Top ten: 16th and 17th centuries…

December 7, 2009 by  
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As Guy introduced a few days ago, we will use the Mondays of December to consider the top ten events to be found in newspapers for various periods of time. In a few cases the desired “event” is actually a specific newspaper.

Great_Fire_of_LondonToday we consider the 16th & 17th centuries, which is a bit difficult as the mere existence of newspapers–or even their predecessors: newsbooks–is limited. And all would be European, as no American newspapers existed in this time period (only exception noted below). Nonetheless I’ve created what I consider to be the top ten historical events or newspapers collectors would love to add to their collections.

I do offer apologies to our non-American friends as this list, and those to follow, have a decidedly American bias, primarily because the vast majority of those who purchase from us are American. But there are a few European events noted.

Here we go, beginning with number ten and ending with the most desired event or newspaper:

10) Coronation of William & Mary, 1689  (after all, they were the king & queen of colonial residents as well. Almost like a very early Presidential “inauguration”)

9) King Philip’s War, 1675-6  (America’s first war)

8.) William Penn’s charter for land in the New World, & his settlement there, 1682  (an issue of the London Gazette includes: “…Mr. Penn bound for Pennsylvania with a great many Quakers to settle there…”)

7) Capture of Capt. Kidd near Boston, 1699 (who wouldn’t want a period report of this very famous pirate)

6) Defeat of the Spanish Armada, 1588 (my one entry from the 16th century; available in period newsbooks)

5) Great Fire of London, 1666

4) The volume 1 number 1 issue of the Oxford Gazette, Nov. 16, 1665  (great to have the first issue of the world’s oldest continually published newspaper: become the London Gazette with issue #24)

3) Salem Witchcraft trials, 1692 (famous event, but try to find period reports of it!)

2) Settlement in the “New World” from 1607-1630 (from the very earliest period of European settlements in America, predating newspapers but newsbooks did exist)

1) Public Occurrences Both Foreign and Domestick, Boston, Sept. 25, 1690 (America’s first newspaper. To this date only one issue has surfaced. Could there be another?)

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Filed under: Colonial, Common Questions, Noteworthy Issues, Revolutionary War, The 1500's, The 1500's - 1700's, The 1600's, The Rare Newspapers Community
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Comments

3 Responses to “Top ten: 16th and 17th centuries…”

  1. Mark E. Mitchell on April 20th, 2010 4:52 pm

    For me, the Death of Blackbeard (Edward Teach or Thatch) is a truly fascinating event in America’s history. I am fortunate to own an original “Boston News-Letter” (America’s first true newspaper as it lasted from 1704-1776), with an extraordinary twenty-line account of the killing of the infamous pirate at Ocracoke, NC, that reads like an Errol Flynn movie! Priceless as early News-Letters are almost never located or offered for sale.

  2. Graham Dukes on October 11th, 2010 11:57 am

    I have been collecting newspapers longer than most fellow enthusiasts, beginning when I was at school in England in 1943. My father went into a small second-hand shop and noticed that the owner, who sold candlesticks, old dinner plates and suchlike, was wrapping up the items in copies of the London evening “Star” for 1818, that he was tearing out of a bound volume. There were about 150 papers left and my father, who was well aware of my budding historical interest, bought the whole volume for threepence (10c).
    From there I continued myself, often picking up items from shopkeepers who had no idea what they were. Nearly 70 years later, with several thousand items in store, (particularly London national papers, but also items from many other countries) some of my prize items, going back to the earlier sixteenth century, are still those that I found in the English back streets during my time as a schoolboy and later as a university student!
    Graham Dukes
    Oslo, Norway

  3. Angelina on January 23rd, 2013 1:01 pm

    I could need some newspaper articles from the early 17th century dealing with Anne Hutchinson and her trial. If you know where i can find any, it would be great if you could help me.

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