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

“The first Publication of all New Pamphlets may be had of the Rider.”

An anonymous post rider advertised his services in the August 30, 1775, edition of the Pennsylvania Journal, stating that the “Proposed to go from Philadelphia to Allens-Town in Northampton county once a week.”  He intended to depart from Philadelphia each Wednesday, the same day that a new issue of the Pennsylvania Journal, a weekly publication, hit the streets.  Subscribers to that newspaper along his route would benefit from the quickest possible access to the news in the latest edition.  Although “The RIDER” did not give details about collecting fees, he likely envisioned providing his services via subscription, similar to the plan that Thomas Sculley outlined in an advertisement for his route between Philadelphia and Lewes, Delaware, in the Pennsylvania Ledger a month earlier.  Both post riders contributed to an expanding communication infrastructure.  The same issue of the Pennsylvania Journal that carried the anonymous rider’s advertisement also featured a notice that gave the days the new Constitutional Post departed Philadelphia to carry letters to “New-York, Connecticut, Rhode-Island, Massachusetts-Bay, [and] New-Hampshire.”

The rider framed carrying “news-papers, letters, &c.” as a public service at an important moment, instructing “ladies and gentlemen who are pleased at this alarming crisis, to encourage an undertaking of so great utility … to leave their names with the following gentlemen.”  He then listed twenty-three associates in sixteen towns, demonstrating that he had already devoted significant effort to establishing a network for transmitting information.  The outbreak of hostilities in Massachusetts, the “alarming crisis,” made it more important than ever that colonizers residing in smaller towns gained regular access to newspapers and correspondence.  Some were so eager to read the latest news that they may have been stealing copies of Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette.  The rider aimed to keep colonizers along his route well informed.  “The first Publication of all New Pamphlets,” he stated in a nota bene, “may be had of the Rider.”  The “&c.” (or etc.) in “news-papers, letters, &c.” included the political pamphlets and sermons about current events so often advertised in the Pennsylvania Journal and other newspapers printed in Philadelphia.  Post riders in New England had sometimes acted as local agents for disseminating political pamphlets earlier during the imperial crisis.  The anonymous rider joined their ranks, delivering “news-papers, letters, &c.” with a purpose beyond merely earning his own livelihood.