American Acorns

William Oak

Newspapers: William Oak

4 newspaper clippings, oldest first. Move between them with the Previous and Next buttons or the arrow keys; zoom with + and −. Escape returns to William Oak.

Boston News-Letter, No. 1020, 15 Aug 1723, p. [2]: 'An exact Account of the awfull Burning of Capt. John Keyes House' at Shrewsbury (William Oakes of 18, an apprentice, among the five who died). The account says Capt. Keyes's new house was nearly finished and that Mr. Bragg the carpenter, his brother Abiel of 17 Years and William Oakes of 18, his Apprentices, with three of the Captain's sons, slept in it; Bragg alone escaped, and the remains of the five were put into one coffin.
Boston News-Letter, No. 1020, 15 Aug 1723, p. [2]: 'An exact Account of the awfull Burning of Capt. John Keyes House' at Shrewsbury (William Oakes of 18, an apprentice, among the five who died). The account says Capt. Keyes's new house was nearly finished and that Mr. Bragg the carpenter, his brother Abiel of 17 Years and William Oakes of 18, his Apprentices, with three of the Captain's sons, slept in it; Bragg alone escaped, and the remains of the five were put into one coffin. 15 Aug 1723 · p. [2]
Source: Native Bound Unbound / FromThePage (image of a 1723 newspaper, public domain).
How it is shown: Complete page image; no crop, no retouch, no search highlight.
Keep in mind: Confirmed on the page image: 'William Oakes of 18' and 'his Apprentices'. Two digits are worn ('for ?00', 'hit ? Or 3 times'); neither affects names or ages. The newspaper does not give William's parents: the identification as the son of Nathaniel and Mary Oak(e), b. Marlborough 18 Feb 1705, is the Ebenezer Parkman Project editor's note (Likely). The surnames Bragg (for Abiel) and Keyes (for the three boys) are inferred from the text and the Parkman footnote, not printed.
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The American Weekly Mercury, No. 192 (15-22 Aug 1723), p. [3] (facsimile vol. 4, printed p. 91): Boston, August 12, the burning of Capt. John Kies's house at Shrewsbury. The Boston item of 12 August says that on the night of Wednesday 7 August the house of Capt. John Kies of Shrewsbury was burnt with three of his sons and two other men; the master workman, one Brege of Ipswich, escaped by jumping out of a window and had two apprentices burnt.
The American Weekly Mercury, No. 192 (15-22 Aug 1723), p. [3] (facsimile vol. 4, printed p. 91): Boston, August 12, the burning of Capt. John Kies's house at Shrewsbury. The Boston item of 12 August says that on the night of Wednesday 7 August the house of Capt. John Kies of Shrewsbury was burnt with three of his sons and two other men; the master workman, one Brege of Ipswich, escaped by jumping out of a window and had two apprentices burnt. 15-22 Aug 1723 · p. [3] (facsimile p. 91)
Source: Internet Archive (public-domain scan); americanweeklyme04brad.
How it is shown: Complete page, 110-dpi render from the Internet Archive PDF; no crop, no retouch, no search highlight.
Keep in mind: Confirmed on the page image. The paragraph does not name William Oakes: it is the Philadelphia paper's report of the same fire (Boston dateline 12 Aug 1723) and counts the two apprentices among 'two other Men'. It attributes the fire to shavings; the Boston News-Letter gives no cause. 'Kies' and 'Brege' are as printed. The 'Brege' paragraph is the only part of the page relied on.
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The American Weekly Mercury, Philadelphia, 22 August 1723, p. 3: a short reprint of the Boston account of the burning of Capt. John Kies's house at Shrewsbury, which says only that two apprentices were burnt; p. 4 carries an unrelated advertisement.
The American Weekly Mercury, Philadelphia, 22 August 1723, p. 3: a short reprint of the Boston account of the burning of Capt. John Kies's house at Shrewsbury, which says only that two apprentices were burnt; p. 4 carries an unrelated advertisement. 22 Aug 1723 · pp. 3-4
Source: The American Weekly Mercury, Philadelphia, 22 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.
Keep in mind: What the page says: Confirmed. The p. 3 item condenses the fire ('Boston August 12'), names Capt. John Kies of Shrewsbury and the master workman 'Brege of Ipswich', and says 'he had two Apprentices burnt'; it does not name them and has no Oak or Oakes text. The p. 4 advertisement for a runaway servant mentions a Shrewsbury that is almost certainly the New Jersey town and has no connection to the Oak family. IDENTITY: not applicable to a name, because none is printed. William Oak (1705-1723) is tagged only as the apprentice whose death the Boston News-Letter of 15 Aug 1723 reports (Likely at best, not Confirmed); this page corroborates the fire, not his identity.
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The 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.
The 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. 15 Aug 1723 · pp. 1-2 (2-page issue); the account is on p. 2
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'.
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