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

“Said MAGAZINE was not published on Saturday last, agreeable to his promise.”

Throughout the second half of 1773, Isaiah Thomas, the printer of the Massachusetts Spy, attempted to launch another publication, the Royal American Magazine.  If he could attract a sufficient number of subscribers to take the project to press, it would be the only magazine published in the colonies at the time.  After a few months, Thomas announced that subscribers had indeed answered his call, responding to the proposals and other advertisements he placed in newspapers in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, and Maryland.  He planned to distribute the first issue of the Royal American Magazine on January 1, 1774.

That, however, did not come to pass.  In the January 6 edition of the Massachusetts Spy, the first issue of the new year, Thomas inserted an update that explained that “the only Reason why said MAGAZINE was not published on Saturday last, agreeable to his Promise, was, that he sent to England for a compleat Set of Types, for said Work” and the ship that was supposed to deliver them to Boston ran ashore on Cape Cod about three weeks earlier.  Fortunately, “the Cargo was saved.”  Thomas eventually received the new type, but not by “the Day intended for Publication.”  He assured subscribers that the magazine “will THIS WEEK be put in the Press, and published on the first Day of February next.”  In the eighteenth century, monthly magazines often came out during the final days of the month rather than the beginning of the month, so this plan still allowed Thomas to produce a January issue.

This misfortune also presented an opportunity for “Gentlemen and Ladies who intend subscribing for the Royal AMERICAN MAGAZINE” but had not yet done so to “send in their Names immediately, otherwise they may be disappointed of having the first Number.”  In addition to encouraging more subscribers, Thomas also continued soliciting “LUCUBRATIONS” or essays for the inaugural issue.  Given the delay caused by not receiving the type by the expected date, Thomas had more time to collect content produced by American authors for the magazine.

After this update ran in the Massachusetts Spy on January 6, Thomas placed it in the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Post-Boy on January 10 and the Essex Journal, published in Newburyport, Massachusetts, on January 12.  Thomas had recently commenced publishing the Essex Journal in partnership with Henry-Walter Tinges.  Not surprisingly, his advertisement was the only one to appear on the front page of Essex Journal.  Other advertisements appeared elsewhere in the issue.