Detailed Record
Sun, The
no 1, 01 Oct 1792 - no 24555, 28 Feb 1871
then: Sun and Central Press, The; a newspaper for newspaper proprietors. no 24556, 27 Feb 1871 - no 25319, 30 Sep 1873
then: Sun, The. no 25320, 01 Oct 1873 - no 2270 [ns], 27 Oct 1900
then: Sun, The. no 25320, 01 Oct 1873 - no 2270 [ns], 27 Oct 1900
London,Middlesex
Editor:
R.G. Clarke (1806)
Thomas Dahle (c.1894?)
William Frederick Deacon (1829 - 25 Dec 1845)
John Heriot
William Jerdan (1813 - 1817)
Charles Kent (25 Dec 1845 - 1850)
John Mayne (? - 1836)
George Rose (1792)
John Taylor
Louis Tracy (c.1894?)
Murdo Young (1828)
Thomas Dahle (c.1894?)
William Frederick Deacon (1829 - 25 Dec 1845)
John Heriot
William Jerdan (1813 - 1817)
Charles Kent (25 Dec 1845 - 1850)
John Mayne (? - 1836)
George Rose (1792)
John Taylor
Louis Tracy (c.1894?)
Murdo Young (1828)
Proprietor:
R.G. Clarke
Patrick Grant
John Heriot
William Jerdan
Charles Kent (1850 - 1863+)
John Mayne (? - 1836)
William Pitt (1792)
George Rose (1792)
John Taylor (1819)
Louis Tracy (c.1894?)
Murdo Young (1825, 1833 - 1850)
Patrick Grant
John Heriot
William Jerdan
Charles Kent (1850 - 1863+)
John Mayne (? - 1836)
William Pitt (1792)
George Rose (1792)
John Taylor (1819)
Louis Tracy (c.1894?)
Murdo Young (1825, 1833 - 1850)
Publisher:
J. Beswick (1798)
Buchanan McMillan (1801)
J.B. Carstairs (1821 - 1826)
Central Press Co Ltd (1876)
B. M'Millan (1799 - 1806)
William Armiger Scripps (1802, 1806 - 1821)
Murdo Young (1826 - 1835, 1846)
Buchanan McMillan (1801)
J.B. Carstairs (1821 - 1826)
Central Press Co Ltd (1876)
B. M'Millan (1799 - 1806)
William Armiger Scripps (1802, 1806 - 1821)
Murdo Young (1826 - 1835, 1846)
Printer:
Central Press Co Ltd (1876)
Richard Harris (? - 1835)
B. M'Millan (1794)
Richard Harris (? - 1835)
B. M'Millan (1794)
Contributors:
E.A. Bray
John Joseph Briggs
G.F. Busby
Herbet Cadet
Alexander Cochrane
(Mrs.) Cockle
John De Morgan
Thomas Dibdin
George Drummond
William Thomas Fitzgerald
Samuel Foote
Glenelg (Lord)
Lewis Goldsmith
Thomas Goodall
Robert Grant
James Hogg
Charles Kent (13 Apr 1848)
Melville (Lord)
John Stuart Mill
(Miss) Mitford
Thomas Moore
Samuel Phelps (1821 reader)
Peter Pindar
George Prevost
Mark Rochester
Walter Scott
Richard Lalor Sheil
Sarah Siddons
Johanna Southcott
Robert Southey
W.H. Spencer
A. Templer (Charles Kent)
Horace Twiss
William Henry Watts
Samuel Whitbread
Wilcot (Dr.)
John Joseph Briggs
G.F. Busby
Herbet Cadet
Alexander Cochrane
(Mrs.) Cockle
John De Morgan
Thomas Dibdin
George Drummond
William Thomas Fitzgerald
Samuel Foote
Glenelg (Lord)
Lewis Goldsmith
Thomas Goodall
Robert Grant
James Hogg
Charles Kent (13 Apr 1848)
Melville (Lord)
John Stuart Mill
(Miss) Mitford
Thomas Moore
Samuel Phelps (1821 reader)
Peter Pindar
George Prevost
Mark Rochester
Walter Scott
Richard Lalor Sheil
Sarah Siddons
Johanna Southcott
Robert Southey
W.H. Spencer
A. Templer (Charles Kent)
Horace Twiss
William Henry Watts
Samuel Whitbread
Wilcot (Dr.)
Names:
Frank MacDonagh (1893)
Size:
49cm, 4pp (1794); 14pp (25 Feb 1871); 12 pp (30 Sep 1873); 37cm, 9pp (Jun 1874); 34cm, 4pp (Jan 1876); 2pp (Mar, Apr 1876)
Price:
3d?; 1d?; 5d (1846); 4d, 5d st (1856); 6d; 2d (1874)
Circulation:
2,147; 300 (1816); 400 (1825)
Frequency:
daily (pm)
Departments:
foreign/domestic/ship news, details of parliamentary proceedings, accounts of current controversies, reviews of books, periodicals and the theatre, original poetry, correspondence, advertisements, news articles, letters, reports, b/m/d, price of stocks, advance parliamentary speeches, literary reviews, crime reports, murder and execution coverage
Orientation:
liberal; pro free trade; Tory (1811); ministerial; Whig; voluntary (1846); voluntary religion (1856)
Merges:
absorbed Penny-a-Week Country Daily Newspaper (q.v.)
Sources:
COPAC; DNB ii, p.1236-1237; v, 698-699; xv, p.1032-1035; xxiv, p.390-391; Cooper, Dictionary of Contemporaries.; Jack, Scottish Newspaper Directory; London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1986.; Mill, John Stuart. Collected Works of John Stuart Mill. Vols 22-25, Newspaper Writings. Eds. Ann P. Robson et al. Toronto: U Toronto P; Mitchell's Newspaper Press Directory, 1846.; Sutherland Longman Companion to Victorian Fiction.; Williams, Judith Blow. A Guide to the Printed Materials for English Social and Economic History 1750-1850. vol 1. New York: Octagon Books Inc., 1966.
Histories:
Aspinall, A. "Statistical Accounts of the London Newspapers, 1800-36 II." English Historical Review. vol 65, 1950. pp.222-234; 372-382.; Aspinall, Arthur. Politics and the Press c.1780-1850. Brighton, Eng.: The Harvester Press Limited, 1973.; Asquith, Ivon. "The Structure, Ownership and Control of the Press, 1780 - 1855." Newspaper History from the Seventeenth Century to the Present Day. Ed. Jeremy Tunstall. 11 vols. London: Constable and Company Ltd., 1978. 98 - 116.; Barker, Hannah. Newspapers, Politics, and English Society, 1695-1855. Harlow: Longman, 2000.; Bourne, H.R. Fox. English Newspapers. vol 1. New York: Russell & Russell, 1966.; Boyce, George, et al, eds. Newspaper History from the Seventeenth Century to the Present Day. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications, 1978.; Fox-Bourne, H. R. (1887), vol 1, pp.288-89, vol 2 pp.26-27.; Grant, James. The Newspaper Press: Its Origin - Progress - and Present Position. London: Tinsley Brothers, 1871.; Graham, British Literary Periodicals, p.228.; Grant, James. The Newspaper Press London: Tinsley Brothers, 1871.; Healey, R.M. "The Other London Magazine: Gold's and Its Contributors." The Charles Lamb Bulletin. ns 61 (1988): 155-164.; Herd, March of Journalism; Jones, Fleet & Downing.' 1919.; Kemnitz, “Chartist convention of 1839”.; Knelman, The Murderess and the English Press.; Koss, Rise and Fall of the Political Press.; Lopatin, Nancy P. "Refining the Limits of Political Reporting: The Provincial Press, Political Unions, and The Great Reform Act." VPR 31.4 (Winter 1998): 337-55.; Timperley, C. H. Encyclopaedia of Literary and Typographical Anecdote. New York: Garland Publishing Inc., 1977.; "The Periodical Press." Edinburgh Review 38:76 (May 1823), 349-378l; Hughes, Linda K. and Michael Lund. The Victorian Serial. London: University of Virginia Press, 1991.; Ryan, Irish Literary Revival, p.121.; Peterson, Linda H. Becoming a Woman of Letters. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009.
Comments:
Although of late years a Morning, this paper is most generally and has been longest known as an Evening journal, and acquired in that way an enormous circulation, and very marked success, through the enterprise of its proprietor in the speedy transmission of intelligence into the country, where its fame has for many years been established as the most rapid in its communication of reports of Parliamentary and other public proceedings; in which, however, perhaps the morning mails have somewhat superseded it; though it still continues effectively to support its reputation as a 'reporter' for the provinces. In regard to literary criticism, also, it has long enjoyed considerable respect contrasting curiously with its extreme political opinions, addressed as they are to the masses. The League has in it an uncompromising auxiliary: it wages war to the knife, with 'protection' of all kinds, civil or ecclesiastical. Perhaps from its early efforts in 'expressing,' it has ever had a strong attachment to railway enterprises" (Mitchell's, 1846).
"Among other and as violent Tory evening papers, The Sun had during many years an evil reputation. It was started in 1792 by George Rose and others at the instigation of Pitt, especially to advocate their views on home and foreign policy. It was at first conducted with some spirit, carrying on a fierce rivalry with The True Sun, another Tory print. Before long, however, the kindest thing that could be said about it was that The Sun appears daily, but never shines'" (Fox Bourne, p.288).
The Sun was one of the important daily newspapers issued in the late eighteenth-century (Graham 228).
When Murdo Young became proprietor, the circulation quadrupled between 1825 and 1829, due to his practice of publishing late news (Fox-Bourne, H. R., pp.26-7).
Ryan suggests that there was an Evening Sun in 1893, which was operated by T.P. O'Connor (121).
From October 1, 1873 to June 29, 1874 there are two variant numbering and title systems for, what appears to be, The Sun and Central Press. The Sun and The Central Press (joined together in 1871) may have separated completely at this time or they may have continued as an amalgamated paper, keeping their respective numbering systems. Refer to The Central Press (1871) for more information.
Issues from January 19, 1793 to December 1800 are in the Burney Collection at Bloomsbury.
Blagdon "began his career as a horn-boy to sell the Sun, whenever the paper contained extraordinary news" (Aspinall p.88). "John Taylor described The Sun and The Courier as 'the only effective evening papers in the service of the Government'" (Aspinall p.185). "As the Morning Chronicle said, the Sun was a paper 'peculiarly resorted to by ministers for the propagation of their ideas'" (Aspinall p.202). "The newspapers most closely connected with the Government at the end of the eighteenth century were the Sun and the True Briton" (Aspinall p.203). "The Sun changed its politics in November 1830" (Aspinall p.247). "Of the principal papers opposing the Addington ministry of 1801-4, the Sun, Oracle and True Briton supported either Pitt's friends or the Grenville-Windham group" (Aspinall p.282).
This publication was an evening newspaper and was among the first journals to publish book reviews, many of which were written by Charles Kent (DNB xxiv, p.390-391). Sheil's speech on Catholic emancipation was published in The Sun but never delivered in parliament (Barker, Hannah; p.90). In 1842, the Anti-Corn Law League paid the Sun 500 pounds a year to publish the League's material (Barker, Hannah; p.219).
"Pitt and his Treasury were also supposed to have had a hand in the formation of both the True Briton and the Sun in 1792, although no record of Secret Service expenditure seems to have survived...Government departments and ministers could support certain papers with early intelligence...John Walter, editor of the Times, who claimed that the ministry was helping the pro-government Sun" (Barker, Hannah; p.86,93). In the 1840s, the Sun faced new competition from papers which covered crime and murder cases extensively, forcing the Sun to do the same (Knelman p.36).
For a few years before his death in 1845 [William Fredrick Deacon] conducted the Sun newspaper, in which he demonstrated a keen admiration for Dickens (Healey, p.162).
"[William] Jerdan...in his editorship of the Sun newspaper, where 'his well-meant endeavours for the public good' rooted out 'vice...in this metropolis.'" (A Gallery of Illustrious Literary Characters quoted in Peterson, p.20)
"Among other and as violent Tory evening papers, The Sun had during many years an evil reputation. It was started in 1792 by George Rose and others at the instigation of Pitt, especially to advocate their views on home and foreign policy. It was at first conducted with some spirit, carrying on a fierce rivalry with The True Sun, another Tory print. Before long, however, the kindest thing that could be said about it was that The Sun appears daily, but never shines'" (Fox Bourne, p.288).
The Sun was one of the important daily newspapers issued in the late eighteenth-century (Graham 228).
When Murdo Young became proprietor, the circulation quadrupled between 1825 and 1829, due to his practice of publishing late news (Fox-Bourne, H. R., pp.26-7).
Ryan suggests that there was an Evening Sun in 1893, which was operated by T.P. O'Connor (121).
From October 1, 1873 to June 29, 1874 there are two variant numbering and title systems for, what appears to be, The Sun and Central Press. The Sun and The Central Press (joined together in 1871) may have separated completely at this time or they may have continued as an amalgamated paper, keeping their respective numbering systems. Refer to The Central Press (1871) for more information.
Issues from January 19, 1793 to December 1800 are in the Burney Collection at Bloomsbury.
Blagdon "began his career as a horn-boy to sell the Sun, whenever the paper contained extraordinary news" (Aspinall p.88). "John Taylor described The Sun and The Courier as 'the only effective evening papers in the service of the Government'" (Aspinall p.185). "As the Morning Chronicle said, the Sun was a paper 'peculiarly resorted to by ministers for the propagation of their ideas'" (Aspinall p.202). "The newspapers most closely connected with the Government at the end of the eighteenth century were the Sun and the True Briton" (Aspinall p.203). "The Sun changed its politics in November 1830" (Aspinall p.247). "Of the principal papers opposing the Addington ministry of 1801-4, the Sun, Oracle and True Briton supported either Pitt's friends or the Grenville-Windham group" (Aspinall p.282).
This publication was an evening newspaper and was among the first journals to publish book reviews, many of which were written by Charles Kent (DNB xxiv, p.390-391). Sheil's speech on Catholic emancipation was published in The Sun but never delivered in parliament (Barker, Hannah; p.90). In 1842, the Anti-Corn Law League paid the Sun 500 pounds a year to publish the League's material (Barker, Hannah; p.219).
"Pitt and his Treasury were also supposed to have had a hand in the formation of both the True Briton and the Sun in 1792, although no record of Secret Service expenditure seems to have survived...Government departments and ministers could support certain papers with early intelligence...John Walter, editor of the Times, who claimed that the ministry was helping the pro-government Sun" (Barker, Hannah; p.86,93). In the 1840s, the Sun faced new competition from papers which covered crime and murder cases extensively, forcing the Sun to do the same (Knelman p.36).
For a few years before his death in 1845 [William Fredrick Deacon] conducted the Sun newspaper, in which he demonstrated a keen admiration for Dickens (Healey, p.162).
"[William] Jerdan...in his editorship of the Sun newspaper, where 'his well-meant endeavours for the public good' rooted out 'vice...in this metropolis.'" (A Gallery of Illustrious Literary Characters quoted in Peterson, p.20)
Location:
partial runs: QZ/P-1 (1802, Jul 1803-Dec 1803, Jul 1804-Dec 1804), CA/U-1 A nos 533-2270 [ns] (13 Jun 1794-27 Oct 1900), LO/N38 A nos 2584-24555 (01 Jan 1801-1876, York Minster; reprint editions: 257 reels), EEN (microfilm: unit 17); N.America: Fulton; Full text available at BNA
Reproduced by permission, Cambridge University Library