Daines Barrington’s famous report on young Mozart was received by the Royal Society on 28 Nov 1769 and read on 15 Feb 1770; it was first published the following year in volume 60 of Philosophical Transactions (54–64; Dokumente, 86–92). The volume does not give a precise date of publication, but it was reprinted in The General Evening Post in London in its issue for 31 Aug to 3 Sep 1771, providing a terminus ante quem. Barrington’s report was also reprinted in The Weekly Magazine, or Edinburgh Amusement in its issue for Thu, 17 Oct 1771 (72–76); this version has Mozart’s correct birthdate, 27 Jan, rather than 17 Jan, as given in Transactions.

Remarkably, the report was also reprinted in full (except for the two introductory sentences and the footnotes) in The South-Carolina and American General Gazette, in its issue for 4–11 Nov 1771 (no. 682, 230, fourth page of the issue). The dateline of the report in the Gazette is “London, September 3.” This is, to our knowledge, the earliest reference to Mozart in a North American publication, and also one of the earliest reprintings of Barrington’s report. (For the earliest known reports of performances of Mozart’s music in North America, see our entries for 14 Dec 1786 and 6 Oct 1789.)

The South-Carolina and American General Gazette was published from 1758 to 1782, and under this exact title from 1764 to 1781 (see Brigham 1947, 1036–37). The exemplar of the issue of 4–10 Nov 1771 at the Charleston Library Society appears to be a unicum; it is the exemplar that appears on microfilm and is the one reproduced at newspapers.com, where we first found it. A large piece of the left-hand column of Barrington’s report is missing from this exemplar, and a portion of the text is consequently lost. It is unlikely, however, that unknown content is lost, as this seems to be a straight reprint.

For more on Barrington, see our entry “Samuel Wesley gives his opinion of Mozart’s music.”