In October 1781 an anonymous contributor to the London Courant – describing himself only as ‘No Fool’ – expressed his dissatisfaction with access to the latest periodicals at Peele's Coffee House. In his complaint, he explained that:

As I have a very extensive country correspondence, and wish to know what is going forward in many parts of England, I am naturally in the habit of reporting to your Coffee-house, to embrace the opportunity it affords me, in common with others, of reading the country news-papers as they arrive in town … (‘No Fool’ 1781)

While the intention of ‘No Fool’s’ letter was to chastise the behaviour of other patrons in removing the newspapers from the ‘Coffee-house’ as soon as they arrived, his brief description of accessing periodicals highlights several important themes regarding the nature of reading the news in the early modern period. First, we learn that reading the news in public settings such as coffee houses was a communal activity, taking place ‘in common with others’. Second, we learn that, in order to satiate readers’ desires to learn ‘what is going forward in many parts of England’, such institutions offered patrons a variety of newspapers and, consequently, a breadth of information concerning both local and regional matters. Third, we learn that those who were reliant upon the content of newspapers privileged the timeliness of such information. Indeed, in this author's case, it was his inability to access the newspapers immediately upon the evening ‘as they arrive[d] in town’ – instead, through the actions of others, only gaining access the following morning – that triggered his complaint.

Thinking more closely about ‘No Fool’ and his fellow readers at Peele's Coffee House, this chapter focuses upon those persons who read and consumed printed news in early modern Britain and Ireland between c. 1640 and 1800. Its focus is twofold, considering both individual ‘readers’ as well as those who consumed printed material in more structured associational groups or ‘readerships’. Turning our attention first to explore readers as individuals, the first part of this chapter draws upon current scholarship concerning the history of reading to explore crucial research questions regarding the practicalities of reading printed news in early modern Britain and Ireland.