Wales and the news, 1640–1800

Ward Clavier, Sarah

Abstract

Despite the absence of a regular Welsh print newspaper until the nineteenth century, there was a deep and abiding interest in the news and the press from at least the early seventeenth century. Correspondence collections, including those of the Wynns of Gwydir and the Mostyns of Mostyn record the sending and receipt of news items, from manuscript newsletters to printed tracts. There are a number of large newsletter collections surviving, as well as printed material, for example in the archives of the Owens of Brogyntyn and Clenennau, and the Lloyds of Llanforda. Collections of tracts survive in at least one private collection. Subscriptions to manuscript newsletters and to the London Gazette were common amongst the gentry, and were widely shared both within and below gentry level. Tracts and early newspapers were enclosed in letters or posted separately, and their contents, on domestic debates and international news, were discussed by correspondence and face-to-face. Almanacks had some news functions, and these were published by competing providers from the late seventeenth century in the Welsh language as well as in English. One Welsh gentleman described news as 'treasure' and 'currency', and this chapter will examine the value and use to which it was put. This chapter will discuss the flow of news from London to Wales, and within Wales itself. It will examine the printed material valued in Wales, and how it was combined by Welsh readers with manuscript items and eyewitness accounts to assess reliability. It will examine the provision of Welsh language printed news material, and how this market developed over the eighteenth century. Aside from Lloyd Bowen's work, including 'News Networks in Early Modern Wales' (2017), there is almost no historical scholarship dealing with the Welsh news market in the seventeenth century, and there is a similar sparsity on Wales, news, and the press in academic research on the eighteenth century. Clearly there is much work to be done, and this chapter will offer a groundbreaking foundation for future work.

• Online Publication Date: Feb 1, 2023
• Publication Date: Feb 1, 2023
• Deposit Date: Apr 26, 2022
• Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
• Book Title: The Edinburgh History of the British and Irish Press, Vol. 1, 1640-1800
• Chapter Number: 14
• ISBN: 9781474499170
• Keywords: news; Wales; media; early modern history
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/9093117
• Publisher URL: https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-the-edinburgh-history-of-the-british-and-irish-press-volume-1.html
• Contract Date: Feb 14, 2022