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It is not often that a previously unknown early newspaper title is discovered, but this happened recently in the case of the Exeter Journal. Number 162 is the only issue of this title that survives.
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Provincial newspapers have been published in Devon since about 1704, but early issues survive sparsely. Hand printed on wooden presses in editions of hundreds rather than thousands, the earliest papers contain little local news although the advertisements are always informative. In the 19th century there are often very detailed reports of meetings. For an example of how these can be used see an
account of a public meeting in Exeter.
For more general information on local newspapers see the
newspaper source page.
Newspapers were never meant to be kept and were printed on fragile wood-pulp paper. For this reason they are normally made available on microfilm and the Westcountry Studies Library has microfilm files of local newspapers from 1715 to date. For a detailed listing of all surviving Devon newspapers see the Devon newspaper bibliography.
Family historians can locate birth, marriage and death announcements, obituaries and other biographical information, house historians can find details of property sales, community historians can find a wealth of events but the main problem is retrieving small snippets of information from lengthy and unwieldy files.
Follow the trail for information on newspaper indexes and cutting files.
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