To celebrate the 275th anniversary of the oldest surviving copy of the Belfast Newsletter, readers today receive a souvenir four page pull-out.

Stories include:

INDIAN ATTACK: … from Virginia, we have a further Account that four more Families have been murdered by the Indians in Orange County..

HOMOSEXUAL OFFENCES IN THE MILITARY: … from Portsmouth we hear, that a Court-Martial has sate … of the three Captains of Men of War that are charged with Male Practices …

FOREIGN SNIPPET:

… We have advice from Rome, that a young woman of Stassano, who had resisted a certain man’s addresses for the space of 18 months, was surprised by him as she went to bring water from a Draw-well, and that seeing herself on the point of being ravished by him, she drew a knife out of her pocket and killed him

TURPIN REPORT: … the Father of the noted [Dick] Turpin … [had] in his Possession a Horse supposed to be stolen out of Lincolnshire, which, he pleads, was left with him by his Son to pay for Diet and Lodging…

Homophobia, sex crimes and terrorism.

The bad old days.

Snippets from the first surviving edition of News Letter (Belfast Newsletter)