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Whitney, The History of the County of Worcester (1793), Shrewsbury, p. 136: the 1723 Boston account of the burning of Capt. John Keyes's house ('William Oaks of 18, his apprentices'). Whitney gives 'in the words of the account published in the only Newspaper .. then printed in Newengland' the 'exact account of the awful burning of Capt. John Keyes's house, with five persons in it, at Shrewsbury, in the night between the 7th and 8th of this inst.', including 'Mr. Bragg aforesaid, the carpenter, with his brother Abiel, of 17 years of age, and William Oaks of 18, his apprentices'.
Image · dated 1793 (account dated Boston, 15 Aug 1723) · source: Internet Archive (public-domain scan); historyofcountyo00whit.
Transcription
Word-for-word transcription (spellings kept; uncertain letters in brackets).
(Passage concerning the family only; the rest of the page is not transcribed. Long s printed as ordinary s.)
Boston, August 15th, 1723.
"An exact account of the awful burning of Capt. John Keyes's house, with five persons in it, at Shrewsbury, in the night between the 7th and 8th of this inst. taken from a letter of the Rev. Mr. Breck of Marlborough, and from the mouth of Mr. Ebenezer Bragg of the same, formerly of Ipswich, the only person of those who lodged in the house, who, by a distinguishing providence, escaped the flames.
"Capt. Keyes was building an house about nine or ten feet off his old one. It was almost finished. And Mr. Bragg aforesaid, the carpenter, with his brother Abiel, of 17 years of age, and William Oaks of 18, his apprentices, were work-[ing]
How it is shown: CROP of the page image (the upper part of the printed page, down to the line ending 'were work-'); the full-page image is not held in the folder; no retouch, no search highlight.
Keep in mind: Confirmed. Whitney says he is quoting the Boston paper of 15 Aug 1723. Whitney prints the surname Oaks; Ward (1847) prints 'William Oakes, 16'. Whitney's 'only Newspaper' is wrong (the Gazette and the Courant also ran). The identification of the apprentice as the son of Nathaniel Oak(e), b. 18 Feb 1705, is Hudson's (1862, p. 426) and is Likely, not proven.