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

“I am now sensible that my signing the said Address was altogether improper and imprudent.”

Yet another colonizer who signed “an Address to the late Governor Hutchinson, on his leaving this Province” took to the public prints to recant and apologize.  Isaac Mansfield of Marblehead published his message to “my respectable Town and Countrymen” in the November 3, 1774, edition of the Massachusetts Spy.  Like others who claimed that they regretted their actions, he asserted that he had endorsed the address “suddenly, and not sufficiently attending to its Impropriety and Tendency.”  In other words, he had carelessly affixed his name without giving the contents or their implications much thought.  Upon further reflection, realizing what he had done (and facing the consequences of giving “Offence”), he declared that he had no intention of “affronting any Individual” or, especially, “wounding the Constitution of my Country, the Rights and Liberties whereof I esteem it every one’s Duty to preserve and maintain, by all proper, laudable and lawful means.”  Mansfield had strayed in expressing Tory sympathies, but he had seen the light.  He described signing the address as improper and imprudent, following immediately with an apology and a request for the “Friendship and Regard of my Town and Countrymen.”

Similar disavowals and retractions had been appearing in newspapers in Massachusetts and neighboring colonies for some time.  Much shorter versions by J. Fowle and John Prentice, both of Marblehead, that ran in three newspapers published in Boston and another in Salem during the past week also appeared in the November 3 issue of the Massachusetts Spy.  Some printers treated them as letters to place among news items, while others placed them with advertisements, making unclear which genre these letter-advertisements represented and whether printers charged for inserting them in their newspapers.  Isaiah Thomas, the printer of the Massachusetts Spy, ran the letter-advertisements from Fowle and Prentice below a letter to the editor from “A PROPRIETOR” and above Donald McAlpine’s advertisement for fencing lessons, similar to their placement in the Boston-Gazette three days earlier.  Had the men from Marblehead submitted their letter-advertisements to Thomas’s printing office?  Or had the patriot printer decided to reprint news from another newspaper?  In this instance, the double line separating different kinds of content appeared above the letter-advertisements, signaling to readers that they had finished with the news and began the advertisements.  The placement of Mansfield’s letter-advertisement was less ambiguous.  It ran on the final page, embedded among advertisements.  A notice from Silent Wilde, a post rider, appeared above it and an advertisement for William Hunter’s “Auction-Room” below it.  Does that mean that Thomas charged for printing Mansfield’s letter-advertisement?  Perhaps, though he may have been more interested in publicizing that another member of the community had seemingly come into conformity with patriot politics than generating revenue from Mansfield’s missive.  Either way, readers encountered news about current events as they perused the portion of the Massachusetts Spy that contained advertisements.