Translate

SECTIONS
Pioneers    Firsties

Monday 21 January 2019

First English Newspaper

Oxford Gazette
The Oxford Gazette claims to be the oldest surviving English newspaper and the oldest continuously published newspaper in the UK.

Year: First published on 7 November 1665.

Plague
Charles II and the Royal Court had moved to Oxford to escape the Great Plague of London, and courtiers were unwilling to touch London newspapers for fear of contagion.

Renamed
The Oxford Gazette emerged from this turmoil, and when the plague finally dissipated and the court returned to London, The London Gazette was born.

First Issue
The Gazette was "Published by Authority" by Henry Muddiman, and its first publication is noted by Samuel Pepys in his diary. The King returned to London as the plague dissipated, and the Gazette moved too, with the first issue of The London Gazette (labelled No. 24) being published on 5 February 1666.

Content
The Gazette was not a newspaper in the modern sense: it was sent by post to subscribers, not printed for sale to the general public. Notices of engagement and marriage were also formerly published in the Gazette. The Gazette is not a conventional newspaper offering general news coverage. It does not have a large circulation.

Colonial
Gazettes, modelled on The London Gazette, were issued for most British colonial possessions.

Private Sector
Her Majesty's Stationery Office took over the publication of the Gazette in 1889. Publication of the Gazette was transferred to the private sector, under government supervision. In the 1990s, when HMSO was sold and renamed The Stationery Office.

Time of War
In time of war, despatches from the various conflicts are published in The London Gazette. People referred to are said to have been mentioned in despatches. When members of the armed forces are promoted, and these promotions are published here, the person is said to have been "gazetted".

Founder
Other official newspapers of the UK government are The Edinburgh Gazette and The Belfast Gazette, which, apart from reproducing certain materials of nationwide interest published in The London Gazette, also contain publications specific to Scotland and Northern Ireland, respectively.

In General
The London Gazette carries not only notices of UK-wide interest, but also those relating specifically to entities or people in England and Wales. However, certain notices that are only of specific interest to Scotland or Northern Ireland are also required to be published in The London Gazette.

Copyright
The LondonEdinburgh and Belfast Gazettes are published by TSO (The Stationery Office) on behalf of Her Majesty's Stationery Office. They are subject to Crown copyright.

Index
In many cases the entire volume is an index, usually to the whole year, occasionally to four, five or six years (1820-1839) and occasionally to six months (1917-1921).

Website : https://www.thegazette.co.uk/

References
Wikipedia, National Archives, Online Books, History House, The Gazette (Official Site) and much more. 

No comments:

Post a Comment