Farley family
The Farley family of Somerset pioneered news media in provincial England, with newspapers in Exeter, Salisbury, Bristol and Bath. The family produced three notable media proprietors in the 18th century: Samuel Farley, Edward Farley II and Felix Farley; among whom Edward Farley II was made a veritable martyr for press freedom when he had an untimely death in gaol prior to his scheduled release on account of being pardoned for defying the censor's ban on publishing Jacobite literature.[1]
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Background
Newspapers appeared in provincial England at the turn of the 18th century, with the Bristol Post Boy being the very first in print from 1702, albeit a basic two-pager. The patriarch of the Farley newsmen was Samuel Farley, who developed the concept with his Exeter Post Man, a many-paged newspaper in print from 1704. The governing Whigs came to see provincial newspapers as auxiliaries of the Tory opposition in London and in 1726 the Comptroller of the Post Office was mandated to establish surveillance, purchasing all English, Irish and Scottish newspapers for examination by the Treasury Solicitor. Thus began the 'print wars' in which Edward Farley II was an early casualty.[2]
Samuel Farley
Samuel Farley (c. 1675-1730) was a media proprietor and publisher. From 1704, he published the Exeter Post Man (which became the Exeter Mercury). From 1715, he published the Salisbury Post Man and Sam Farley's Bristol Newspaper (which became Farley's Bristol Newspaper). He published the Hague Letter in the 1720s and the Comptroller sought to censor it, but he kept it in print. The government lost the case for censorship in 1731 and ceased intervention in provincial newspapers until 1736.[3]
Edward Farley II
Edward Farley II (c. 1705-1729) was a media proprietor and publisher. The firstborn son of Samuel, he published the Jacobite Persian Letters in Farley’s Bristol Newspaper in the 1720s. Farley kept this publication in circulation despite the Comptroller and he was imprisoned for high treason. He petitioned Queen Caroline for his release and in turn the Attorney-General Philip Yorke (who became the 1st Earl of Hardwicke) issued a pardon for Farley, but he had an untimely death in gaol before his release, aged 24.[4]
Felix Farley
Felix Farley (c. 1708-1753) was a media proprietor and publisher. He was known for publishing the Bath Advocate and Felix Farley's Bristol Journal, which was merged with a counterpart to become the Bristol Times in the mid-19th century, and which later became the Bristol Times and Mirror through to the 20th century.[5] He was otherwise known for publishing the works of John Wood the Elder, notably The Origin of Building: Or, The Plagiarism Of The Heathens Detected, In Five Books.[6]
References
- Maxted, Ian (2004). "Farley family (Per. 1698–1775), printers and publishers | Oxford Dictionary of National Biography". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/64308. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- Black, Jeremy (18 October 2010). The English Press in the Eighteenth Century (Routledge Revivals). ISBN 9781136836299.
- Francis Adams Hyett; William Bazeley (1897). Bibliographer's Manual of Gloucestershire Literature. Vol. 3: City of Bristol.
- Cranfield, Geoffrey Alan (July 2016). The Press and Society: From Caxton to Northcliffe. ISBN 9781317872542.
- Sack, James J (1993). From Jacobite to Conservative: Reaction and Orthodoxy in Britain, c. 1760-1832 (1st paperback ed.). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521432665.
- "The Origin of Building: Or, the Plagiarism of the Heathens Detected, in Five Books. By John Wood, Architect. | Books | RA Collection | Royal Academy of Arts".