[1] In 1718, the Edinburgh Evening Courant began publication, as an evening newspaper, being first printed by James MacEwan,[2] or McQueen or McEwen on the High street section of the Royal Mile, published three times per week as a Whig publication in opposition to the Jacobite paper the Caledonian Mercury.
[5] In 1725, during the time of the Scottish Malt Tax riots, rival political factions used – or at least attempted to use – newspapers including the Edinburgh Evening Courant and the Caledonian Mercury as their "mouthpieces", as a letter from the then book trade apprentice Andrew Millar indicates.
Millar was apprenticed to James McEuen, who had been printer, editor, and principal bookseller of The Edinburgh Evening Courant since 1718.
An advertisement placed in the Edinburgh Evening Courant on 13 February 1727 stated that: Run away on the 7th instant from Dr Gustavus Brown’s Lodgings in Glasgow, a Negro Woman, named Ann, being about 18 Years of Age, with a green Gown and a Brass Collar about her Neck, on which are engraved these words [“Gustavus Brown in Dalkieth his Negro, 1726.”] Whoever apprehends her, so as she may be recovered, shall have two Guineas Reward, and necessary Charges allowed by Laurence Dinwiddie Junior Merchant in Glasgow, or by James Mitchelson Jeweller in Edinburgh.
[7] Daniel Defoe, author of the 1719 novel Robinson Crusoe, and then based at Moubray House, was its editor in the early 18th century.