The ''Eastern Province Herald'' is a newspaper, founded in 1845 and based in

Port Elizabeth Gqeberha ( , ), formerly named Port Elizabeth, and colloquially referred to as P.E., is a major seaport and the most populous city in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is the seat of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipal ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

John Paterson, founder of the ''Eastern Province Herald'' (1822-1880)

John Paterson was born in March 1822 in Aberdeen, Scotland, the son of a vintner/farmer/stone-mason, John Paterson Snr. and his wife Barbara. When John was six years old his father died as a result of an accident in a stone quarry. After John Snr's death, Barbara undertook to educate the boy but in 1832 she was persuaded to send him to Aberdeen Grammar School which he attended until 1836. While there he studied mathematics under Dr James Gordon of the Mathematical Public School of Aberdeen. In November 1836, he went to Marischal College, applied for a bursary and won one which saw him through the next four years of his University training. In his first year there he came third in Greek. The following year he studied Natural Philosophy, Higher Greek and Latin. During his third year he came second in Mathematics. On October 6, 1840, he was awarded his M.A. When Professor

James Rose-Innes Sir James Rose Innes (8 January 1855 – 16 January 1942) was the Chief Justice of South Africa from 1914 to 1927 and, in the view of many, its greatest ever judge. Before becoming a judge he was a member of the Cape Parliament, the Cape Colony ...

returned home to Aberdeen from the Cape Colony to recruit teachers for the senior government schools planned by

Sir George Napier Sir George Thomas Napier (30 June 1784 – 16 September 1855) was a British Army officer who saw service in the Peninsular War and later commanded the army of the Cape Colony. Life He entered the British Army in 1800, and served with dist ...

and

Sir John Herschel Sir John Frederick William Herschel, 1st Baronet (; 7 March 1792 – 11 May 1871) was an English polymath active as a mathematician, astronomer, chemist, inventor and experimental photographer who invented the blueprint and did botanical work ...

The founding of the ''Eastern Province Herald''

The paper was founded by Scottish immigrant John Paterson (Cape politician - Jock Paterson) on May 7, 1845. In 1841 Paterson was contracted by the Cape Government to become a teacher at the free school in Port Elizabeth. His contract forbade him to hold two jobs so he registered the newspaper in the name of his business partner, John Ross Phillip, son of missionary John Philip. After an argument with his business partner regarding the printing of the newspaper, Paterson temporarily ceased publication of the ''Eastern Province Herald'' but after a few months, he resumed publication. In 1857 he sold the ''Eastern Province Herald'' to his friend

Robert Godlonton Robert Godlonton (1794–1884) ("Moral Bob") was an influential politician of the Cape Colony. He was an 1820 Settler, who developed the press of the Eastern Cape and led the Eastern Cape separatist movement as a representative in the Cape's L ...

, owner of the ''

Grahamstown Journal Makhanda, formerly known as Grahamstown, is a town of about 75,000 people in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is situated about northeast of Gqeberha and southwest of East London, Eastern Cape, East London. It is the largest town ...

''. Philip opened the competing '' Port Elizabeth Mercury'' newspaper shortly after the split with Paterson. In the mid-1870s the

Cape Colony The Cape Colony (), also known as the Cape of Good Hope, was a British Empire, British colony in present-day South Africa named after the Cape of Good Hope. It existed from 1795 to 1802, and again from 1806 to 1910, when it united with three ...

underwent a massive economic and social growth, and the paper finally became a daily paper in 1878, as well as a full printing company.

References

Daily newspapers published in South Africa Mass media in the Eastern Cape {{SouthAfrica-newspaper-stub