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

“WATCHES sent … by Post Riders, will be mended, cleaned and sent back with great Care.”

In the spring of 1774, Nathaniel Sheaff Griffith once again advertised that he “Cleaned and Repaired” clocks and watches “in the cheapest and best Manner,” making appeals to both price and skill.  He regularly ran notices in the New-Hampshire Gazette, but this one included an update about an employee who worked in his shop in Portsmouth.  Griffith advised prospective customers that he “has a Workman from London, which Work shall be done with Fidelity and Dispatch.”  In other words, Griffith vouched for his employee.  Other artisans in New England sometimes promoted the work undertaken by their employees.  For instance, Charles Stevens, a goldsmith and silversmith in Providence, informed the public that he “employs an excellent Workman from London” who did “all Kinds of Jewellers Work.”  Similarly, Enos Doolittle advised readers of the Connecticut Courant that he “employed a journeyman who has serv’d a regular Apprenticeship to the Watchmaking business in London.”  Griffith, Stevens, and Doolittle all signaled that they could effectively serve an even more extensive clientele thanks to the workmen from London who labored in their shops.

That may have been a factor in another marketing strategy that Griffith deployed for the first time.  He concluded his advertisement with a note that “WATCHES sent from East, West, North or South by Post Riders, will be mended, cleaned and sent back with great Care.”  While he may have done business that way in the past, he had not previously mentioned this option in his newspaper advertisements.  Perhaps now that he had an assistant Griffith felt more secure in advertising this service widely.  Once again, other artisans in New England also marketed similar arrangements.  Thomas Hilldrup, a watchmaker from London who settled in New London, declared that clients could “forward their Watches to me … by applying to Mr. JOSEPH KNIGHT, Post-Rider.”  He promised the same sort of “Dispatch” or quick service that Griffith did, stating that any watches he received would be “returned regularly the next Week.”  Post riders provided an infrastructure for watchmakers like Griffith and Hilldrup to serve clients who lived at a distance, expanding their business to rural towns rather than working solely for local customers in port cities.