The Belfast News Letter is 283 years old today, the oldest English language daily newspaper in the world

Of all the English language daily newspapers in the world still in circulation, we are the oldest.

For as long as anyone can remember, the first edition was said to have been on September 1 1737. But research carried out for our 275th birthday in 2012 suggests this was perhaps based on a lazy assumption that it was launched on the first day of the month. It became taken as fact over the centuries.

The first edition was in fact almost certainly published on September 6 1737. However, Britain then used the so-called Julian calendar, changing in 1752 to the Gregorian one.

That creates a time lag of 11 days, so that the first edition was actually on September 17 in modern date — today.

We have reported events from the War of Jenkins’ Ear (against Spain, which began two years after our launch) to the French Revolution, American War of Independence and the United Irishmen rebellion.

We have reported on, and survived, the world wars, the partition of Ireland and the Troubles.

We have survived lockdown too, during which our print edition sales fell in the early weeks of restrictions but which are now recovering. Meanwhile, our digital audiences — website and app — are soaring.

So the News Letter continues to expand as it edges towards its 300th.

Alistair Bushe, the editor, said: “We are enormously proud to reach this milestone.”

Prince Charles did not have long to read the News Letter when he was shown the oldest surviving edition, from 1738. But had he browsed through papers from that time, he would have been struck at how much royal news there was in the paper back then.

In fact the then Prince of Wales, Frederick, first in line to the throne, was one of the key personalities to appear in early Belfast News Letters.

He was estranged from his father, King George II, and while this is never explicitly stated in the reports, there are hints at the rift. The pair seem not to attend events together.

Prince Charles would also have noticed many reports in 1738-39 about the royal babies, sons to Prince Frederick (George, who would go on to be the George III who ‘lost America’, and Edward Duke of York).

The News Letter has over 283 years reported on 10 monarchs, from George II to the present Queen Elizabeth II.

The rule of three of those monarchs — George III, Victoria, and the current queen — has been so long that, combined, they have spanned exactly half of the time we have been publishing (191.5 years).

The News Letter has also reported on all the prime ministers the UK has had, starting with Robert Walpole, who was in Downing Street in 1737, up to Boris Johnson, the 77th PM.

The reason that we cannot be entirely sure of the date of our first paper is that the earliest editions are all lost.

There are no surviving copies until October 1738. A March 1738 edition is often wrongly thought to be the oldest survivor, but that is because the calendar change in 1752 introduced a confusing new element: the new year was moved from late March to January 1.

March 1738 in the old calendar is what we would now consider 1739.

Not only are all News Letters lost before 1738, most are lost until the 1750s. A small surviving nine-month batch from October 1738 to summer 1739, is held at Belfast Linen Hall library.

Last year we ran a daily ‘On This Day 280 Years Ago’ column, in which we carried snippets of our coverage from exactly 280 years previously.

We know that no other English paper in history has run such a column, because no other daily title has reached that age. The Times of London, for example, is only 235-years-old (1785). There are, however, a few older weekly papers.

For the Belfast News Letter, which was founded by Francis Joy, to reach this birthday is quite an achievement. By 1737 many newspapers were being launched in Europe and America, but most lasted only a few years. Almost none of them were still in print a century after they had been founded, let alone now, in the 21st century.

The Boston News Letter, for example, founded in 1704 lasted longer than most, until 1776.

Newspapers were made possible by the printing press in 1440, but it took centuries before they emerged. The launch of the Belfast News Letter happened almost midway between Johannes Gutenberg’s invention and the present day.

• Morning View, page 16

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Alistair Bushe

Editor