American AcornsThe Boston News-Letter, 15 August 1723, p. 2: the printed account of the burning of Capt. John Keyes's house at Shrewsbury in the night of 7-8 August 1723, naming William Oakes, 18, an apprentice carpenter, among the five who died.
Document · dated 15 Aug 1723 · source: The Boston News-Letter, Boston, 15 August 1723; America's Historical Newspapers (Readex), via AmericanAncestors.org.
How it is shown: Complete page as supplied; no crop, no retouch, no search highlight. A cleaner original than the FromThePage copy already held.
Keep in mind: What the page says: Confirmed. The paper prints the fire at Capt. Keyes's new house on the night between 7 and 8 August; the five who died were Abiel Bragg (17), 'William Oakes of 18' (an apprentice), and Capt. Keyes's sons Solomon (20), John (13) and Stephen (6); the carpenter Ebenezer Bragg escaped by the window. The spelling in print is Oakes. Whether this is our William: Likely at best, not Confirmed. That this William Oakes is the tree's William Oak (1705-1723), son of Nathaniel Oak and Mary Holloway, rests on name, age 18 and the Marlborough-Shrewsbury area; the page gives no parentage or home town for him. The two pages were saved from the owner's Readex (America's Historical Newspapers) access on 4 October 2026. The same printed account was also checked separately on an earlier copy (the FromThePage scan), independently of this Readex capture, and both readings confirm issue 1020 (8 to 15 August 1723) and the complete Keyes passage with its continuation. The carpenter's forename is printed 'Ebenezar'.