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

“At the sign of the Golden-Eagle, in Newbury Port.”

George Deblois recognized an opportunity to place his advertisements before as many prospective customers as possible.  The savvy merchant ran a shop “at the sign of the Golden-Eagle” in Newburyport, Massachusetts.  For several years, he placed advertisements in the Essex Gazette, published in nearby Salem and the New-Hampshire Gazette in Portsmouth.  When Isaiah Thomas and Henry-Walter Tinges announced their intention to establish a new newspaper in Newburyport, Deblois became one of the first advertisers in the Essex Journal.

In late November 1773, Thomas took to the pages of the newspaper he published in Boston, the Massachusetts Spy, to announce the impending publication of the first issue of the Essex Journal on December 4.  He advised that the “Number I” would be “distributed and given, GRATIS, to the Inhabitants” of both Massachusetts and New Hampshire.  In addition, he suggested that “THOSE who incline to ADVERTISE in said paper, in this or the neighbouring Towns, may find it GREATLY to their ADVANTAGE, especially the Merchants and Shopkeepers in BOSTON, as a very large Number will be printed off, and distributed throughout the Provinces of Massachusetts Bay and New-Hampshire.  [Gratis.]”

Deblois did not want any of those “Merchants and Shopkeepers in BOSTON” displacing him by capturing any of the market that he already managed to gain in the region the Essex Journal would serve.  In addition to maintaining his current clientele, he also wished to expand his customer base.  For both reasons, he heeded the call for advertisements, submitting a notice to include in the inaugural issue.  When Thomas and Tinges commenced weekly publication of the Essex Journal on December 29, Deblois ran the same advertisement.  It appeared once again on January 5, 1774, inviting consumers to acquire merchandise from among “a fine assortment of ENGLISH and HARDWARE GOODS … at so cheap a rate as cannot fail to give full satisfaction to every reasonable purchaser.”  Deblois listed dozens of items he stocked and promised “a great variety of other articles too tedious to enumerate in an advertisement.”  As access to print culture expanded with a new newspaper printed in the town where he kept shop, Deblois made certain that readers encountered his advertisements as they perused the Essex Journal.