The Farley family of Somerset pioneered news media in provincial England, with newspapers in Exeter, Salisbury, Bristol and Bath.
[2][3] Newspapers appeared in provincial England at the turn of the 18th century, with the Bristol Post Boy being the very first in print from 1702, albeit a basic two-pager.
The governing Whigs came to see provincial newspapers as auxiliaries of the Tory opposition in London and in 1726 the Comptroller of the Post Office was mandated to establish surveillance, purchasing all English, Irish and Scottish newspapers for examination by the Treasury Solicitor.
The government lost the case for censorship in 1731 and ceased intervention in provincial newspapers until 1736.
[7] He was otherwise known for publishing the works of John Wood the Elder, notably The Origin of Building: Or, The Plagiarism Of The Heathens Detected, In Five Books.