Deaths Reported in The Boston Recorder and Telegraph, 1827 and 1828

The Boston Recorder and Telegraph was a non-denominational religious weekly edited by Nathaniel Willis and Asa Rand. In 1948 Elizabeth Hayward of Ridgewood, New Jersey, copied all of the death notices — whether in a news item or an obituary column — that appeared in this newspaper in the years 1827 and 1828. The compiler notes in the introduction that "death dates were rarely given in the obituary notices, and from those scattered instances in which they were printed it appears that the interval between the event and its reporting varied from a few days to as much as three years. In general, the time interval varied directly in proportion to the distance from Boston. It should be noted that the date given at the close of each entry is the date of publication, not the date of death." She goes on to say that "the large number of deaths reported outside of Boston may be due to the fact that the periodical's editors were in correspondence with clergymen all over the world. The list has no geographical limits, for deaths are chronicled in all 26 of the then-existing states, in Canada, at sea and abroad." Service in the Revolutionary War is indicated by an asterisk (*).
The original transcription is kept in the R. Stanton Avery Collections at NEHGS, call numbers MS 35/34 (1827) and MS 35/35 (1828).

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