William Woodfall
William Woodfall (baptised 7 February 1745 – 1803) was an English printer, publisher and Parliamentary reporter.[1]
Life
William's father, Henry Woodfall, printed and published the
Following his father's retirement, Woodfall shared the running of the Public Advertiser with his brother
In 1770 London papers began to report Parliamentary debates fully, against the rules of the House of Commons. Woodfall published long reports of over 17,000 words, often copied by other papers. He would walk down to the House of Commons "with a hard-boiled egg in his pocket, take his seat in the gallery, sit out the longest debate and -- not being allowed to take notes -- return to his printing office and write out fifteen or sixteen small columns of speeches."[3] The Commons tried to have Woodfall and other printers arrested, but City of London officials challenged the right of Commons messengers to make arrests within the City; there were riots, and the Commons backed down, and no longer challenged the reporting of its debates.[4]
In 1789 he sold his interest in the Morning Chronicle and founded The Diary, or Woodfall's Register. Because of the ban on note-taking in the
William Woodfall's reporting was frequently controversial. Edmund Burke sued him for libel and, in 1779, Woodfall was found guilty of printing and publishing a leaflet supporting the acquittal of Admiral Augustus Keppell and sentenced to 12 months in Newgate Prison.
In 1789, he passed control of The Morning Chronicle to James Perry. The Diary closed in 1793.
References
- ^ Barker, Hannah. 'Woodfall, William (Bap. 1745, d. 1803), Journalist and Newspaper Editor'. In Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. 3 January 2008.
- ^ "The Life of a London Journal. From the London Star". NY Times. 7 April 1862.
- ^ Griffiths, Dennis (1992). The Encyclopedia of the British Press, 1422-1992. Macmillan. p. 606.
- ^ Barker, Hannah (2000). Newspapers, Politics and English Society, 1695-1855. Longman. p. 78.
- ^ The Eighteenth-Century Periodical and the Theatre: 1715–1803, Auburn University
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External links
- Spartacus article on William Woodfall
- Hannah Barker, 'Woodfall, William (bap. 1745, d. 1803)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004, accessed 19 Dec 2007