Chapter Thirteen - Scottish Press: News Transmission and Networks between Scotland and America in the Eighteenth Century

Summary

There is a long-established and rich historiography exploring the intellectual links between Scotland and America in the eighteenth century. As long ago as 1954, a special issue of the William and Mary Quarterly offered lasting contributions on the topic from scholars as skilful as Bernard Bailyn (1922–2020), John Clive (1924– 90), Dalphy Fagerstrom (1919–77), Jacob Price (1925–2015), Caroline Robbins (1903–99), George Shepperson (1922–2020) and Whitfield J. Bell, Jr (1914–2009). The topic has since been explored in books edited by Richard B. Sher and Jeffrey R. Smitten (1990) and Norman Fiering (1995), among others. More recently, for Roger L. Emerson (2001) and Richard B. Sher (2006), links of print culture joining Scotland and America have been a particular focus. Still, there has yet been little attention directed towards Scottish newspapers in this historiography. Were Scottish newspapers present in eighteenth-century American news reporting? If so, which ones, when and to what effect? This chapter proposes to add to our understanding of eighteenth-century news transmission and networks between Scotland and America by providing preliminary answers to those questions.

The Beginnings, 1722–63

In its issue for 5 February 1722 the Boston News-Letter – the first newspaper in America to survive beyond its first issue – reprinted more selections from the Edinburgh Evening Courant than from any other source. Scottish-born editor John Campbell (1653–1728) mined the Courant of 26 June 1721 for seven-month-old ‘news’ about Britain but also the Hague, Cadiz and Turin (Boston News-Letter, 5 February 1722). From the Courant of 29 June 1721, the Boston paper provided an account of ‘the Plague in Geneva’ (Boston News-Letter, 5 February 1722). It also quoted long passages from the Scottish paper's account of the Treaty of Stockholm (1719), Great Britain's treaty with Sweden fol-lowing the death of Sweden's king Charles XII (1682–1718). Reporting on that treaty – part of the conclusion to the Great Northern War (1700–21) – carried into subsequent issues (19, 26 February, 5 March 1722). This coverage was part of a trend in the months to follow.