during and after the American Revolution. Various works that are not primarily devoted to those topics, but whose content devotes itself to them in significant measure, are sometimes included here also. Works about Benjamin Franklin, a famous printer and publisher, among other things, are too numerous to list in this bibliography, can be found at Bibliography of Benjamin Franklin, and are generally not included here unless they are intensely devoted to Franklin's printing career. Single accounts of printers and publishers that occur in encyclopedia articles are not included here.
Thomas Whitemarsh, sometimes spelled as Whitmarsh, was a printer who printed and introduced the first newspaper to the colony of South Carolina on January 8, 1731, called, the South Carolina Gazette. Little is known of Whitemarsh's adolescent life in England. Whitemarsh was a journeyman under Benjamin Franklin, who had, after establishing a partnership with him, sent Whitemarsh to Charlestown in response to a call by the colonial assembly for a printer who was offering £1000 for the effort. Whitemarsh arrived there on September 29, 1730. Franklin had known Whitemarsh while the latter was working in a print shop in London as a compositor and came to Philadelphia and worked for Franklin. The first printing of Whitemarsh's Gazette was issued on January 8, 1732. Whiemarsh died of yellow fever in the summer of 1733 only a couple of years after he had printed the first issue of the Gazette. The South Carolina Gazette was taken over by Louis Timothee who became its proprietor and editor.
The Massachusetts Gazette was a colonial American newspaper established by Richard Draper, printer for the royal governor and council in the Province of Massachusetts Bay. As the American Revolution drew closer, it was commissioned by the colonial government to lend its support for the measures of the British ministry. It was one of the few Loyalist newspapers operating during the years leading up to the revolution.
Thomas Fleet was an English printer who came to the British colonies in America and established himself as a printer and publisher in Boston. His decision to come to the colonies was prompted by people seeking retribution for what was considered his public display of disrespect for a popular member of the English clergy. Fleet produced works for various booksellers, printed pamphlets, ballads, children's stories and later established the Boston Evening Post. In his earlier years fleet compiled his own version of Mother Goose from stories told by his mother-in-law, Elizabeth Vergoose, to his children. When he published various controversial accounts about the colonial government and the clergy he was admonished, threatened with prosecution and subsequently became one of the first American printers to challenge royal authority and defend the idea of Freedom of the Press. Through his newspaper Fleet played an active role in the Christian revivalist controversy that occurred in the colonies during the early eighteenth century.
The Weekly Jamaica Courant, published as The Weekly Jamaica Courant, with News Foreign and Domestick, was the first newspaper published in colonial Jamaica and the West Indies, and the second regular newspaper in the British settlements of the New World. It was first published in 1718 and was disestablished in 1755, being succeeded or replaced by the Jamaica Gazette or the St. Jago de la Vega Gazette.
↑ Tucher, Andie (2022). Not Exactly Lying: Fake News and Fake Journalism in American History. Columbia University Press. pp.14–15. ISBN978-0-231-54659-1.
Shaw, Steven J. (1959). "Colonial Newspaper Advertising: A Step toward Freedom of the Press". The Business History Review. 33 (3). The President and Fellows of Harvard College: 409–420. doi:10.2307/3111955. JSTOR3111955.
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