The
News-Letter’s first editor was
John Campbell, a bookseller and postmaster of Boston. Campbell had been actively writing and sending "newsletters" of European occurrences to New England governors for a year or more and thought it would save trouble to print them for all. The
News-Letter was originally issued weekly as a half sheet, a single page printed on both sides, , dated "From Monday, April 17, to Monday, April 24, 1704." The printer was
Bartholomew Green. During its early years, the
News-Letter was filled primarily with news from London journals describing English politics and the details of European wars. As the only newspaper in the colonies at the time, it also reported on the sensational death of
Blackbeard the pirate in hand-to-hand combat in 1718. In 1707, John Allen took care of printing the paper. In 1722 the editorship passed to Green, who focused more on domestic events. After his death in 1732, his son-in-law John Draper, also a printer, took the paper's helm. He enlarged the paper to four pages and filled it with news from throughout the colonies. He conducted the paper until his death in 1762, at which time his son,
Richard Draper, became the editor. Richard died in 1774, and his widow,
Margaret Green Draper, published the
News-Letter for the rest of its existence. Richard Draper had been an ardent
loyalist and firmly supported Britain during the controversies among the colonies during the 1770s. His widow had shared his feelings, and when the young man she installed as editor, Robert Boyle, showed sympathy with the
Revolution, she replaced him with
John Howe. Howe served as Mrs. Draper's editor until the British evacuated Boston on March 17, 1776, taking John Howe and Margaret Draper with them. With the British withdrawal, the
News-Letter ceased to exist. The British government gave Margaret Draper a life pension. == Varying titles ==