DRAPER, Richard, journalist, born in 1727; died 6 June 1774. He was early-appointed printer to the governor and council of Massachusetts, and retained the office through his life, becoming the proprietor of the "Massachusetts Gazette and Boston News Letter," which strongly supported the crown in its controversies with the colonies. Mr. Draper was esteemed the best compiler of news of his day. He was a man of feeble health and of great gentleness of manner.

His wife, Margaret Draper, died in England about 1800, continued, with the aid of John Howe, the publication of her husband's journal from his death to the evacuation of Boston in 1776, and her paper was the only one published there during the siege. She went with the British army to Halifax, and thence to England, where she spent the rest of her life, receiving a pension from the government. Trumbull, in his " McFingal," speaks of her as " Mother Draper."