It is said that the first newspaper ever issued was at Venice in 1583,[7] called “The Gazette,”—and this was in manuscript,—unless (as has been reported) there was an older paper of some kind issued at Hong-Kong. The oldest printed newspaper, “The English Mercury,” was issued in England in 1588,[8] but, it is believed, was not regularly published. In the next century, from 1624 onward, newspapers multiplied; and among them were “The Parliament Kite,” and “The Secret Owl,” and some other curious names. Towards the close of this century, the first American newspaper appeared; and possibly this had been preceded by what represented a newspaper, in manuscript, as was the case afterwards in Boston in 1704, when “The News-Letter” first appeared. The first American newspaper was issued in Boston in 1690,—only fifty or sixty years after newspapers became common in England,—if the statements which we have quoted are reliable. But at this time, as might be reasonably supposed, the people who came to this country in order to improve their liberties, were not prepared for a free press, or, one might almost say, for any thing that did not tally with their religious notions and vague superstitions; so that, after the first issue, Sept. 25, 1690, the paper was suppressed, as said, by the “legislative authorities.” Still it was a newspaper, intended to be such, and intended to be regularly issued once a month, or oftener, if occasion required.
It was entitled as follows:—
“Numb. 1. Publick
OCCURRENCES,
Both Foreign and Domestic.
Boston, Thursday, Sept. 25, 1690.”
It was “printed by R. Pierce, for Benjamin Harris, at the London Coffee House, 1690.” And it would seem that most of the copies were destroyed, though probably not many were printed, as only one copy has ever been found, and that by some unknown chance got into the colonial state-paper office, in London. It is a small sheet of paper doubled, printed on three pages, two columns to each; and some years ago, after a good deal of trouble to find the copy in the London office, the contents of the whole sheet were copied by Dr. Samuel A. Green, of Boston, and have since been once or twice reprinted.
It is said that it was stopped by the “legislative authorities,” who described it as a “pamphlet,” and as containing “reflections of a very high nature;” and the order of the Court, passed in 1662 forbade “any thing in print without license first obtained from those appointed by the government to grant the same:” so that it would seem that there was a law against printing any thing without a license, and that this sheet, called a pamphlet, came within its provisions. “In 1644, It is ordered that the Printers shall have leave to print the Election Sermon with Mr. Mather’s consent, and the Artillery’s with Mr. Norton’s consent.” This, of course, meant without their undergoing any inspection.
With respect to the contents of this first newspaper, the introductory paragraph is as follows:—
“It is designed that the countrey shall be furnished once a month (or if any Glut of Occurrences happen oftener,) with an Account of such considerable things as have arrived unto our Notice.”
The editor, it is said, will take pains to get a faithful relation of things, and hopes observers will communicate of such matters as fall under their notice; and then states what is proposed in an editorial way: first, that memorable occurrences may not be neglected or forgotten: second, that people may better understand public affairs; and third, “that something may be done towards the Curing, or at least the Charming of that Spirit of Lying, which prevails among us,” &c. This, probably, is one of the passages referred to by the authorities as “reflections of a very high nature.” And, in addition to what has been said, “the Publisher of these Occurrences” proposes to correct false reports, and expose the “First Raiser” of them, and thinks “none will dislike this Proposal, but such as intend to be guilty of so villainous a Crime.”
Then follows the news, or “Occurrences.” Mention is made of a thanksgiving appointed by the Christian Indians of Plymouth; the husbandmen find no want of hands, “which is looked upon as a merciful Providence,” being a favorable season; the Indians have stolen two children, aged nine and eleven years, from Chelmsford; an old man of Watertown hung himself in his cow-house, having lately lost his wife, and thereupon “the devil took advantage of the melancholy which he thereupon fell into.” Epidemical fevers and agues and small-pox are next spoken of: of small-pox, three hundred and twenty had died in Boston, and “children were born full of the distemper.” A large fire is spoken of near the Mill Creek,—twenty houses burned; and on the 16th and 17th of this instant (September, 1690), a fire broke out near the South Meeting-house, which consumed five or six houses; a young man perished in the flames, and one of the best printing-presses was lost. Report of a vessel bound to Virginia, put into Penobscot, where the Indians and French butchered the master and most of the crew.
The next is a longer article in relation to the expedition to Canada under Gen. Winthrop, its failure, and a variety of Indian complications. The editor says, “’Tis possible we have not so exactly related the Circumstances of this business, but the Account is as near exactness as any that could be had, in the midst of many various reports about it.”