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

“TO be Sold, by Order of the Committee of Inspection … sundry Merchandize.”

In December 1774 and January 1775, newspaper advertisements became records of compliance with the provisions of the Continental Association, a nonimportation, nonconsumption, and nonexportation agreement adopted by the First Continental Congress when it met in Philadelphia in September and October 1774.  The tenth article of the Continental Association made provisions for goods that arrived during the months December 1774 and January 1775, items that likely had been shipped before American merchants and shopkeepers could cancel orders previously dispatched across the Atlantic.  The importers could return those goods, turn them over to the local Committee of Inspection to store until the boycott ended, or have the committee sell them, reimburse the importer for costs, and designate any profits for relief of residents of Boston.  For the sake of both transparency and compliance, the tenth article also specified that “a particular Account [be] inserted in the publick Papers.”

Such was the case when James Angell, “Clerk of the Committee,” inserted an advertisement in the January 21, 1775, edition of the Providence Gazette.  That notice announced the upcoming sale of “sundry Merchandize, imported from Great Britain, via New-York.”  That included “6 Tierces [large barrels], 3 Barrels, 5 Bales, 2 Boxes, 1 Hamper, [and] 24 Crates” of unspecified goods as well as “1 Bundle, containing 2 Dozen of Frying Pans” and “8 Bundles, containing 4 Dozen of Iron Shovels.”  As was the case in similar advertisements in other newspapers, the Committee of Inspection did not provide the same extensive catalog of merchandise that merchants and shopkeepers often did to attract the attention of prospective customers when they composed their own newspaper notices.  The committee merely made clear that a notable quantity of items would go up for sale.  The goods “were shipped at Liverpool on board the Ship Daniel, Capt. Casey, the 15th of September, and arrived at New-York since the first Day of December last.”  That accounting made clear that the items had been ordered and shipped before the First Continental Congress agreed on the details of the Continental Association, yet since they arrived after that pact went into effect they fell under its jurisdiction.  On behalf of the Committee of Inspection, Angell decreed that the sale would occur “agreeable to the Association of the Continental Congress.”