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

“Gentlemen and Ladies, may be furnished with tea and coffee, Morning and Afternoon.”

Mrs. Brock invited “Gentlemen and Ladies” to gather at “her elegant and very pleasantly situated house, opposite the Battery,” in New York in the spring of 1774.  In an advertisement in the May 26 edition of Rivington’s New-York Gazetteer, she declared that she “continues to furnish Relishes and all kinds of eatables, as usual.”  She also served “Mead and Cakes, of the very best quality.”  The hostess also took the opportunity to express “her grateful thanks to her friends, who have heretofore favour’d her with their custom.”  Brock had been in business for at least five years, having previously advertised in the New-York Journal.  Given the reputation she had cultivated during that time, she assured her existing clientele and the public “that she will use her utmost endeavour to please.”

Despite such assurances, some readers may not have been pleased with Brock.  In addition to “Relishes” and “eatables,” she also served “tea and coffee, Morning and Afternoon, on the shortest notice.”  New York had recently received word of the Boston Port Act that closed that harbor of that town until residents paid for the tea destroyed the previous December.  Residents were certainly aware of efforts to turn away ships carrying tea to their own colony.  Though no prohibition on buying, selling, or drinking tea had been enacted, many colonizers looked on the commodity with suspicion.  Some merchants and shopkeepers already advertised that they stocked a variety of groceries but not tea, while others made clear that they continued business as usual.  Brock joined their ranks.  Her advertisement could not be mistaken as one merely reprinted after having run for some time, perhaps originating prior to the latest controversy; it was dated “May 26, 1774” and bore the issue number, “58,” of the current edition.  Whatever measures were coalescing around consuming tea, Brock considered it appropriate to continue serving the beverage to “Gentlemen and Ladies” and anticipated that she would meet with a ready market.  Many colonizers, she surmised, were not yet ready to dispense with tea, no matter the complicated politics swirling around it.