The New York Weekly Journal
Open-knowledge reference entry
The New York Weekly Journal was a weekly journal, printed by John Peter Zenger, from November 5, 1733 to March 18, 1751. It was the second journal in New York City and the only one that criticized New York Royal governor William Cosby, for which reason the journal was burned in its first year and John Zenger was put in prison. Zenger was released without charges, this being one of the earliest cases where a fight for the freedom of press led to a victory in America.
History
In 1733, the only newspaper in New York was the New-York Gazette, and its printer, William Bradford, was a supporter of then New York Governor, William Cosby. The Popular Party wanted to attack Governor Cosby, and the only other printer in New York was John Peter Zenger, who had come from Germany to America in 1697, went to New York in 1711, and worked with Bradford for eight years before he started his own print business on Smith Street.
First publication
Its first publications started on November 5, 1733. It has contributions made anonymously by James Alexander, William Smith, and Lewis Morris. The journal targeted the new royal governor of New York, William Cosby, and his conduct. The journal was freely published for two months.
Burning of New York Weekly Journal
On January 15, 1734, Cosby ordered public burning of the newspaper on Wall Street, close to City Hall, and also offered fifty pounds as reward for who revealed the names of the Journal's authors.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 13, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q23091960. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1733, 1751, 1697 and 1711.
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This entry incorporates text from “The New York Weekly Journal” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.