Page 979 - Reading Mercury

According to K.G. Burton, in his excellent book “The Early Newspaper Press in
Berkshire, 1723-1855,” published 1954, the Wokingham “Berkshire Chronicle” was
launched mainly on the responsibility of Mr. Clement Cruttwell; his father was a
prosperous butcher there, died January 1772. William Cruttwell, probably an uncle of
Clement’s, was a bookseller in the Market Place, from about January 1766 until death
two years later and was the “Reading Mercury” agent.
His widow, Mrs. Elizabeth Cruttwell, continued the “Mercury” agency. She
announced she intended to carry on “the Liquor Trade and bookselling and stationery
business...Printed dialogues of her Circulation Library...may be had gratis... A next
assortment of Hardware goods...” She remained “Mercury” agent until January 1771,
continuing at her Wokingham shop until death in February 1776.
The earliest “Chronicle” of the new-found collection states that the newspaper was
printed at Wokingham for the publishers and published by Trickey, Cruttwell and Co.,
in the Market Place, “where Advertisements are taken in, and Printing in general
performed with Correctness, Elegance and Dispatch, on reasonable Terms.”
It was claimed that the paper was circulated “with the utmost expedition throughout
not only Berkshire but en other counties. It bears no price.
Clement Cruttwell (according to Mr. Burton) had by April 1766 set up as a surgeon,
apothecary and man-midwife in Broad Street, Wokingham. In March 1767 he
published “An essay on the Practice of Midwifery,” printed by William Cruttwell of
Sherborne and sold at the “Mercury” office, Reading, and by William Cruttwell at
Wokingham. He was a keen advocate of inoculation against smallpox, and wrote
strongly to the “Mercury” defending its use.
As well as having a surgery in Wokingham, in October of 1767 he took apartments
in Friar Street, Reading. In December that year he went into partnership with Mr.
Henry Goldwyn, surgeon and oculist of Castle Street, Reading; the partnership
apparently broke up about 1779.
With Clemet Cuttwell’s medical career in mind, the “Mercury” referred thus to the
“Berkshire Chronicle’s” founding at Wokingham: “Mr.......of Oakingham, who has for
many years inoculated persons with the smallpox with uncommon success, has now
opened an office for inoculating the Public with Politics. The matter, which other
printers have made use of this operation, having proved to be of a very pestilential and
inflammatory nature, and to have affected the brain of the Patients with an uncommon
delirium, he professes that he will use such only ‘as shall tend to please and profit’;
his nostrums being effectual to remove all complaints in the eyes, nerves or brain, or
any part of the human system.”
The “Chronicle” office was set up in the Market Place, most likely at Mrs. Elizabeth
Cruttwell’s shop. Mr. Burton adds: “The style of the early numbers....is not known, as
st
the only copy accessible is number 256, Friday, 1 Dec. 1775.” That copy consists of
four pages of four columns each, stamped, priced at 2½d., and published by Trickey,
Cruttwell, Wheatley and Co., in the Market Place. He considers that Trickey was
William Trickey, a Wokingham draper, who died in 1826 aged 92; Wheatley, most
likely William Wheatley, local innkeeper who had The Kingshead in 1754, took over
The Bush Inn in 1756, and ran from there ten years later his “Oakingham Machine” to
London; he moved to The Old Rose Inn in 1778, but died that year.
The “Chronicle” had not long been started when Clement Cruttwell married Molly
Brookes, daughter of the late Mr. Brookes, Wokingham woollen-draper. She, dying in
1812, outlived her husband by four years.
Mr. Burton comments: “The exact life of the “Berkshire Chronicle” is not known,
but it probably did not continue for long after the year 1780.

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