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On August 6thYour browser does not support the element. 1776 the did what it had done for over 110 years. It named freshly bankrupted merchants. It advertised imported linens and ostrich feathers, and listed the average price of corn for each of England’s counties. And when it added that the American colonies had declared independence, it reported the news as if it were a failed business or a lost dog.Theis Britain’s oldest surviving newspaper, and the official journal of government. Established in 1665, with courtiers, government ministers and diplomats as its early journalists, it became the government’s mouthpiece, a tool to impose order amid the turmoil of the Restoration. In an age when rumour spread fast, what was official was sacred, recorded with the same presses that printed the Bible. “Published by Authority”, its masthead declared.One thread running through thes history has been its role in documenting liquidations and insolvencies. The fear of being “gazetted” still exists today, as it did in the 17th century. Another role is reporting military promotions and honours for public life.As a daily read, the is hardly thrilling. It is not supposed to be. It has had no editor since 2012. Calling it a newspaper is a stretch. It is really a public ledger—a database of bulletins which are required to be published there by law. It survives because it is the mechanism by which things become official.Yet its longevity and meticulous record-keeping make it fascinating. Flipping through its archives is like rummaging through an attic in search of the occasional treasure. Such as the £50 offered in 1829 as a reward for the “evil-disposed person or persons unknown” who “feloniously and maliciously” set fire to the wooden pier in the Welsh village of Llanddulas. Or the 1752 edition which proclaimed a law making illegal “the horrid crime of murder”. Natasha Glaisyer, a historian, points out that it is in these dry records that the texture of history emerges: the little honours, the debts and the lost pocket-watches.The has survived plague, fire, war, revolution and misinformation. Its current publisher, the Stationery Office, is the privatised publishing arm of His Majesty’s Stationery Office. Although its news-gathering functions have long gone, its value as a historical resource fulfils the ideals of journalism. There is value in keeping a reliable record. Trivia can help capture the truth: something mattered enough to write it down.
