Holy Smoke!!!

IanC, thank you for pointing out the boo-boo! I don't know where that 1700 figure came from unless I screwed up in my first draft. I checked and came up with this:

In 1675, Charles II 'called for the suppression of all coffee-houses in London as being places where the disaffected met, and spread scandalous reports concerning the conduct of his Majesty and his Ministers'. The uproar that followed forced Charles to cancel this edict.

From HERE.

I'm going to dig through my files and re-re-check my original sources.   If you spotted any other goofs, please let me know. And again, thank you!!

Don Firth