Daily Advert Update

October 2

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

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

Pennsylvania Gazette (October 2, 1776).

“In gratitude for so extraordinary a cure, I have desired this to be made public.”

Nicholas Brooks peddled a variety of merchandise at his “Dry Goods, Picture and Jewellery Shop” in Philadelphia, including patent medicines.  He devoted a lengthy advertisement in the October 2, 1776, edition of the Pennsylvania Gazette to promoting “MAREDANT’S ANTI-SCORBUTIC DROPS, prepared only by John Norton, Surgeon, … in Golden-square, London.”  By way of introduction, Brooks described this patent medicine as the “most successful remedy in all scorbutic cases ever discovered,” proclaiming that Marendant’s Drops “have relieved great numbers” of people who suffered from scurvy and related health conditions “in this province, as well as in New-York, New-England, and the Carolinas.”

In case that recommendation was not enough to convince prospective patients to purchase this patent medicine, Brooks included a series of testimonials in his advertisement.  In a letter addressed to Norton, John Attwood, a toymaker in Bath, confided, “I am cured by the use of Maredant’s drops, of a most afflicting disorder of the scorbutic kind, after trying every medicine that could be thought of for my relief.”   That was a common theme in advertisements for many medical providers and many patent medicines.  Those who wrote testimonials first detailed that they had visited other physicians or tried other remedies without relief, making their eventual cure even more remarkable.

Attwood provided all sorts of details about his ordeal: “I first had small pimples come out on my head and face; in a little time after my face was covered with blotches, and on the side of my nose spungy flesh grew, as big as a small nut; the same round my eyes and mouth, though not so large, with blotches on my body, arms, and in the palms of my hand, attended with so violent a pain in my head, that I had almost lost the sight of my left eye, the pain being mostly upon that side.”  Fortunately, a “gentlemen, who was then at Bath, but is since gone to the West-Indies” recommended Maredant’s Drops to Attwood.  Upon taking that medicine, the toymaker reported, “I am now in perfect health.”

In a shorter letter, John Forster, “at the Rose, at Welling in Kent,” declared that he “was afflicted with a most shocking case of leprosy, attended with violent rheumatic pains” that made his life “quite miserable.”  Like Attwood, he “tried every thing that could be thought of for my relief in vain,” but was now “perfectly cured by the use of Maredant’s drops.”  His neighbors knew his “shocking condition” and could also testify to his recovery after taking the patent medicine.

Next, a brief note with no attribution stated, “Mary Copson cured of a scorbutic humour on her head and face, attended with a violent hoarseness and shortness of breath.”

Finally, Brooks inserted a letter from Charles Ashley that rivaled the one from Attwood in length and gratitude for the effectiveness of Maredant’s Drops.  In this instance, it was Ashley’s son who suffered from “a most violent humour [that] settled in both hand, which were so bad that he entirely lost the use of them.”  At the same time, the “humour in his hands was attended with almost as violent a one in his face, which formed an entire scab over the whole, and smelt intolerably.”  Ashley’s sone “was in so much misery, and without hopes of recovery,” even after consulting the “most eminent” physicians.  Ashely “despaired of his life” until turning to Maredant’s Drops.  Now, Ashley expressed “my most sincere thanks [to Norton] for the cure of my son, which was effected by your most excellent drops.”  He felt such gratitude for “so extraordinary a cure” that he “desired this to be made public.”  He also invited the curious to visit his house, “the Talbot Inn, in the Strand,” to learn more and “see the child.”

Readers of the Pennsylvania Gazette would not be visiting the Talbot Inn to learn more about Ashley’s testimonial or assess his son’s recovery for themselves, nor would they interview Forster’s neighbors in Kent.  Norton supplied the testimonials and Brooks published them in his own advertisement as a proxy for such encounters.  Even if prospective customers wanted to learn more, Brooks hoped that the testimonials would entice them to try Maredant’s Drops.  Anyone who suffered as much as Attwood, Forster, Copson, or Ashley’s son might embrace whatever hope those testimonials offered.

October 1

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

Who was the subject of an advertisement in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?

Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet (October 1, 1776).

“A Negro man named MOSES … has been endeavouring to … join the ministerial army.”

Moses, an enslaved man, made his own declaration of independence in 1776 when he liberated himself by running away from his enslaver.  Charles Read of Evesham, “in the county of Burlington,” New Jersey, provided a brief account in an advertisement on the front page of the October 1, 1776, edition of Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet.  According to Read, Moses, “about five feet four inches high, a thick well set fellow,” made his escape on September 9.  When he went away, he was wearing “a short light coloured coat, with binding of the same colour a pair of strong new shoes, with large plated buckles, a pair of homespun linen trowsers, and a black stock with a steel buckle.”  That should have made Moses easy to recognize, but there was also a chance that he would change clothes since he “stole and took with him, a blue great-coat with white metal buttons” and “the other part of his cloaths [were] not known” to Read.

While those details were specific to Moses, his enslaver followed a formula for advertisements that described enslaved people who liberated themselves by running away.  The next part of Read’s account, however, revealed that current events played a part in Moses’s decision about when to seek his freedom.  Read lamented that Moses “has been endeavouring to prevail upon the Negroes in this neighbourhood” in New Jersey “to go with him to join the ministerial army.”  In other words, Moses planned to join the British and encouraged other enslaved people to join him.  He did not merely hope to elude his enslaver by getting away from Evesham and keeping a low profile elsewhere; instead, he aimed to secure his freedom by “join[ing] the ministerial army.”  Moses almost certainly knew that nearly a year earlier John Murray, Lord Dunmore, the king’s governor in Virginia, offered freedom to enslaved people “appertaining to Rebels” (or enslaved by Patriots) in exchange for “joining his Majesty’s troops, as soon as may be.”  Many enslaved men and women responded to the call, alarming and enraging both their enslavers and other residents of Virginia.  The final grievance in the Declaration of Independence referred to Dunmore’s Proclamation, stating that the king “has excited domestic insurrections amongst us” by encouraging enslaved people to fight against those who enslaved them.  Moses left Evesham just as the British occupation of New York began.  He likely saw his best opportunity yet to secure his freedom.  That gave additional urgency to Read’s efforts to capture him.  Readers of Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet, he declared, should assist not only for the “TEN DOLLARS REWARD” but also out of a sense of patriotism.  Read called on “every lover of his country [to] endeavour to apprehend so daring a villain” who had the audacity to seek his freedom by siding with those who promised him liberty rather than a life of enslavement.  Moses was not the first or only such “villain” featured in newspaper advertisements during the Revolutionary War, yet stories of joining the British were not a common element of what have become known as “runaway advertisements.”  Though rare, advertisements that reported enslaved people sought to join the British appeared on occasion, supplementing similar stories that circulated in conversation and in print.  Read meant to condemn Moses, but the additional details he provided about the circumstances of his escape contributed to a complicated and nuanced narrative of the American Revolution.

September 30

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury [New York] (September 30, 1776).
“To be sold at public VENDUE … SUNDRY articles of dry goods.”

The September 30, 1776, edition of the New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury consisted of only two pages printed on a half sheet rather than the usual four on a broadsheet.  About a dozen advertisements, including one for a vendue or auction of “SUNDRY articles of dry goods,” filled the final column on the second page.  It was the first issue published in the city in three weeks.  It was also the first issue published there since the British occupation of New York began a few weeks earlier.

However, it was not the first issue of the New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury published in that time.  Hugh Gaine left New York just before British forces arrived and set up a printing office in Newark, New Jersey.  On September 21, he printed the newspaper with updated publication information in the masthead: “Printed by Hugh Gaine, at Newark, in East-New-Jersey.”  He continued the same volume numbering with issue 1301.  As Clarence S. Brigham explains, “The Newark issues were evidently edited and printed and in Newark, since the type of the heading differs from the New York issues, and the news and advertisements were expressly intended for New Jersey.”[1]

Yet the September 30 edition printed in New York featured Gaine’s name in the masthead, as usual, and continued the volume numbering with issue 1301.  The printer was not publishing newspapers in both Newark and New York.  The British found themselves in possession of one of the largest cities in America but without a newspaper.  They tasked Ambrose Serle with printing the New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury.  He produced only one issue with Gaine’s name in the masthead.  Starting with the October 7 edition, “the printer’s name was omitted from the imprint.”[2]  It simply stated, “PRINTED AT THE BIBLE AND CROWN, IN HANOVER-SQUARE.”  Serle published six issues of the New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury before Gaine decided to return to New York and resume printing his newspaper there with the November 11 edition.

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[1] Clarence S. Brigham, History and Bibliography of American Newspapers, 1690-1820 (Worcester: American Antiquarian Society, 1947), 513.

[2] Brigham, History and Bibliography of American Newspapers, 640.

September 29

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , ,

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

Freeman’s Journal (September 28, 1776).

“Cash for RAGS … will be given by the Publisher of this Paper.”

Printers frequently offered “Cash for RAGS” in advertisements they placed in their own newspapers during the era of the American Revolution.  They collected linen and other kinds of rags to recycle into paper that they could then use to print a variety of items, including more newspapers.

Benjamin Dearborn, the printer of the Freeman’s Journal in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, ran such an advertisement on September 28, 1776.  He offered two pence per pound for “white Cotton, Linnen, or Cotton & Linnen” rags, “One Penny, for white Canvas” rags, and “One Copper for mix’d colours.”  Some printers simply issued a call for rags, but Dearborn elaborated on his offer in a postscript that explained to readers why they should collect rags and turn them over to him.  “It is requested of those who take any Satisfaction in exhibiting Saving Examples, encouraging Manufacotries, serving the Interest of their Country, or being served themselves with the News-Paper,” the printer proclaimed, “that they would comply with the trifling, tho’ necessary article of saving their RAGS.”  Throughout the imperial crisis, many colonizers advocated boycotting British goods and replacing them with “domestic manufactures” or goods produced in the colonies.  Dearborn echoed those sentiments when he addressed readers who believed in “encouraging Manufactories.”  For many years, doing so had been a means of defending the rights they believed they possessed within the British Empire, but “serving the Interest of their Country” had a new meaning since the Continental Congress declared independence the previous summer.  Even if such arguments did not resonate with some readers, Dearborn hoped that they were interested enough in reading the news that they would collect their rags solely to continue “being served themselves with the News-Paper.”

The printer tried to increase the chances that readers would take note of his advertisement.  He made it the first item in the first column on the first page … and he enclosed it within a border comprised of printing ornaments.  No other item – whether news, editorial, advertisement, or the weekly entry in the “POET’s CORNER” on the final page – featured decorative type.  Not even advertisements for books and pamphlets that Dearborn sold at his printing office had a similar format.  The format underscored just how much he needed readers to comply with his request for rags of all sorts.

September 28

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Freeman’s Journal (September 28, 1776).

“A TAVERN … at the sign of General Washington.”

In the fall of 1776, William Brewster opened a new tavern “a few rods back of the state-house in Portsmouth,” New Hampshire.  When he marketed this new enterprise in an advertisement in the September 28 edition of the Freeman’s Journal, he reminded prospective customers that he “has for many years kept a house of Entertainment for the members of the Hon. General Court, and other Gentlemen of distinction.”  Patrons of his new establishment could expect to be “accommodated with genteel Lodgings, a good table, [and] the best Liquors the times afford” as well as “good stabling for horses.”  Brewster would devote “constant attendance” to the endeavor.  He hoped that his efforts in offering hospitality would “merit the approbation of all good customers.”

Although Brewster relied on his prior experience when he opened this tavern, he did incorporate something new.  He informed the public that “the sign of General Washington,” the commander-in-chief of the Continental Army, marked the tavern’s location.  It was an act of veneration for one of the heroes of the American Revolution, like William Adock selling handkerchiefs with likenesses of Washington and John Hancock, the president of the Continental Congress, in Philadelphia.  It was also part of a trend of reshaping the landscape with new images that embraced an American identity.  In Boston, John Newell offered “ENTERTAINMENT for Gentlemen and keeping for Horses, at the sign of the YANKEE HERO,” placing an advertisement in the New-England Chronicle not long after the siege of the city ended when British forces evacuated to Halifax.  At about the same time, Daniel Jones ran advertisements for the “AMERICAN COFFEE HOUSE, at the sign of the Golden Eagle,” in Boston.  Prior to the outbreak of the war, many cities and towns had a London Coffee House where residents gathered to socialize, discuss politics, and conduct business.  An “AMERICAN COFFEE HOUSE” in Boston signified pride in the new nation as former colonizers abandoned the British identity they had formerly embraced in favor creating an American identity.  Brewster’s decision to name his new tavern after General Washington was part of that process.

September 27

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

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

Essex Journal (September 27, 1776).

“Just Published … An easy PLAN of DISCIPLINE for a MILITIA … The Second Edition.”

John Mycall, the printer of the Essex Journal and New-Hampshire Packet, hawked copies of the second edition of Timothy Pickering’s “easy PLAN of DISCIPLINE for a MILITIA” in the fall of 1776.  As was common in many early American newspapers, the first page of the Essex Journal carried both news and advertisements.  In the September 27 edition, an update from London filled the first two columns and overflowed into the third on the first page. Advertisements completed that final column … and Mycall placed his advertisement for Pickering’s popular military manual first among those advertisements, increasing the chances that readers would take note of it.  His advertisement also reminded prospective customers that Pickering’s Easy Plan of Discipline had been “Ordered by Authority to be practised by all the Militia in the State of Massachusetts Bay,” simultaneously an endorsement and an edict to be followed.

Mycall announced that the second edition was “Just Published, And to be SOLD at the Printing Office.”  That did not mean, however, that he printed a Newburyport edition.  Eighteenth-century readers knew to separate the phrases “Just published” and “to be SOLD.”  The former merely meant that a book or pamphlet was available for sale (as opposed to being in the press) but did not necessarily refer to the advertiser.  Printers and booksellers frequently sold items “Just Published” by others.  In this instance, Mycall sold copies of a second edition of Pickering’s Easy Plan of Discipline published by Samuel Hall in Boston.  In June, Hall informed readers of the Continental Journal that the “second Edition … is now in the Press.”  On September 19, he ran a new advertisement in the Continental Journal, this time announcing that the military manual was now available at his printing office in School Street.  Hall apparently sent copies to Mycall to stock at his printing office in Newburyport.  The advertisement in the Essex Journal appeared just a week later.  The second edition that Mycall sold in Newburyport was hot off Hall’s presses in Boston.

September 26

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Continental Journal (September 26, 1776).

“Keeping up a Correspondence with our inveterate enemies … is in direct violation of the laws of this State.”

The Committee of Correspondence, Inspection, and Safety had a message for new arrivals in Boston.  They used an advertisement in the Continental Journal to let them know that they needed to identify themselves to the committee and surrender any letters they carried with them.

“WHEREAS the keeping up a Correspondence with our inveterate enemies,” Ellis Gray explained on behalf of the committee, “is in direct violation of laws of this State, … ALL persons theretofore who may arrive in this town from Halifax, or any port or place in possession of, or infested by our said enemies, are hereby directed to leave their names with all the letters they bring with them … with some member of this committee.”  That included contact with “the fleet and army now employed against the UNITED STATES,” referring to British forces, and “those open and avowed opposers of our rights, who have forfeited all title to our confidence and protection, by seeking refu[g]e under the power which has long been engaged in the destruction of this country,” referring to Loyalists, especially those who joined the British when they evacuated from Boston to Halifax.  In addition to turning over the letters they carried with them, new arrivals had to leave “a memorandum of their place of abode” so the committee knew where to find them.  They were to do so “as soon as may be after their arrival here.”  Gray warned that “non-compliance with this requisition will be deemed evidence of an unfriendly design … against the interest of the UNITED STATES” and those in violation “will be proceeded against accordingly.”

This important message appeared as an advertisement, first in the September 5, 1776, edition of the Continental Journal and again in the September 26 edition.  The printer interspersed it among paid notices placed for a variety of purposes rather than featuring it as a news item.  Like many other advertisements that ran in American newspapers during the era of the American Revolution, this notice from Boston’s Committee of Correspondence, Inspection, and Safety delivered news that did not appear elsewhere in the newspaper.  Readers perused advertisements as well as articles and editorials to learn about current events, including, on occasion, new regulations enacted in their communities.

September 25

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , ,

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

Pennsylvania Gazette (September 25, 1776).

“THOMAS LEIPER, TOBACCONIST.”

In early June 1776, tobacconists Hamilton and Leiper announced that they dissolved their partnership.  Each man set off on a new venture.  Hamilton and Son operated a “Scotch snuff and tobacco Manufactory” on Second Street in Philadelphia, while Thomas Leiper remained “in the house occupied by the [former] company” at the corner of Spruce and Walnut.  Leiper emphasized in his advertisements that he “manufactures in the best manner Snuff and Tobacco of the first quality, equal, if not superior, to any heretofore imported from Europe.”

Leiper advertised aggressively.  He inserted advertisements with identical copy in Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet, the Pennsylvania Gazette, the Pennsylvania Journal, and the Pennsylvania Ledger.  He aimed to maintain as much of the clientele that he and his former partner had cultivated as he could as well as attract new customers.  To that end, he arranged for his advertisements to run in some of those newspapers for months, making a significant investment in doing so.  Most printers offered a standard package that included setting type and inserting an advertisement in three or four issues before discontinuing it.  Advertisers could pay for each additional insertion if they wished to extend the run of their notices.  Leiper apparently did so.  His advertisement ran in both the Pennsylvania Gazette and the Pennsylvania Journalon September 25, 1776.  The one in the Pennsylvania Gazette even included a notation – “3 m” – on the final line, likely intended to remind the printer that it was supposed to run for three months.

Leiper competed with his former partner and other tobacconists in Philadelphia.  He likely believed that an advertising campaign that extended for several months would yield the kind of name recognition that would convince prospective customers to give his snuff and other products a chance.  The repetition of his advertisements, appearing week after week in some of Philadelphia’s most popular newspapers, probably made his business familiar to many readers as they perused the advertisements for all sorts of information about commerce and current events.

September 24

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

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

Pennsylvania Evening Post (September 24, 1776).

“Hancock and other printed handkerchiefs.”

When William Adcock first announced a “VENDUE” or auction of “a great variety of goods suitable to the season” to be held on September 18, 1776, he included “Hancock and Washington handkerchiefs, and a great variety of other printed handkerchiefs” among the items “exposed for sale.”  A week later he inserted another advertisement in the Pennsylvania Evening Post, informing the public that he would host another sale “at his vendue store.”  This time he promoted “a variety of GOODS, among which are … coarse white linens, checks, stripes, superfine mens and womens cotton stockings, silk and worsted knee garters, flax, gimps, fringes, [and] Hancock and other printed handkerchiefs.”  He did not include “Washington handkerchiefs” among his wares.

Did that mean that he had sold all the handkerchiefs bearing a depiction of the commander-in-chief of the Continental Army at his previous sale?  Possibly.  Even if that was the case, it did not necessarily indicate that commemorative items depicting the general were more popular than those with a likeness of the president of the Continental Congress.  The advertisements did not mention the quantity of each handkerchief available.  Adcock may have had a limited supply of “Washington handkerchiefs” compared to “Hancock handkerchiefs.”  The second advertisement did, however, clarify an element of the design of those handkerchiefs.  It was not clear from the first advertisement whether “Hancock and Washington handkerchiefs” featured both men on a single handkerchief.  Other handkerchiefs produced during the era, after all, had images of multiple prominent politicians and military officers.  “Hancock and Washington handkerchiefs” could have had profiles of the two men facing each other, but the second advertisement suggests that each prominent leader had his own commemorative handkerchief.  They may have been made in the same workshop by a savvy entrepreneur who hoped that patriotic consumers would treat them as collectibles by purchasing both rather than just one.  Given that vendues often sold goods in quantities, retailers likely purchased some of the “Hancock and Washington handkerchiefs” to stock in their own shop and sell to consumers who visited with other purchases in mind.

September 23

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Norwich Packet (September 23, 1776).

“Lately published … THE Manual Exercise.”

As fall arrived in 1776, John Trumbull inserted an advertisement for “THE Manual Exercise, As ordered by his Majesty in 1764, and now adopted in the various Provinces of North-America” in his newspaper, the Norwich Packet.  He described the military manual as “Lately published, and to be sold by the Printer hereof.”  Eighteenth-century readers understood that “Lately published” did not mean that it just came off the press.  Instead, it meant that the book had been published and was available rather than being in the proposal or preparation stage.  After all, advertisements proposing to publish many books ran in early American newspapers, but not all of them garnered enough demand that printers moved beyond merely gauging interest in them.

Local editions of this military manual, The Manual Exercise as Ordered by His Majesty in 1764: Together with Plans and Explanations of the Method Generally Practised at Reviews and Field-Days, had been published in at least ten towns from Massachusetts to Virginia in 1774 and 1775.  It did so well that some printers issued second editions.  Such had been the case with John Trumbull and his former partners, Alexander Robertson and James Roberston.  They published their first Norwich edition in 1774 and a second Norwich edition in 1775.  When Trumbull advertised the book in the fall of 1776, he did not promote a new edition but instead sought to sell remaining copies of the 1775 that he published with his former partners, Loyalists who had since moved to New York.  His latest advertisement indicated that the manual included “General WOLFE’s Instructions to young OFFICERS.”  The Robertsons and Trumbull previously added that content to the second Norwich edition, further evidence that Trumbull now hawked that book rather than a new edition.  In asserting that it was “Lately published,” the printer did not claim that the military manual just hit the market but rather that production was complete and copies were available for sale immediately.