Oxford historic newspaper from 1600s on sale for £1,500

The Oxford Gazette was established in November 1665 to provide an official record of news while the Court of King Charles II was in Oxford during the Great Plague of London.

Antique shop Sanders of Oxford has listed a copy of this historic publication which dates back over 350 years for £1,500.

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This particular edition of the newspaper was printed by Leonard Liechfield and covers events from Monday, January 15 to Thursday, January 18, 1666.

Reports cover shipwrecks around Penzance, conflicts between the French crown and the clergy, as well as Dutch naval and military movements.

The Oxford Gazette newspaper. (Image: Sanders of Oxford)

Also mentioned was an impromptu duel between the Chevalier de Clermont and Monsieur de la Fevillade and attempts at peace talks between Spain and Portugal.

The positions of the French fleet in the Channel and the Mediterranean, and the sighting of Dutch Men-of-War off the coast near Whitby, also featured.

Finally, the arrival of various cargo ships to English ports carrying timber, herring, wine, and brandy, and a letter from Paris containing news of the death of Anne of Austria was included.

Anne was the Queen mother of the King of France, from a long fight against breast cancer.

Perhaps the most interesting, though gruesome, detail is the weekly Bill of Mortality, providing details of deaths from the Plague and the increase in cases from the previous week.

Oxford's skyline (Photo: Matthew Landells).

As many as 158 deaths were attributed to plague in the four days of the issue, though the number was likely to have been much higher.

Before the Great Plague, there had been no formal system for the recording of deaths, with parishes instead appointing ‘searchers of the dead’ to carry out a tally and record causes of death.

These searchers were rarely medically trained, and commonly misreported the cause of death.

Contemporary accounts also attribute some inconsistencies to deliberate misreporting, most likely through bribery to avoid the consequences to family members of plague victims.

Under quarantine rules, the close contacts of plague sufferers were confined to their homes under armed guard for 40 days, which was often a death sentence to the entire household either through plague or neglect.

Leonard Litchfield II was an Oxford-based printer and publisher, and the third in a line of publishers who served as the printer for the University of Oxford.

This item is one of 50 prints included in Sanders’ catalogue of recent acquisitions and is offered for sale at £1,500.