¹ A few errors may be noted. Macaulay, T. B., The History of England (3 vols., London, Everyman, 1934), III, 374, says the Post Boy and Post Man of 1695 were bi-weeklies and only had leading articles when news was lacking. Actually these newspapers were always tri-weeklies and editorials were written not in the absence of news but on rare occasions of special news (see p. 708 below).Google Scholar

² de Beer, E. S., ‘The English Newspapers from 1695 to 1702’, in Hatton, R. and Bromley, J. S., eds., William III and Louis XIV (Liverpool, 1968), pp. 117–29.Google Scholar

³ 14 Car. II c. 33 (continued by 17 Car. II c. 4). It expired on 27 May 1679.

⁴ This newspaper and others cited in this article are available in the Burney Collection at the British Museum or the Nichols Newspapers in the Bodleian Library.

⁵ London Gazette, 20 May 1680.

⁶ Curtis's Weekly Pacquet of Advice from Rome, a serialized polemical history of the Roman Catholic church, continued, but I have not considered it a newspaper.

⁷ The count includes two journals of opinion, the Whig Democritus Ridens and the Tory Heraclitus Ridens.

⁸ Loyal London Mercury, 17 June 1682; Plomer, H. R., A Dictionary of Booksellers and Printers from 1688 to 1725 (Oxford, 1922), pp. 15–17.Google Scholar

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¹² Mercurius Anglicus, Nov. 1679-May 1680; English Gazette, Dec. 1680; London Mercury, Apr. 1682.

¹³ See for example Currant Intelligence, 26 Apr. 1681.

¹⁴ Loyal London Mercury, 14 June 1682.

¹⁵ Muddiman, J. G., The King's Journalist, p. 211Google Scholar; Haley, K. H. D., Shaftesbury, pp. 499, 553Google Scholar; Furley, O. W., ‘The Whig Exclusionists: Pamphlet Literature in the Exclusion Campaign, 1679–81’, Cambridge Historical Journal, XIII, I (1957), 20.Google Scholar

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²³ See for example the newsletter from Whitehall, to SirColt, William, envoy at Hanover, in 1692: B.M.Add. MSS, 36,662.Google Scholar

²⁴ British Museum Loan 29/46, Paris newsletter to SirHarley, Edward, 10 Apr. 1690; Egerton 1915; Paris newsletters 1700–3.Google Scholar

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³¹ London Courant, 12 Dec. 1688.

³² Test Paper, 9 May 1688.

³³ London Mercury, 7 Jan. 1689.

³⁴ The journals were the Observator (24 Dec. 1688), the Dilucidator (Jan.–Feb. 1689), and the Roman Post-Boy (23 Mar.–6 Apr. 1689).

³⁵ The Bodleian and British Museum collections supplement each other to some extent; the best bibliography is Crane, R. S. and Kaye, F. B., ‘A Census of British Newspapers and Periodicals, 1620–1800’, Studies in Philology, xxiv (1927).Google Scholar

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⁴⁰ 4 and 5 William, and Mary, , c. 24. Siebert, F. S. (op. cit., p. 301) wrongly states that it expired in 1694.Google Scholar

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⁵³ The first issue has no date; the second was dated Sat. 11 May. The Flying Post at first was published every Tuesday and Saturday.

⁵⁴ The first title was The Flying-Post from Paris and Amsterdam: with An Impartial Account of the Present Occurrences Abroad, as Related by the Confederates and the French. This was later shortened to the Flying-Post. From 1696 it was the Flying Post: or the Post-Master.

⁵⁵ Dunton, J., Life and Errors, I, 210–11.Google Scholar

⁵⁶ Post Boy, 30 Jan. 1697.

⁵⁷ Post Man, 24 Oct. 1695; Post Boy, 29 Oct. 1695.

⁵⁸ For the prosecution of Baldwin and de Fonvive in 1697 see C.S.P. Dom. 1697, pp. 448, 455Google Scholar and Luttrell, N., Brief Relation iv, 302.Google Scholar

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⁶² The first issue was entitled the London Slip of News, Both Foreign and Domestick; subsequently it was the London Post with Intelligence Foreign and Domestick.

⁶³ London News-Letter, 29 Apr. 1696.

⁶⁴ Nichols, J., Literary Anecdotes, iv, 78 erroneously dates the first issue at 4 Aug. 1696. It appeared in June 1696.Google Scholar

⁶⁵ Morison, Stanley, Ichabod Dawks and his News-Letter (Cambridge, 1931), p. 25.Google Scholar

⁶⁶ Protestant Mercury, 10 July 1696.Google Scholar

⁶⁷ Bodleian Library, Carte MSS, vol. 76, newsletters to earl of Huntingdon, in 1695.Google Scholar

⁶⁸ In 1712 its circulation was only 100–150; Snyder, H. L., ‘The Circulation of Newspapers in the Reign of Queen Anne’, Library, Fifth Series, XXIII (1968), 213.Google Scholar

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⁷⁰ Bodleian Library, Hope Adds. 99 (19), Flying Post, 04–07 1696.Google Scholar

⁷¹ London Post, 6 Aug. 1701, has a map of the seat of war in Italy.

⁷² Post Boy, Post Man, Flying Post, all of 11 Sept. 1701.

⁷³ Post Man, 29 Feb. 1696, affords a good example.

⁷⁴ Sutherland, J. R., ‘The Circulation of Newspapers and Literary Periodicals 1700–30’, library, 4th series, XV (1934–1935), 111.Google Scholar

⁷⁵ Muddiman, J. G., ‘The First Penny Post’, National Review (1923), pp. 623–30Google Scholar; Hemmeon, J. C., The History of the British Post Office (Cambridge, Mass., 1912), p. 28.Google Scholar

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⁷⁸ The Case Between the Proprietors of News-Papers, and the Subscribing Coffee-Men fairly Stated (London, 1729).Google Scholar

⁷⁹ London Post, 11 Apr. 1701.

⁸⁰ Flying Post, 18 May 1695; in June the price was cut to twopence (ibid., 1 June 1695).

⁸¹ Ibid., 28 Nov. 1695, 10 Mar. 1696; Post Boy, 30 Jan. 1697, 29 Dec. 1698, 5 Mar. 1700; New State of Europe, 8 Nov. 1701.Google Scholar

⁸² Flying Post, 22 Sept. 1698, 16 Jan. 1700.Google Scholar

⁸³ Post Man, 28 Aug. 1697; Foreign Post, 21 and 24 May 1697.

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⁸⁸ For the learning of Abel Roper, publisher, see the D.N.B. article on him.

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⁹³ Post Boy, 20 May 1698.

⁹⁴ Weill, G., Le Journal (Paris, 1934), pp. 32–5. The Bodleian Library has the Paris Gazette for 1695.Google Scholar

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⁹⁶ See Cranfield, G. A., Provincial Newspaper, p. 98, for the publication of shipping lists at Liverpool in 1759 and its use to the enemy.Google Scholar

⁹⁷ Post Man, 28 Mar. 1699.

⁹⁸ Post Boy, 30 Jan. 1697, has a vivid report of the execution of SirFenwicke, John.Google Scholar

⁹⁹ Post Man, 18 Nov. 1701, reports two of the candidates for Kent and Rochester.

¹⁰⁰ Ibid., 18 Nov. 1701.

¹⁰¹ Domestick Intelligence (Harris, B.), 5 Sept. 1679Google Scholar; Smith's Protestant Intelligence, 11 Feb. 1681.Google Scholar

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¹⁰⁸ The Post Boy, 11 July 1695, reported the Privy Council instructions to the judges; also a Privy Council enquiry into the attack on Dunkirk (ibid. 21 Sept. 1695) and a Special Commission for the trial of pirates (ibid. 24 Sept. 1695). These are not in the London Gazette.

¹⁰⁹ Historical Account, 25 May 1695Google Scholar; London Gazette, 30 May 1695.Google Scholar

¹¹⁰ Post Boy, Post Man, Flying Post, all of 11 Sept. 1701.Google Scholar

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¹¹⁷ Cranficld, G. A., Provincial Newspaper, pp. 272–3.Google Scholar

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