Daily Advert Update

August 31

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , ,

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

New-Hampshire Gazette (August 31, 1776).

“THE following new ACTS and LAWS, past at the last Session of the General-Court of this State.”

On August 10, 1776, the Freeman’s Journal, printed in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, carried an advertisement that announced that the “Acts and Laws OF this State, passed since the new Form of Government took Place, are now in the Press, and in a few Weeks will be published at the Printing Office in Exeter.”  That town served as New Hampshire’s capital during the Revolutionary War.  Provincial congresses met there before the war during its first year.  The assembly continued meeting there after the Continental Congress declared independence.  Three weeks after the first advertisement, a new advertisement appeared in the Freeman’s Journal.  It informed readers that the “following new ACTS and LAWS, past at the last Session of the General-Court of this State” was “Just Published at the Printing Office in EXETER.”  Robert L. Fowle, the printer in Exeter, offered for sale “A few Copies exclusive of what the Assembly take off.”

Most of the advertisement consisted of a list of the various acts, including “An Act for establishing Courts of Law for the Administration of Justice within this Colony,” “An Act to establish an equitable Method of making Rates and Taxes, and determining who shall be legal Voters in town and Parish Affairs,” “An Act to prevent the Forgeing & altering Bills of pubic Credit, and for preventing the Depreciation thereof; and for making the Bills of Credit of the United Colonies, and the Bills of this Colony a Tender in all payments.”  Even though Fowle stated that the acts had been passed by the “General-Court of this State,” many of them referred to New Hampshire as a colony.  The provincial congress adopted a new constitution in January 1776, removing the colony from British authority, yet the colonies had not yet declared independence.  Those last colonial laws soon became the first laws of the new state.

When Fowle listed the acts in a newspaper advertisement in hopes of selling surplus copies that the assembly did not “take off,” he also reported the news.  Readers did not have to purchase the acts to learn what kind of work the assembly had undertaken in Exeter, though the list might have prompted some to learn more about those acts that interested or affected them.  The advertisement supplemented the coverage of state government that appeared in newspapers.

August 30

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Virginia Gazette [Purdie] (August 30, 1776).

“THE Manufacturing Society in Williamsburg are in want of a person to superintend the works.”

As the imperial crisis intensified and then became a war for independence, many Americans advocated for producing and consuming “domestic manufactures,” goods made locally rather than imported from Great Britain.  Some entrepreneurs ran newspaper advertisements that promoted “domestic manufactures” that they made or sold, while others worked together in pooling their resources and establishing “manufactories,” such as the “AMERICAN MANUFACTORY, of LINEN, WOOLLEN, &c.” in Philadelphia, that employed local workers and produced goods for local consumers.

In Williamsburg, a “Manufacturing Society” pursued a similar purpose.  In late August 1776, the managers ran advertisements in both newspapers printed there, Alexander Purdie’s Virginia Gazette and John Dixon and William Hunter’s Virginia Gazette.  They announced that they “are in want of a person to superintend the works, purchase materials, &c. and to keep the necessary accounts,” promising “good wages” to a candidate “qualified to undertake that business,” provided that he came “well recommended.”  The Manufacturing Society offered other opportunities for employment.  “As the making of SAIL CLOTH is one of their objects,” the managers explained, “the Society will give good encouragement to spinners and weavers acquainted with that branch.”  In other words, they sought those with experience making that item.  In addition, the Manufacturing Society planned “taking a number of boys and girls as apprentices to SPINNING [and] WEAVING” once “the works are erected.”  Before consumers could demonstrate their political principles by purchasing domestic manufactures, local workers had to produce them.  The Manufacturing Society created jobs for those workers and provided training for the apprentices who would labor alongside them.  This endeavor allowed women, boys, and girls to contribute to the American cause.  Although they did not vote, hold office, or serve in the military, their work for the Manufacturing Society had political implications.  As both producers and consumers, they participated in politics in the marketplace.

August 29

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

New-York Journal (August 29, 1776).

“American Independence, THE INTEREST and GLORY OF GREAT BRITAIN.”

After the Continental Congress voted to declare independence, American printers and booksellers continued advertising and selling books and pamphlets that argued in favor of that course of action.  After all, disseminating the Declaration of Independence with its combination of political philosophy and grievances against George III served, in part, as a public relations tool that justified breaking away from Great Britain.  An array of books and pamphlets also made the case, convincing readers and helping them articulate their own views on the matter.

In the August 29, 1776, edition of the New-York Journal, for instance, William Green, a “Bookseller in Maiden Lane,” advertised American Independence, The Interest and Glory of Great Britain, “Just Re-printed from the London Copy.”  He most likely stocked an American edition printed by Robert Bell in Philadelphia.  John Cartwright’s work took the form of “a series of Letters to the Legislature,” demonstrating that a robust debate took place on the other side of the Atlantic and that Patriots had supporters in London.  Green did not need to generate copy to give an overview of the volume.  Instead, he used the book’s lengthy subtitle to inform readers that it included “Arguments which prove that not only in taxation but in trade, manufactures and government, the Colonies are entitled to an intire independency on the British Legislature; and that it can only be by a formal declaration of these rights, and forming thereupon a friendly league with that that the true and lasting welfare of both countries can be promoted.”  Cartwright did not call for a complete separation but rather a transatlantic alliance between two nations of equal stature, an alliance that would produce more benefits than the imperial system.

In addition to American Independence, Green stocked “All the new Pamphlets,” though he did not indicate whether that included any that advanced Loyalist perspectives.  In previous advertisements, he hawked Common Sense and political cartoons that supported the American cause.  He also sold “Sim’s Military Guide for officers, 2 vols. and the Political Disquisitions, 3 vols.”  No doubt he had many other books on hand, but Green highlighted those related to current events – political debates and the war – when he took to the public prints to entice customers to visit his shop.

August 28

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Massachusetts Spy (August 28, 1776).

“The News-Papers will be ready for delivery at TWELVE o’Clock on the usual, day, and not before.”

Residents of Worcester really wanted to read the latest news!  They were so eager to get their hands on the latest issue of the Massachusetts Spy, a weekly newspaper published on Wednesdays, that they caused problems in the printing office.  The disruptions were significant enough that on August 28, 1776, William Stearns and Daniel Bigelow, the printers, found it necessary to insert an advertisement with instructions about when subscribers and others who were curious for “freshintelligence” about the Revolutionary War and other current events should expect to pick up their newspapers.  The printers made their notice the first item in the first column on the first page to increase the chances that the offenders saw it and took note.

“OUR kind Customers and others,” Stearns and Bigelow implored, “are desired to take notice that for the future the News-Papers will be ready for delivery at TWELVE o’Clock on the usual, day, and not before.”  In other words, the printers did not want subscribers and others dropping by the printing office to ask for copies of the latest edition before noon on Wednesdays.  They needed time to produce each new issue, but such inquiries merely distracted them.  Stearns and Bigelow explained that the “reason of this notice is, that we may have MORE time to collect and adjust [or select and edit] the fresh intelligence contained in the Southern mail,” which included both correspondence and newspapers from other towns.  Like other printers, Stearns and Bigelow reprinted extensively from newspapers they received via their exchange networks.  Furthermore, Stearns and Bigelow explained, if local readers waited until noon to pick up their newspapers, then that meant “that the Carriers may be served without DELAY.”  After all, the Massachusetts Spy had many subscribers outside of Worcester.  They also wanted to know the latest news as soon as post riders could deliver their newspapers.

Two weeks earlier, an advertisement for the newspaper’s “Post Rider to Fitchburg,” a town north of Worcester, emphasized that the Massachusetts Spy carried the “freshest and most important intelligence from the Grand Continental Army at New-York,” news that Stearns and Bigelow “published the next morning after the arrival of the Southern Mail, which contains ALL the LATEST advices from the grand seat of military operation.”  Demand for the news apparently matched the interest that the printers sought to incite.  Readers knew that “fresh intelligence” arrived at the printing office on Tuesdays for inclusion in a new issue of the newspaper on Wednesdays and they impatiently tried to get more information about current events before the printers had sufficient time to publish it.

August 27

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , , ,

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

Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet (August 27, 1776).

“EXTRACTS … relative to the … fitting out PRIVATEERS; together with the Rules and Regulations of the NAVY.”

During the imperial crisis and the Revolutionary War, printers regularly published news from the Continental Congress and local assemblies in their newspapers.  Sometimes they compiled the proceedings into books that they marketed and sold to consumers who wanted convenient access to that sort of overview of current events.  Printers in many towns, for instance, published local editions of “EXTRACTS FROM THE VOTES AND PROCEEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN CONTINENTAL CONGRESS” in the fall of 1774.

Nearly two years later, John Dunlap, the printer of Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet, saw an opportunity to publish a collation of rules and regulations about naval regulations for both privateers and the Continental Navy.  In an advertisement that appeared at the top of the final column on the first page of the August 27, 1776, edition of his newspaper, Dunlap informed the public that he “Just published … EXTRACTS, From the JOURNALS of CONGRESS, RELATIVE TO THE Captures and Condemnation of PRIZES, and the fitting out PRIVATEERS; together with the Rules and Regulations of the NAVY and Instructions to the Commanders of private SHIPS of WAR.”  As was common in many advertisements for books and pamphlets, the lengthy title doubled as advertising copy.  Dunlap did not generate original appeals to market the volume because the title already contained so much information.

The printer apparently believed that a market for this item existed in the largest city in the new nation.  Philadelphia was, after all, a busy port and many owners of vessels who pursued maritime commerce during times of peace contemplated how they could aid the war effort while simultaneously getting their share of prize money when they outfitted their ships for privateering.  Dunlap made this handy manual available alongside an array of military manuals published in Philadelphia and other cities.  Rather than hundreds of pages, like some of volumes containing the proceedings of the Continental Congress, this octavo pamphlet consisted of only forty-eight pages.  That made it a convenient size for officers on both privateers and naval vessels to stow among their possessions when they went to sea and then consult as necessary.  Dunlap printed this practical guide as a service, yet he also generated revenue from its sale.

August 26

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Norwich Packet (August 26, 1776).

“Those who live off the Road are desired to leave the Money where they receive their Papers.”

During the era of the American Revolution, newspapers often featured advertisements from the post riders who delivered them to readers beyond the cities and towns where they were printed.  Sometimes the post riders promoted their services, seeking new customers, but other times they called on current customers to pay for their services.  Like newspaper printers, post riders extended credit to their patrons and, in turn, experienced similar difficulties in collecting from them.

Such was the case for Leonard Hills, a post rider who carried the Norwich Packet; and the Connecticut, Massachusetts, New-Hampshire & Rhode-Island Weekly Advertiser to subscribers in New England.  With a hint of exasperation, he declared that he “ONCE more earnestly requests his Customers who are indebted to him … to make immediate payment” in an advertisement in the August 26, 1776, edition.  Hills warned of the consequences, drawing attention with both a manicule and italics: “Those that do not speedily comply with the above reasonable Demand, may expect to have their Papers discontinued.”

Who would make that decision?  The advertisement suggested that Hills made it rather than the printer, John Trumbull. The advertisement also revealed other aspects of how the service worked.  “Those who live off the Road,” Hills instructed, “are desired to leave the Money where they receive their Papers.”  The post rider did not deliver the Norwich Packet to every subscriber along his route.  Instead, he left the right number of copies at a central location, such as a tavern, for subscribers to retrieve when they had a chance.  Local agents thus assisted in distributing the newspapers once Hills dropped them off.  Hills also stated that he was “obliged to settle with the PRINTER,” indicating that Trumbull did not directly handle subscriptions along Hills’s route.  Instead, the post rider sold and managed those subscriptions.  He also called on his customers to pay for “this Paper, Advertisements, &c.”  That suggested that Hills served as an intermediary who handled advertisements that his customers placed in the Norwich Packet (and did so on credit rather than being required to pay for advertisements in advance) and that the post rider sold other items, perhaps almanacs or books.  Hills’s notice revealed all sort of details about the services he provided.  As a post rider, he assumed many responsibilities beyond merely deliver newspapers.

August 25

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , , ,

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

Virginia Gazette [Dixon and Hunter] (August 24, 1776).

“DIXON and HUNTER have on Hand the following BOOKS, which they will sell cheap, for Cash.”

John Dixon and William Hunter doubled the size of the Virginia Gazette that they published on August 24, 1776.  Like other newspapers, it usually consisted of four pages created by printing two pages on each side of a broadsheet and then folding it in half.  This time, however, they used two broadsheets, bringing the total number of pages to eight.  That meant printing the first, second, seventh, and eighth pages on one broadsheet and the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth pages on another, tucking the second folded broadsheet inside the first one.

The printers devoted the entire fifth page and half of the sixth page to a book catalog, something they did occasionally in other issues as well.  A brief introduction informed readers that “DIXON and HUNTER have on Hand the followingBOOKS, which they will sell cheap, for Cash.”  A lengthy list of books followed.  The printers arranged them in order of size – folios, quartos, octavos, and duodecimos – from largest to smallest.  The catalog included only four folios and nine quartos but dozens of octavos and duodecimos, some of them in multiple volumes.  Within each category, Dixon and Hunter arranged the titles in rough alphabetical order by author, such as “Burn’s Justice of the Peace” or “Pope’s Works,” but sometimes by title, such as “An Account of the Spanish Settlements in America.”  That made the list easier for readers to navigate, especially if they were looking for a particular volume.

The format of the catalog distinguished it from news, editorials, and other advertisements in that issue of the Virginia Gazette.  Most content appeared in two wide columns, but the catalog had three columns.  If an entry was too long or just one line in the narrower columns, the printers indented the second and subsequent lines, differentiating each entry from the ones above and below it.  On the sixth page of the newspaper, the second page of the catalog, that meant that three columns appeared on the top half of the page but only two columns on the bottom half.  Once again, the format distinguished Dixon and Hunter’s advertisement from other content.  The catalog concluded with a list of “SCHOOL BOOKS” and “STATIONARY” in dense paragraphs of text.  Readers had to invest more effort in finding “Ruddiman’s Grammatical Exercises” and “Entick’s Latin and English Dictionary” or “Pewter Ink Chests of various Kinds” and “Magazine Paper for Ladies to work upon.”

Dixon and Hunter printed twice as much content for subscribers and other readers of the August 24, 1776, edition of the Virginia Gazette, yet their own advertisement, their book catalog, accounted for a significant portion of the additional content.  They exercised their privilege as printers of the newspaper to promote another endeavor that generated revenue in their printing office.

August 24

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Providence Gazette (August 24, 1776).

“A male CHILD, about 5 Months old, was taken from the House of Susannah Reiley.”

Early American newspapers did not usually carry a lot of local news.  Printers devoted much more space to news received from distant places, whether elsewhere along the Atlantic coast or across the ocean.  After all, most newspapers came out just once a week.  Some local news was old news before it could appear in print because it already spread via word of mouth.  Consider the August 24, 1776, edition of the Providence Gazette.  News from London filled the first page, followed by news from Williamsburg, Philadelphia, and New York on the second page.  News from Providence ran on the third page, alongside advertisements.  Paid notices filled most of the final page.

Yet those advertisements delivered all sorts of local news that readers wished to disseminate to the public.  For a fee, they purchased space and served as editor when it came to determining what would appear in that space.  Two advertisements described soldiers that deserted from their regiments.  That had become a common enough occurrence that John Carter, the printer, did not necessarily consider it news that he would select to publish, especially not when he could generate revenue by printing it as an advertisement, but the advertisers and readers considered the information newsworthy.

Another advertisement delivered news of a crime that recently occurred in Johnston, a town just west of Providence.  On July 18, “a male CHILD, about 5 Months old, was taken from the House of Susannah Reiley, while she was gone to bring a Pail of Water from a Spring.”  Reiley had not been negligent.  The spring was only fifteen rods (about 250 feet) from her house, but she was away and out of sight long enough that someone kidnapped the baby.  The advertisement did not describe the search undertaken nor other subsequent events.  Instead, it provided what amounted to a headline summary.  With the fate of the child unknown, residents of Johnston issued a plea for “any Intelligence of said Child,” including “if living or dead.”  The advertisement delivered local news and likely spurred conversations and speculation about what had happened.

August 23

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Connecticut Gazette (August 23, 1776).

“The Advertisement … against Elenor Fairfield … is Unjust and Cruel.”

It was a rare instance of a wife accused of abandoning her husband in a newspaper advertisement publishing a response.  In the eighteenth century and well into the nineteenth century, American newspapers carried notices now known as “runaway wife” advertisements.  Using standardized language and a familiar format, husbands alleged that their wives misbehaved and left them without cause.  In turn, the husbands warned merchants, shopkeepers, and others not to extend credit to the women who fled from their households and from the authority they were supposed to exercise there.  In most instances, the wives did not have the resources to publish their own version of events, but occasionally advertisements contradicting the stories told by husbands did appear.

Connecticut Gazette (July 26, 1776).

The July 26, 1776, edition of the Connecticut Gazette carried William Fairfield’s advertisement for the first time.  In it, he proclaimed that his wife, Elenor, “has without Just cause Denied my bead and bord” in Woodstock.  In turn, he ran the notice “to forbid all persons Harbouring or trusting or concealing of her things which she hath unjustly carry of or traiding with hir on my account for I will not [pay] one farthing of hir Debt She may cantract.”  Like most other advertisements, Fairfield’s notice ran multiple times, giving readers in New London, Woodstock, and other towns several opportunities to see it.

Fairfield likely expected to have the last and only word in the public prints, but eighteen of his neighbors decided that would not be the case.  They published their own notice in response to “the Advertisement in the Connecticut Gazette, Number 663, against Elenor Fairfield the Wife of William Fairfield, of Woodstock.”  The considered his advertisement “Unjust and Cruel,” explaining that “her leaving of him, was from his Cruelty.”  Then they went into even more detail, revealing much more than William included in his advertisement.  Elenor resorted to “swearing the Peace against him … for her own Safety.”  According to her friends and neighbors, “18 credible Persons in the Neighbourhood where she has long lived,” the fault belonged entirely to William because Elenor was “a dutiful Wife when used with Humanity, a kind and tender Mother, [and] a good Neighbour [who] sustains a good Character.”  Unfortunately, she had become “abject and miserable by her Husband’s misconduct.”  It was out of “Justice to her injured Character” that her friends and neighbors ran their own advertisement about what had occurred in Woodstock.

Seven men and eleven women signed that advertisement.  The men’s names appeared first in one paragraph, followed by the women’s names in a separate paragraph.  That testified to the men’s authority, especially in interacting with other men, but readers could not ignore the women who also affixed their names.  Some readers, especially women, may have had greater trust in the women who defended Elenor.  After all, circles of female friends and acquaintances in Woodstock likely interacted with Elenor more often than most men in the community and had greater awareness of how her husband treated her and the discord in the Fairfield household.  That did not mean that men did not witness mistreatment, but rather that women often had greater access to the everyday experiences of other women.

August 22

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , , ,

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

New-England Chronicle (August 22, 1776).

“Colonel Greaton and his Regiment had a great Desire that he would return back with Letters.”

One officer and the soldiers in his regiment devised a clever way of receiving mail from home while they served in the army during the American Revolution.  On August 22, 1776, Elijah French of Braintree, Massachusetts, ran an advertisement in the New-England Chronicle that announced that he “just returned from Ticonderoga.”  He brought news that “Colonel Greaton and his Regiment had a great Desire that he would return back with Letters.”  French did not mention why he had been to Ticonderoga or whether he had business there that made it necessary to return, but he did accept the charge to solicit and deliver letters.  He advised readers of the New-England Chronicle that “whosever has Friends in that Regiment or any other, and would choose to write, may depend upon their Letters being safely conveyed to their Friends.”  In addition, they could expect “an Answer back as soon as possible with the greatest Care and Speed.”

French provided an invaluable service for soldiers far from home and their friends and family in Boston and nearby towns.  He did not mention any sort of fee for carrying the letters, suggesting that he acted as an informal messenger rather a post rider.  He did, however, devise an extensive network of local agents who collected letters, making it more convenient for friends and family to send them.  That may have prompted more friends to write to the soldiers who longed for word from home.  French instructed “Those Persons who would choose to send … to leave their Letters at the Widow Cowing’s or Bracket’s, in Braintree, Vose or Davis’s, in Milton, Partridge, the Barber’s in Roxbury, or the Sign of the Lamb in Boston” before the second Monday in September.  After that, he would make his rounds to each of those places to collect the letters before departing for Ticonderoga.  The assistance of a widow in Braintree, a barber in Roxbury, a tavernkeeper in Boston, and the other local agents (along with an advertisement in the public prints) made delivering mail to soldiers a community effort, an eighteenth-century version of supporting the troops.