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

“The importation of Goods from Britain being stopped, obliges the said ACKEROYD to dispose of his stock on hand.”

With the Continental Association in effect throughout the colonies, John Ackeroyd decided that doing business in Philadelphia was no longer viable for him.  He concluded an advertisement in the March 8, 1775, edition of the Pennsylvania Gazette with a note that the “importation of Goods from Britain being stopped, obliges the said ACKEROYD to dispose of his stock on hand and return to England as soon as he can.”  To that end, he called on customers and associates to settle “all accounts past due to him.”  Ackeroyd did not reveal his own politics in his newspaper notice, but he made clear that he believed the Continental Association had a devastating effect on his business.  That he planned to return to England suggests that he may have favored the Tory perspective.

Whatever his views, Ackeroyd abided by the Continental Association, though he utilized a loophole to do so.  That nonimportation agreement went into effect on December 1.  Ackeroyd advertised that he sought to sell “the remainder of his GOODS, imported in the London Packet, Capt. Cook, from London.”  When the London Packet arrive in Philadelphia to deliver those goods?  The “INWARD ENTRIES” for the custom house in the December 12, 1774, edition of Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet included Cooke’s vessel.  That should have meant that importers had to refuse their shipments or surrender all goods aboard the London Packet to the local committee of inspection, according to the provisions of the tenth article of the Continental Association.  The entry, however, did not state that Cooke arrived from London.  Instead, it reported, “Ship London Packet, J. Cooke, Lewis on Del.”  The London Packet apparently landed the goods at Lewes, a town at the mouth of the Delaware Bay, before December 1 and then continued up the Delaware River to Philadelphia.  That technicality would have allowed Ackeroyd to accept and then sell “GOODS … from London” without involving the local committee of inspection.  Consumers may have embraced such cleverness … or found it violated the spirit of the Continental Association if not the letter of that pact.