Month: October 2023

October 31

Carl Robert Keyes Uncategorized , , , , ,

What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago this month?

Boston-Gazette (October 25, 1773).

“American Magazine. ‘To be, or not to be.’”

In the summer and fall of 1773, Isaiah Thomas advertised widely in his efforts to attract subscribers for the Royal American Magazine, a proposed publication that would become the only magazine published in the colonies at the time if the printer managed to generate enough interest to make it a viable venture.  On October 25, he placed advertisements in the Boston-Gazette and the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Post-Boy with a secondary headline that proclaimed “To be, or not to be,” a familiar quotation from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, to indicate that the prospects of the publication remained uncertain.  In both newspapers, Thomas requested that anyone who recruited subscribers return the subscription papers with the lists of names by the middle of November “as by that Time he shall be able to determine, whether the said Magazine will be Published or not.”  The advertisement in the Boston-Gazette also included a nota bene in which Thomas confided that “by the Appearance of the Subscription papers, in his Possession, there is the greatest Probability of its going forward.”  Thomas would indeed publish the first issue in January 1774, though the magazine lasted only sixteen months due to the disruptions of the imperial crisis and, eventually, the war that began with the skirmishes at Lexington and Concord in April 1775.

The Adverts 250 Project has traced the advertising campaign that promoted the Royal American Magazine in June, July, August, and September.  An even greater number of advertisements appeared in colonial newspapers in October than in any previous month, a total of twenty advertisements in ten newspapers in eight towns in six colonies.  Three of those advertisements ran in Thomas’s own Massachusetts Spy, while other newspapers carried the vast majority of them. Fourteen of the advertisements appeared in newspapers published beyond Boston.  Thomas sought subscribers who read newspapers published in Salem, Massachusetts; Portsmouth, New-Hampshire; Newport, Rhode Island; New Haven and New London in Connecticut; and New York and Philadelphia.  Previously, the Connecticut Courant, published in Hartford, and the Providence Gazette also carried the subscription proposals for the Royal American Magazine.  Thomas knew the number of prospective subscribers in Boston alone would not justify an investment of the time and resources required to publish a magazine.  He devised an advertising campaign that extended to all of the colonies in New England as well as New York and Pennsylvania.

Newport Mercury (October 4, 1773).

In October 1773, the subscription proposals appeared once again in the Connecticut Journal and the Pennsylvania Journal.  The printer’s update addressed “To the Public” made additional appearances in the Boston-Gazette and the Massachusetts Spy.  It also ran for the first time in the Essex Gazette, published in Salem, and had two more insertions during the month.  Having published the subscription proposals in July and August, the Newport Mercury carried a unique advertisement, likely devised by Solomon Southwick, the printer and Thomas’s local agent for collecting the names of subscribers, rather than by Thomas himself.  It announced, “SUBSCRIPTIONS taken in by the Printer hereof, FOR THE ROYAL AMERICAN MAGAZINE: WHICH will soon be published by Mr. ISAIAH THOMAS, in Boston.  Price 10s4 per annum.”

Connecticut Journal (October 22, 1773).

That advertisement expressed greater certainty about the prospects for the magazine than Thomas’s “To be, or not to be” notice that ran in Boston later in the month, as did another update that Thomas placed in newspapers in Connecticut, New Hampshire, and New York near the end of the month.  That advertisement informed “Gentlemen and Ladies, who incline to encourage the Publication of the ROYAL AMERICAN MAGAZINE … that the Subscription Papers will be returned to the intended Publisher in a few Days, in order that he may ascertain the Number subscribed for.”  Those who had not yet submitted their names to the local printing office had only a limited time to do so.  As an enticement to those still contemplating whether they wished to subscribe, a nota bene promoted “two elegant Copper Plate Prints” that would accompany the first issue of the magazine.  The nota bene also indicated a publication date, “the first Day of January next.”  Along with the magazine, prospective subscribers did not have much time to qualify for these premiums.  If they decided to subscribe at some time in the future, they would miss out on the gift given to those who supported the magazine even before the first issue went to press.

Thomas hoped to publish the Royal American Magazine, but first he needed to determine if a market existed to support it.  His subscription proposals and other advertisements served a dual purpose: they incited demand for the magazine while also assessing interest and determining the total number of subscribers willing to pay for the publication.  Some subscription proposals, no matter how widely they circulated, never resulted in publishing the proposed book, magazine, map, or other item.  Over the course of several months, Thomas managed to identify and incite sufficient demand to publish the Royal American Magazine.

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Newspaper Advertisements for October 1773

Subscription Proposals

  • October 8 – Connecticut Journal (second known appearance; fourth possible appearance)
  • October 20 – Postscript to the Pennsylvania Journal (second appearance)

“To the PUBLIC” Update

  • October 4 – Boston-Gazette (third appearance)
  • October 7 – Massachusetts Spy (third appearance)
  • October 12 – Essex Gazette (first appearance)
  • October 14 – Massachusetts Spy (fourth appearance)
  • October 19 – Essex Gazette (second appearance)
  • October 21 – Massachusetts Spy (fifth appearance)
  • October 26 – Essex Gazette (third appearance)

“SUBSCRIPTIONS” Notice

  • October 4 – Newport Mercury (first appearance)
  • October 11 – Newport Mercury (second appearance)
  • October 18 – Newport Mercury (third appearance)
  • October 25 – Newport Mercury (fourth appearance)

“Subscription Papers will be returned” Update

  • October 22 – Connecticut Journal (first appearance)
  • October 22 – New-Hampshire Gazette (first appearance)
  • October 22 – New-London Gazette (first appearance)
  • October 28 – New-York Journal (first appearance)
  • October 29 – Connecticut Journal (second appearance)

“To be, or not to be” Update

  • October 25 – Boston-Gazette (first appearance)
  • October 25 – Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Post-Boy (first appearance)

October 30

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , ,

What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago today?

Maryland Journal (October 30, 1773).

“Any orders for books … will be regularly forwarded by a packet that goes weekly between Baltimore and Annapolis.”

When William Aikman opened a circulating library in Annapolis in the summer of 1773, he hoped to gain subscribers in Baltimore and other towns.  Unlike modern public libraries open to all patrons, eighteenth-century circulating libraries lent books and other reading material only to subscribers who paid fees to access them.  To make the venture viable, Aikman needed to recruit as many subscribers as possible.  According to the advertisement he placed in the October 30 edition of the Maryland Journal, the newspaper only recently established in Baltimore, Aikman stated that he had learned that a “number of the friends of literature” in that city expressed interest in subscribing to his library yet refrained solely due to the “trouble and risk they run of procuring and returning the books” at such a distance.  His library catalog revealed which books subscribers could borrow, but the logistics of checking them out and returning them to the library presented remained an obstacle.

Aikman proposed a solution to that problem.  He instructed that “any orders for books left with Mr. Christopher Johnston,” a merchant in Baltimore, “will be regularly forwarded by a packet that goes weekly between Baltimore and Annapolis.”  Aikman charged an additional fee for this service, a dollar a year.  He also advised that it would go into effect “provided a proper number of subscribers can be got.”  In other words, prospective subscribers needed to consider not only the benefits that would accrue to them but also their duty to make the library more accessible to the “friends of literature” in their town.  Aikman promised “above two hundred volumes of all the new publications of merit” that subscribers could borrow rather than buy.

The bookseller and stationer in Annapolis may not have been aware that he faced a competitor.  Elsewhere in the October 30 edition of the Maryland Journal, Joseph Rathell published “PROPOSALS FOR ESTABLISHING A CIRCULATING LIBRARY IN BALTIMORE-TOWN,” offering residents a local alternative to the library in Annapolis.  The Adverts 250 Project will examine that advertisement, including Rathell’s dismissive reference to Aikman’s fees for delivering books to Baltimore, in another entry.

Slavery Advertisements Published October 30, 1773

Carl Robert Keyes Slavery Adverts 250 Project

The Slavery Adverts 250 Project chronicles the role of newspaper advertising in perpetuating slavery in the era of the American Revolution. The project seeks to reveal the ubiquity of slavery in eighteenth-century life from New England to Georgia by republishing advertisements about enslaved people – for sale as individuals or in groups, wanted to purchase or for hire for short periods, runaways who liberated themselves, and those who were subsequently captured and confined in jails and workhouses – in daily digests on this site as well as in real time via the @SlaveAdverts250 Twitter feed, utilizing twenty-first-century media to stand in for the print media of the eighteenth century.

The project aims to provide modern audiences with a sense of just how often colonizers encountered these advertisements in their daily lives. Enslaved men, women, and children appeared in print somewhere in the colonies almost every single day. Those advertisements served as a constant backdrop for social, cultural, economic, and political life in colonial and revolutionary America. Colonizers who did not purport to own enslaved people were still confronted with slavery as well as invited to maintain the system by purchasing enslaved men, women, and children or assisting in the capture of so-called “runaways” who sought to free themselves from bondage. The frequency of these newspaper advertisements suggests just how embedded slavery was in colonial and revolutionary American culture in everyday interactions beyond the printed page.

These advertisements also testify to the experiences of enslaved men, women, and children, though readers must consider that those experiences have been remediated through descriptions offered by enslavers rather than enslaved people themselves. Often unnamed in the advertisements, enslaved men, women, and children were not invisible or unimportant in early America.

These advertisements appeared in colonial American newspapers 250 years ago today.

Providence Gazette (October 30, 1773).

October 29

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , ,

What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250years ago today?

Connecticut Journal (October 29, 1773).

“SIR, PLEASE to return with speed, for things are bad.  WR”

Among the several advertisements in the October 29, 1773, edition of the Connecticut Journal, Job Perit sold a “large Assortment of English & India GOODS,” Daniel Huntington peddled a “fresh Parcel of Drugs and Medicine,” and Amos Morrision, a “Wigg-Maker & Hair-Dresser,” presented his services to prospective clients.  John Danielson and John Row each placed real estate notices, while John Lothrop called on “all those that are any Ways indebted to him” to settle accounts or face legal action.  One notice announced a fair “for the Barter and Sale of all Kinds of Goods, homespun or other Manufactures, Horses, Sheep,” and other livestock.  Another announced a delay in drawing numbers for the New Haven Lottery.  Jonathan Brown and Ebenezer Townsend offered rewards for a strayed or stolen horses.  The printers, Thomas Green and Samuel Green, advertised “THE MACARONIE JESTER,” a book of jokes, and invited subscribers for the Royal American Magazine to submit their names to the printing office to be forwarded to Isaiah Thomas in Boston.

Some of these advertisements may have been of greater interest than others to various readers, but each of them addressed the public and clearly stated their purpose.  A more cryptic advertisement did not do so.  In its entirety, that brief notice stated, “SIR, PLEASE to return with speed, for things are bad.  WR.”  What did it mean?  Who placed the advertisement?  What was the relationship between “WR” and “SIR”?  What had happened to prompt “WR” to place this notice?  Why did “WR” choose to place an advertisement in the public prints along with whatever other means of contacting “SIR” they used?  Did some readers suspect that they knew the identities of “WR” and “SIR” and the circumstances that inspired the advertisement?  Did they gossip and share their suspicions with others?  How much did the printers know about “WR” and their situation?  Whatever the answers to these questions, the Greens surrendered a small bit of editorial control over the contents of their newspaper when they published the advertisement.  Every printer did so with every advertisement they published, allowing others to determine some of the contents of their publications while simultaneously exercising the prerogative to reject paid notices if they did not believe they matched the tone of the newspaper.  Each advertisement, like each news item, essay, and letter, told a story and disseminated information to the reading public.  In the case of “WR” and “SIR,” however, the advertisement obscured most of the relevant information and addressed a single reader.  In placing the notice, “WR” leveraged the power of the press for their own purposes, just as every advertiser did when they purchased space in newspapers.

Slavery Advertisements Published October 29, 1773

Carl Robert Keyes Slavery Adverts 250 Project

The Slavery Adverts 250 Project chronicles the role of newspaper advertising in perpetuating slavery in the era of the American Revolution. The project seeks to reveal the ubiquity of slavery in eighteenth-century life from New England to Georgia by republishing advertisements about enslaved people – for sale as individuals or in groups, wanted to purchase or for hire for short periods, runaways who liberated themselves, and those who were subsequently captured and confined in jails and workhouses – in daily digests on this site as well as in real time via the @SlaveAdverts250 Twitter feed, utilizing twenty-first-century media to stand in for the print media of the eighteenth century.

The project aims to provide modern audiences with a sense of just how often colonizers encountered these advertisements in their daily lives. Enslaved men, women, and children appeared in print somewhere in the colonies almost every single day. Those advertisements served as a constant backdrop for social, cultural, economic, and political life in colonial and revolutionary America. Colonizers who did not purport to own enslaved people were still confronted with slavery as well as invited to maintain the system by purchasing enslaved men, women, and children or assisting in the capture of so-called “runaways” who sought to free themselves from bondage. The frequency of these newspaper advertisements suggests just how embedded slavery was in colonial and revolutionary American culture in everyday interactions beyond the printed page.

These advertisements also testify to the experiences of enslaved men, women, and children, though readers must consider that those experiences have been remediated through descriptions offered by enslavers rather than enslaved people themselves. Often unnamed in the advertisements, enslaved men, women, and children were not invisible or unimportant in early America.

These advertisements appeared in colonial American newspapers 250 years ago today.

New London Gazette (October 29, 1773).

October 28

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , , , , ,

What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago today?

New-York Journal (October 28, 1773).

“Gentlemen’s caps, and gloves, lined with fur, very useful for travelling, and sleighing.”

During the final week of October 1773, John Siemon, a furrier, inserted advertisements in three newspapers published in New York, placing his notices before the eyes of as many readers in and near the city as possible.  He hawked a “General and complete assortment, of new fashion’d muffs & tippets, ermine, cloak linings, … gentlemen’s caps, and gloves, lined with fur,” and other items.  In addition, he “trims Ladies robes and riding dresses” and “faces and lapels Gentlemen’s waistcoats.”  As an ancillary service, Siemon provided directions “to rub the furs in summer” to keep them in good condition when not being worn.

Although Siemon submitted nearly identical copy to the three printing offices, his advertisements had very different formats when they appeared in the newspapers.  Arguably the one that best represented Siemon’s brand, the notice in the New-York Journal featured a woodcut depicting a muff, an image that regularly accompanied the furrier’s advertisements.  Siemon apparently considered it worth the investment to commission a single woodcut for the exclusive use of his business, but did not realize the potential of purchasing multiple woodcuts with the same image in order to achieve visual consistency and product recognition across several publications.

Rivington’s New-York Gazetteer (October 28, 1773).

Siemon’s advertisement in Rivington’s New-York Gazetteer had a different kind of visual appeal.  The furrier joined the ranks of advertisers who enclosed their notices within borders comprised of decorative type, including Crommelin and Horsfield, bakers, John J. Roosevelt, a merchant, Richard Sause, a cutler.  James Rivington and the compositors in his printing office made such borders a regular part of advertisements for consumer goods and services.  Those borders helped to draw attention to certain advertisements while also giving the pages of Rivington’s newspaper a distinctive look.  In contrast, no images or decorative type adorned Siemon’s advertisement in the New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury.  It consisted solely of text with the typography determined by the compositor to match other advertisements in that publication.

New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury (October 25, 1773).

In most instances, advertisers submitted copy to printing offices and then compositors determined the format of the advertisements.  Siemon’s advertisements suggest that was indeed the case when advertising in the New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury, yet he offered specific directions, in the form of the familiar woodcut, for his advertisement in the New-York Journal.  His advertisement in Rivington’s New-York Gazetteer demonstrates the greatest level of collaboration between advertiser and compositor.  Siemon either requested or agreed to include a distinctive visual element associated with notices in that newspaper.  The furrier took graphic design into account to varying degrees in his efforts to disseminate his advertisements in multiple newspapers.

Slavery Advertisements Published October 28, 1773

Carl Robert Keyes Slavery Adverts 250 Project

The Slavery Adverts 250 Project chronicles the role of newspaper advertising in perpetuating slavery in the era of the American Revolution. The project seeks to reveal the ubiquity of slavery in eighteenth-century life from New England to Georgia by republishing advertisements about enslaved people – for sale as individuals or in groups, wanted to purchase or for hire for short periods, runaways who liberated themselves, and those who were subsequently captured and confined in jails and workhouses – in daily digests on this site as well as in real time via the @SlaveAdverts250 Twitter feed, utilizing twenty-first-century media to stand in for the print media of the eighteenth century.

The project aims to provide modern audiences with a sense of just how often colonizers encountered these advertisements in their daily lives. Enslaved men, women, and children appeared in print somewhere in the colonies almost every single day. Those advertisements served as a constant backdrop for social, cultural, economic, and political life in colonial and revolutionary America. Colonizers who did not purport to own enslaved people were still confronted with slavery as well as invited to maintain the system by purchasing enslaved men, women, and children or assisting in the capture of so-called “runaways” who sought to free themselves from bondage. The frequency of these newspaper advertisements suggests just how embedded slavery was in colonial and revolutionary American culture in everyday interactions beyond the printed page.

These advertisements also testify to the experiences of enslaved men, women, and children, though readers must consider that those experiences have been remediated through descriptions offered by enslavers rather than enslaved people themselves. Often unnamed in the advertisements, enslaved men, women, and children were not invisible or unimportant in early America.

These advertisements appeared in colonial American newspapers 250 years ago today.

Maryland Gazette (October 28, 1773).

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Maryland Gazette (October 28, 1773).

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Maryland Gazette (October 28, 1773).

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Maryland Gazette (October 28, 1773).

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Maryland Gazette (October 28, 1773).

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Maryland Gazette (October 28, 1773).

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Maryland Gazette (October 28, 1773).

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Maryland Gazette (October 28, 1773).

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Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter (October 28, 1773).

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Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter (October 28, 1773).

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Massachusetts Spy (October 28, 1773).

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New-York Journal (October 28, 1773).

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Rivington’s New-York Gazetteer (October 28, 1773).

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Virginia Gazette [Purdie and Dixon] (October 28, 1773).

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Virginia Gazette [Purdie and Dixon] (October 28, 1773).

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Virginia Gazette [Purdie and Dixon] (October 28, 1773).

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Virginia Gazette [Purdie and Dixon] (October 28, 1773).

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Virginia Gazette [Purdie and Dixon] (October 28, 1773).

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Virginia Gazette [Purdie and Dixon] (October 28, 1773).

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Virginia Gazette [Purdie and Dixon] (October 28, 1773).

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Virginia Gazette [Purdie and Dixon] (October 28, 1773).

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Virginia Gazette [Purdie and Dixon] (October 28, 1773).

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Virginia Gazette [Rind] (October 28, 1773).

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Virginia Gazette [Rind] (October 28, 1773).

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Virginia Gazette [Rind] (October 28, 1773).

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Virginia Gazette [Rind] (October 28, 1773).

October 27

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , , ,

What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago today?

Pennsylvania Journal (October 27, 1773).

“As he is determined to quit Trade and settle his Affairs, he will sell off all his remaining Goods at public Sale.”

Randle Mitchell advertised a “going out of business” sale in the fall of 1773.  He announced that he “is determined to quit Trade and settle his Affairs” and “is now selling off his stock of European and India GOODS, Imported in the last Vessels from London and Bristol.”  The merchant outlined the terms of the sale in an advertisement that ran in the Pennsylvania Journal for several weeks in October.

Mitchell ran the advertisement in advance of commencing the sale, hoping to build both anticipation and competition among wholesalers and retailers interested in acquiring his wares.  The sale would start on November 1, but interested parties could examine the merchandise at Mitchell’s store on Water Street “three days before the sale.”  He pledged that “the Good [will be] arranged in order for any person to view them.”  In addition, he distributed “Hand bills with the particulars of the goods … thro’ the city and country, a week before the sale.”  Mitchell did not rely on newspapers notices as the only means of advertising his “going out of business” sale.  Though none of those handbills survive, Mitchell’s reference to them suggests that colonizers encountered more advertisements in various formats than have been preserved in research libraries, historical societies, and private collections.

To entice prospective buyers, Mitchell declared that he “will sell off in the Packages to any Merchant or Shopkeeper at prime cost or the usual credit.”  He offered more generous terms to those who bought in greater volume, setting “Six Months Credit” for “All Persons purchasing above Fifty Pounds value.”  Those purchasing “only £20 value and under £50” received just three months credit, while smaller purchases had to be paid in cash at the time of sale.  Furthermore, anyone eligible for six months credit who instead chose to pay case “may have a discount of Five per cent.”  Those who qualified for three months credit, in turn, received “a discount of Two and a half per cent” for paying cash.  Mitchell considered these terms “so very convenient, and advantageous to the Purchasers, that they must see their Interest in purchasing at the Sale.”

Although Mitchell did not use the term “going out of business” to describe his sale, that was the kind of event that he sponsored at his store.  With newspaper advertisements and handbills distributed far and wide, he attempted to create a buzz of anticipation for the bargains soon available to merchants and shopkeepers interested in buying in volume.  To inspire them to imagine how they could manage such purchases, Mitchell explained the discounts and credit available.  In the process, he devised a structure that encouraged larger purchases in his efforts to liquidate his inventory.  Mitchell did not merely announce that he was going out of the business.  He made his decision “to quit Trade” an event that demanded the attention of merchants and shopkeepers in and near Philadelphia.

Slavery Advertisements Published October 27, 1773

Carl Robert Keyes Slavery Adverts 250 Project

The Slavery Adverts 250 Project chronicles the role of newspaper advertising in perpetuating slavery in the era of the American Revolution. The project seeks to reveal the ubiquity of slavery in eighteenth-century life from New England to Georgia by republishing advertisements about enslaved people – for sale as individuals or in groups, wanted to purchase or for hire for short periods, runaways who liberated themselves, and those who were subsequently captured and confined in jails and workhouses – in daily digests on this site as well as in real time via the @SlaveAdverts250 Twitter feed, utilizing twenty-first-century media to stand in for the print media of the eighteenth century.

The project aims to provide modern audiences with a sense of just how often colonizers encountered these advertisements in their daily lives. Enslaved men, women, and children appeared in print somewhere in the colonies almost every single day. Those advertisements served as a constant backdrop for social, cultural, economic, and political life in colonial and revolutionary America. Colonizers who did not purport to own enslaved people were still confronted with slavery as well as invited to maintain the system by purchasing enslaved men, women, and children or assisting in the capture of so-called “runaways” who sought to free themselves from bondage. The frequency of these newspaper advertisements suggests just how embedded slavery was in colonial and revolutionary American culture in everyday interactions beyond the printed page.

These advertisements also testify to the experiences of enslaved men, women, and children, though readers must consider that those experiences have been remediated through descriptions offered by enslavers rather than enslaved people themselves. Often unnamed in the advertisements, enslaved men, women, and children were not invisible or unimportant in early America.

These advertisements appeared in colonial American newspapers 250 years ago today.

Pennsylvania Gazette (October 27, 1773).

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Pennsylvania Gazette (October 27, 1773).

October 26

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , , , , ,

What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago today?

South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal (October 26, 1773).

“A GENTEEL ORDINARY [and] a COFFEE-ROOM.”

Just six months after advertising that he moved to a new location, Francisco Morrelli (sometimes Francis Morelli), “PASTRY-COOK,” took to the public prints once again to alert “those Gentlemen who were so kind to favour him with their Custom,” along with prospective new customers, that he had moved to a “large and commodious HOUSE” at the corner of Church and Elliott Streets in Charleston.  He invited “Gentlemen only” to enjoy “the best Entertainment this Province can possibly afford.”  With that invitation, Morelli established his “GENTEEL ORDINARY” as a homosocial space, like many taverns and coffeehouses, for men to gather to eat, drink, conduct business, socialize, discuss politics, conduct business, and gossip.  In asserting that “Gentlemen only may be accommodated” at his ordinary, may have also signaled that he welcomed only the better sorts.  Others should congregate elsewhere.

Morelli also promoted new services.  In his previous advertisement, he invited patrons to imbibe “Wine, Punch, [and] Beer” at his ordinary, while this “large and commodious HOUSE” had space for a “COFFEE-ROOM for the Reception of those Gentlemen who may chuse to drink Tea or Coffee” and “read Papers.”  He reported that he “intends to be furnished with every News Paper that can be procured.”  That meant local publications, perhaps all three of the newspapers printed in Charleston at the time, as well as newspapers from other cities and towns, especially major ports like Boston, New York, and Philadelphia.  Eighteenth-century coffeehouses often subscribed to newspapers as a service to a clientele that perused them to keep informed about both politics and commerce.  The shipping news and prices current from places near and far, for instance, aided merchants in transacting business.

The pastry cook also delivered takeout meals to prospective customers, a service not limited to “Gentlemen only.”  Morelli declared that “any Family wanting Dinners or Suppers drest [or prepared] and sent Home to their Houses, may be genteelly served on the shortest Notice.”  Other entrepreneurs provided similar services in early America.  For instance, when Edward Bardin opened a “compleat Victualing-House” in New York in June 1770, he offered meals “ready dressed, sold out in any Quantity, to such Persons who may find it convenient to send for it.”  Meal delivery in American cities dates back at least as far as the eighteenth century.

Morelli concluded his advertisement with a short note about “PASTRY and DESERTS as usual,” hawking the “Pies, Tarts, Cakes, Jellies,” and other treats that he mentioned in an earlier advertisement.  They accounted for only a portion of the services and amenities that he presented to current and prospective customers.  In addition to selling and delivering meals and pastries, Morelli hoped to make his “GENTEEL ORDINARY” and “COFFEE-ROOM” a destination for merchants, planters, and other local gentry.