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October 12

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

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

New-York Journal (October 12, 1775).

“I Acknowledge that I have at several times spoken in favour of the laws of Taxation.”

Lemuel Bower wanted to return to the good graces of his community in the fall of 1775.  Events that occurred since the previous April – the battles at Lexington and Concord, the siege of Boston, the Battle of Bunker Hill, the Second Continental Congress appointing George Washington as commander in chief of the Continental Army, an American invasion of Quebec – had intensified feelings about the imperial crisis and, apparently, made for a difficult situation for Bower since he had expressed Tory sentiments in the past.  In hopes of moving beyond that, he composed a statement that appeared in the October 12, 1775, edition of the New-York Journal.

“I Acknowledge,” Bower confessed, “I have at several times spoken in favour of the laws of Taxation, and against the measures pursued by America to procure Redress, and have thereby justly merited the displeasure of my country.”  To remedy that, “I beg forgiveness, and so solemnly promise to submit to the rules of the Continental and Provincial Congresses,” including abiding by the nonimportation and nonconsumption provisions in the Continental Association.  Furthermore, Bower pledged, “I never will speak or act in opposition to their order, but will conduct according to their directions, to the utmost of my power.”  He did not state that he had a change of heart, only that he would quietly act as supporters of the American cause were supposed to act rather than engage in vocal opposition.  As William Huntting Howell has argued, such compliance, especially when expressed in a public forum, may have been more important to most Patriots than whether Bower truly agreed with them.[1]  How he acted and what he said was more important than what he believed as long as he kept his thoughts to himself.

Bower did indeed express his regrets and his promise to behave better in a public forum.  He concluded his statement with a note that “this I desire should be published in the public prints.  When it appeared in the New-York Journal, it ran immediately below a notice from the Committee of Inspection and Observation in Stanford, New York, that labeled two Loyalists as “enemies to the liberties of their country” and instructed the public “to break off all commerce, dealings and connections with them.”  That was the treatment that Bower sought to avoid!  That notice appeared immediately below news from throughout the colony.  Bower’s statement ran immediately above paid advertisements.  The two statements concerning the political principles of colonizers thus served as a transition from news to advertising in that issue of the New-York Journal.  Did John Holt, the printer, treat them as paid notices?  Did he require Bower to pay to insert his statement?  Or did the Patriot printer publish one or both gratis?  Perhaps he printed the statement from the Committee of Inspection and Observation for free but made Bower pay to publish his penance.  Whatever the case, Bower’s statement was not clearly a news item nor an advertisement but could have been considered both simultaneously by eighteenth-century readers.

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[1] William Huntting Howell, “Entering the Lists: The Politics of Ephemera in Eastern Massachusetts, 1774,” Early American Studies 9, no. 1 (Winter 2011): 187-217.

October 11

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

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

Maryland Journal (October 11, 1775).

“CONSTITUTIONAL POST-OFFICE.  BALTIMORE.”

The contents of the October 11, 1775, edition of the Maryland Journal were organized such that the first advertisement that readers encountered promoted the Baltimore branch of the “CONSTITUTIONAL POST-OFFICE” established by the Second Continental Congress as an alternative to the imperial postal system operated by the British government.  It completed the middle column on the third page, a column otherwise filled with news from Cambridge, Hartford, New York, and Philadelphia.  Two lines separated it from other content, indicating a transition from news to advertising, yet the notice seemed a continuation of updates about current events, including an inaccurate report that General Richard Montgomery had captured Montreal as part of the American invasion of Quebec.  Advertisements inserted for other purposes, such as fencing lessons and descriptions of runaway indentured servants, appeared in the next column and on the next page.

“NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN,” the advertisement proclaimed, “That the POST arrives in this Town, from Philadelphia, with the Eastern Mailes, every Monday and Thursday, and sets off the same Day for the Southward.”  It returned from that direction on Wednesdays and Fridays.  The notice was signed, “M.K. GODDARD.”  The colophon at the bottom of the final page also listed “M.K. GODDARD, at the PRINTING-OFFICE in MARKET-STREET” as the printer of the Maryland Journal.  Mary Katharine Goddard operated the printing office in Baltimore.  Like many other printers, she simultaneously served as postmaster.  Many of them, as Joseph M. Adelman explains, had been “associated with the old imperial system” and “shifted [their] service from the British post office to the American one.”  They included Solomon Southwick, the printer of the Newport Mercury, John Carter, the printer of the Providence Gazette, and Alexander Purdie, the printer of the Virginia Gazette.  Appointed to the position in 1775, Goddard served as postmaster in Baltimore for fourteen years “until she lost her position in 1789 to a new postmaster more closely connected to the new Federal Postmaster General.”[1]

Women participated in the American Revolution in many ways.  They signed nonimportation agreements and made decisions in the marketplace that reflected their political principles, they spun wool and made homespun garments as alternatives to British imports, and they raised funds to support the Continental Army.  Some served in more formal roles, including Mary Katharine Goddard as both the printer of the Maryland Journal and the postmaster at the “CONSTITUTIONAL POST-OFFICE” in Baltimore.

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[1] Joseph M. Adelman, “‘A Constitutional Conveyance of Intelligence, Public and Private’: The Post Office, the Business of Printing, and the American Revolution,” Enterprise and Society 11, no. 4 (December 2010): 742.

June 21

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

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

Massachusetts Spy (June 21, 1775).

“RESOLVED, That we abhor the enslaving of any of the human race, and particularly of the NEGROES in this county.”

Nathaniel Read’s advertisement describing Tower, an enslaved man who liberated himself by running away, and offering a reward for his capture and return ran in the Massachusetts Spy a second time on June 21, 1775.  It was the last time that advertisement appeared.  Perhaps the notice achieved its intended purpose when someone recognized the Black man with “a little scar on one side [of] his cheek” or perhaps Read discontinued it for other reasons.

Whatever the explanation, Read’s advertisement starkly contrasted with a new notice that relayed a resolution passed “In County Convention” on June 14.[1]  “[T]he NEGROES in the counties of Bristol and Worcester, the 24th of March last, petitioned the Committees of Correspondence for the county of Worcester (then convened in Worcester) to assist them in obtaining their freedom.”  As the imperial crisis intensified and colonizers invoked the language of liberty and freedom from (figurative) enslavement, Black people who were (literally) enslaved in Massachusetts applied that rhetoric to themselves and initiated a process that challenged white colonizers to recognize their rights.  They did so before the Revolutionary War began with the battles at Lexington and Concord in April 1775, though it took a few months for the County Convention to pass a resolution.  That resolution supported the petition: “we abhor the enslaving of any of the human race, and particularly of the NEGROES in this county.”  Furthermore, “whenever there shall be a door opened, or opportunity present, for any thing to be done toward the emancipating the NEGROES; we will use our influence and endeavour that such a thing may be effected.”

During the era of the American Revolution, the press often advanced purposes that seem contradictory to modern readers.  Newspapers undoubtedly served as engines of liberty that promoted the American cause and shaped public opinion in favor of declaring independence, yet they also played a significant role in perpetuating the enslavement of Africans, African Americans, and Indigenous Americans.  News articles reported on the dangers posed by enslaved people, especially when they engaged in resistance or rebellion, and advertisements facilitated the slave trade and encouraged the surveillance of Black men and women to determine whether they matched the descriptions of enslaved people who liberated themselves.  Revenue from those advertisements underwrote publishing news and editorials that supported the patriot cause.  Yet the early American press occasionally published items that supported the emancipation of enslaved people and abolishing the transatlantic slave trade as some colonizers applied the rhetoric of the American Revolution more evenly to all people.

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[1] Although it resembles a news article, this item appeared among the advertisements.  In addition, it ran more than once, typical of paid notices rather than news printed just once.  Newspaper advertisements often delivered news, especially local news, during the era of the American Revolution.

November 6

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

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

Postscript to the Virginia Gazette [Purdie and Dixon] (November 3, 1774).

“It has been thought necessary, for the publick Good, to enter into several particular Resolves.”

As the imperial crisis intensified in the fall of 1774, the distinction between news items and advertisements in colonial newspapers became blurry with greater frequency.  Such was the case with letter-advertisements expressing regret for signing “an Address to the late Governor Hutchinson, on his leaving this Province” in several newspapers in Massachusetts.  Another instance appeared in the Virginia Gazette, published by Alexander Purdie and John Dixon in Williamsburg.  On November 3, they distributed a two-page Postscript to accompany the standard four-page issue.  That supplement included nothing but advertising except, perhaps, the first item in the first column on the first page.  With a dateline that read, “EDENTON, NORTH CAROLINA, October 25, 1774,” it featured the petition signed by fifty-one women at the Edenton Tea Party and listed their names in two columns.

Those women expressed their support for resolutions protesting the Tea Act of 1773 passed by the North Carolina Provincial Congress in August.  They proclaimed, “AS we cannot be indifferent on any Occasion that appears nearly to affect the Peace and Happiness of our Country, and as it has been thought necessary, for the publick Good, to enter into several particular Resolves, by a Meeting of Members deputed from the whole Province, it is a Duty which we owe, not only to our near and dear Connections, who have concurred in them, but to ourselves, who are essentially interested in their Welfare, to do every Thing as far as lines in our Power to testify our sincere Adherence to the same; and we do therefore accordingly subscribe this Paper, as a Witness of our fixed Intention and solemn Determination to do so.” In a single sentence, the women of Edenton declared their position on current events and pledged to participate in politics through the decisions they made about consumption.  They added their voices to those who adopted nonimportation agreements.

Why did their petition appear in an advertising supplement?  Had the women involved in the Edenton Tea Party sent their petition to Purdie and Dixon to feature in the Virginia Gazette?  Probably not, but they may have submitted it to the printer of the North-Carolina Gazette in New Bern.  The few extant issues of that newspaper have not been digitized for greater accessibility, making it difficult to determine if the petition appeared in that newspaper and then Purdie and Dixon reprinted it.  After all, colonial printers constantly reprinted items from other newspapers.  The printers in Williamsburg could have received an issue of the North-Carolina Gazette with the petition from the Edenton Tea Party after they printed the November 3 edition of the Virginia Gazette but did not wish to wait a week to disseminate it in the next issue.  Take into consideration as well that news, especially “Extracts from the Votes and Proceedings of the AMERICAN CONTINENTAL CONGRESS,” filled much of the newspaper, crowding out advertisements.  The printers had reason to produce an advertising supplement, yet they may have also wished to highlight the petition signed by patriotic women in Edenton.  The “Extracts” started with an overview of the Continental Association, a nonimportation agreement, as the first news item.  The women’s petition ran as the first item in the Postscript, mirroring the placement of the Continental Association and demonstrating the commitment already expressed for such measures even before the First Continental Congress formally adopted them.  At a glance, it looked like another advertisement among those in the Postscript, yet it delivered important news to readers.

November 3

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

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

Massachusetts Spy (November 3, 1774).

“I am now sensible that my signing the said Address was altogether improper and imprudent.”

Yet another colonizer who signed “an Address to the late Governor Hutchinson, on his leaving this Province” took to the public prints to recant and apologize.  Isaac Mansfield of Marblehead published his message to “my respectable Town and Countrymen” in the November 3, 1774, edition of the Massachusetts Spy.  Like others who claimed that they regretted their actions, he asserted that he had endorsed the address “suddenly, and not sufficiently attending to its Impropriety and Tendency.”  In other words, he had carelessly affixed his name without giving the contents or their implications much thought.  Upon further reflection, realizing what he had done (and facing the consequences of giving “Offence”), he declared that he had no intention of “affronting any Individual” or, especially, “wounding the Constitution of my Country, the Rights and Liberties whereof I esteem it every one’s Duty to preserve and maintain, by all proper, laudable and lawful means.”  Mansfield had strayed in expressing Tory sympathies, but he had seen the light.  He described signing the address as improper and imprudent, following immediately with an apology and a request for the “Friendship and Regard of my Town and Countrymen.”

Similar disavowals and retractions had been appearing in newspapers in Massachusetts and neighboring colonies for some time.  Much shorter versions by J. Fowle and John Prentice, both of Marblehead, that ran in three newspapers published in Boston and another in Salem during the past week also appeared in the November 3 issue of the Massachusetts Spy.  Some printers treated them as letters to place among news items, while others placed them with advertisements, making unclear which genre these letter-advertisements represented and whether printers charged for inserting them in their newspapers.  Isaiah Thomas, the printer of the Massachusetts Spy, ran the letter-advertisements from Fowle and Prentice below a letter to the editor from “A PROPRIETOR” and above Donald McAlpine’s advertisement for fencing lessons, similar to their placement in the Boston-Gazette three days earlier.  Had the men from Marblehead submitted their letter-advertisements to Thomas’s printing office?  Or had the patriot printer decided to reprint news from another newspaper?  In this instance, the double line separating different kinds of content appeared above the letter-advertisements, signaling to readers that they had finished with the news and began the advertisements.  The placement of Mansfield’s letter-advertisement was less ambiguous.  It ran on the final page, embedded among advertisements.  A notice from Silent Wilde, a post rider, appeared above it and an advertisement for William Hunter’s “Auction-Room” below it.  Does that mean that Thomas charged for printing Mansfield’s letter-advertisement?  Perhaps, though he may have been more interested in publicizing that another member of the community had seemingly come into conformity with patriot politics than generating revenue from Mansfield’s missive.  Either way, readers encountered news about current events as they perused the portion of the Massachusetts Spy that contained advertisements.

October 11

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

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

Essex Gazette (October 11, 1774).

“LOST at the Fire on Wednesday Night last … the following Pieces of Merchandise.”

The October 11, 1774, edition of the Essex Gazette included coverage of a fire in Salem on October 6.  The conflagration destroyed the homes of several families as well as the shops and stores of more than a dozen merchants and shopkeepers.  In addition, the fire consumed a meeting house and the customs house.  Samuel Hall and Ebenezer Hall, the printers of the Essex Gazette, lost their printing office.  Just below the article about the fire, they inserted a notice alerting the public that they had relocated.  The Halls also reported that “Great Quantities of Goods, House Furniture and Papers of Value were lost, stole and destroyed in the Confusion and Destruction occasioned by the Fire; but it is impossible to obtain Accounts from the several Sufferers, sufficiently accurate to publish at this Time.”

That did not prevent others from publishing more information about the fire, either as letters to editors or by taking out advertisements that supplemented the coverage provided by the Halls.  One letter, for instance, noted that “the Sufferers in the late Fire in this Town, and others whose Goods were removed, still miss great Quantities of their Furniture and Goods.”  Such items clearly had not been misplaced and would soon be recovered as the confusion subsided and the town recovered; instead, the anonymous author asserted that goods and personal property “were stolen by the hardened Villains who ever stand ready to make their Harvest at such Times of Danger and Distress.”  Furthermore, those “Miscreants, in the Form of Pedlars, will doubtless be hawking these Goods about the Country,” capitalizing on the misfortune of others.  The letter concluded with a call for “well disposed People” to identify and imprison the thieves and encouraging justices of the peace to invoke existing laws to regulate peddlers to make sure they did not sell stolen goods when they “stroll[ed] about the Country.”

Nathaniel Sparhawk was among those with missing goods following the fire.  In an advertisement, he listed and described “Pieces of Merchandise” he “LOST at the Fire.”  He offered a reward to “Whoever will bring the above Articles or any of them” to him.  In a nota bene, he added, “No Questions will be asked.”  In other words, he only sought to recover goods apparently looted during the fire, choosing to give the benefit of the doubt that they had been removed to save them.  In exchange for that polite fiction, he would not prosecute anyone whose conscience (or the reward) prompted them to return the items.  He hoped that a reward given without questions or the possibility of prosecution would seem more attractive than whatever thieves might earn if they risked selling or fencing the stolen items.

Other advertisements also provided additional information about the fire.  One offered “300 Dollars Reward” to anyone who “will give Information” that the fire “was kindled with Design.”  Many residents believed the fire had been set intentionally.  Anyone who could prove that was the case would receive the reward “on Conviction of the Perpetrator or Perpetrators.”  Henry Putnam, who lost his shop in the fire, feared that he was a suspect.  In his own advertisement, he reported that “some ill-minded Person or Persons” spread “false Reports … intimating that there was reason to suspect that I had been guilty of the horrid Crime of being the Occasion of the late terrible Fire.”  Doing what he could to combat such gossip, he harnessed the power of the press to inform the public, especially “People at a Distance” who might hear such rumors, that “the People of this Place are fully convinced that the Reports are false and groundless.” Putnam defended his reputation in print, hoping to reach people who heard tales that spread by word of mouth.

Readers of the Essex Gazette pieced together a more complete account of the fire and its aftermath when they consulted the coverage written by the printers, the letter to the editors, and the advertisements.  As was often the case in colonial newspapers, advertisements delivered news that supplemented information that appeared elsewhere.  In this instance, the advertisements appeared in the next column, immediately to the right of the news, helping readers to make connections among the different kinds of reporting.

October 2

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

New-York Journal (September 29, 1774).

“Stop THIEF!  Stop THIEF!”

The headline attracted attention: “Stop THIEF!  Stop THIEF!”  John Burrowes of Middletown Point, New Jersey, was the victim of a crime, one that occurred on the night of September 9, 1774.  A “robber or robbers” stole a variety of goods from his store, including “One piece rich black satin,” “Nine or ten cross-bar’d red and white cotton handkerchiefs, fine,” “Eleven pieces coarse [calico], some of them full pieces, others part pieces,” and “Six pair cypher’d stone sleeve buttons, set in silver.”  In addition, they made off with “sundry others not mentioned.”

A few days after the theft, Burrowes dispatched messages to two printing offices in New York, the nearest town with one or more newspapers.  Advertisements featuring identical copy, but very different formats, soon appeared in the New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury and the New-York Journal.  Despite the differences in their layouts, both proclaimed ““Stop THIEF!  Stop THIEF!”  That suggests that Burrowes had been quite specific in his instructions about the headline even as he left the rest of the design to the discretion of the compositors who set type for the two newspapers.

The shopkeeper realized that the robbers would likely attempt to sell some or all the stolen merchandise rather than keep it for their own use.  By publishing notices, he alerted readers in New York and far beyond to be wary if offered any of the items he listed.  He sought to enlist their help in capturing the culprits and, if possible, recovering the stolen goods.  To that end, he designated a local agent, Henry Remsen, in New York to represent him should the robbers and the goods turn up there, while also directing readers to contact him in Middletown Point if the robbers were apprehended in the area.

Burrowes’s advertisement appeared in the New-York Journal at the same time that John Holt, the printer, published accounts of the Suffolk County Resolves from Massachusetts.  Those measures called for a boycott of goods imported from Britain until Parliament repealed the Boston Port Act and the other Coercive Acts.  Holt ran other news about the imperial crisis under a masthead that included the “UNITE OR DIE” political cartoon that encouraged resistance to the various abuses perpetrated by Parliament.  Whatever else happened to be taking place in terms of current events, however, Burrowes likely considered the contents of his advertisement, a form of local reporting from his small town, among the most important news in the New-York Journal.  Advertisements often served as mechanisms for disseminating news that did not appear elsewhere in colonial newspapers.

September 24

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

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

Providence Gazette (September 24, 1774).

“I am determined to prosecute him for the Defamation.”

Defamation!  That was the defense Joseph Aldrich, Jr., made against allegations that appeared in the September 10, 1774, edition of the Providence Gazette.  The original accusation and Aldrich’s response both ran as advertisements.  It started with one that read, “I JOSEPH BROWN, of Gageborough, in the County of Berkshire, and Province of the Massachusetts-Bay, give this public Notice, that Joseph Aldrich, jun. of Gloucester, in the County of Providence, hath forged or counterfeited a Note of Hand against me the said Joseph Brown, for Ninety odd Pounds Lawful Money.”  The notice offered a warning: “All Persons are therefore cautioned against taking any Assignment of said Note, as I am determined to prosecute for the Forgery, instead of paying the Contents.”

Aldrich apparently did not become aware of what Brown charged right away since he did not respond in the next issue of Providence Gazette, but not much time passed before he either read Brown’s advertisement or someone told him about it. That spurred the aggrieved Aldrich into action.  He placed his own advertisement that cited the notice “charging me the Subscriber with forging a Note of Hand against the said Brown” and asserting that “the Charge is absolutely groundless.”  Just as Brown stated that he intended to take the matter to court, so did Aldrich.  “I am determined to prosecute him for the Defamation,” he declared, confident that “I shall be able to make my Innocence appear in a Court of Justice.”

Yet it was not a “Court of Justice” that mattered immediately; it was the court of public opinion that Aldrich sought to sway.  Brown had damaged his reputation, perhaps imperiling his ability to conduct business and support his family.  For Aldrich, the most important news in the September 10 edition of the Providence Gazette appeared among the advertisements, not among the articles and editorials that so animated readers as the imperial crisis intensified.  Paying to run a notice gave Brown access to the public prints to share his version of events involving the supposedly forged and counterfeit note.  In turn, taking out his own notice allowed Aldrich to defend himself against that calumny.  In both instances, advertisements doubled as local news.

August 22

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Boston-Gazette (August 22, 1774).

“Bring him home (without abusing him) or give Information that he may be found.”

Newspaper advertisements carried all sorts of local news that printers did not otherwise select for inclusion in their publications, keeping readers apprised of both ordinary and extraordinary occurrences.  A variety of legal notices, for instance, provided news about the finances and deaths of colonizers, while other advertisements revealed marital discord when husbands decreed that they would not pay the debts of their wives.  Some advertisements provided coverage of thefts and burglaries.  Many described runaway apprentices and indentured servants or enslaved men and women who liberated themselves by running away from their enslavers.  In most colonial newspapers, the local news section was quite short, especially compared to the amount of space devoted to news from England, Europe, and other colonies.  Many historians have explained that news of local events of consequence spread via word of mouth before printers had the chance to take their weekly newspapers to press.  Yet that perspective overlooks the extensive local news that appeared among advertisements.

Among their other purposes, advertisements sometimes served as missing persons notifications.  Such was the case in June 1774 when Jonathan Fales of Walpole, a “Non Compos Mentis” or a man with cognitive disabilities, disappeared from “his House and Family … and has not been Home since.”  Elizabeth Fales, perhaps his mother, sister, or wife, placed an advertisement in the August 22 edition of the Boston-Gazette, stating that Jonathan had not been seen for more than two months and requesting aid in finding and returning him to his family.  She gave a short physical description and described the clothes he wore “when he went away.”  Her concern was apparent, both in calling herself a “distress’d Woman” and pleading that anyone who found Jonathan “bring him home (without abusing him).”  Elizabeth and her family cared for and protected the “large fat Man” at home, but he risked others taking advantage of him or treating him cruelly on his own.  Elizabeth promised a reward to anyone who brought Jonathan home or provided “Information that he may be found.”  Placing an advertisement allowed her to disseminate local news that was most important to her and her family.

August 6

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Providence Gazette (August 6, 1774).

“The Forgery being so gross, that the Author had not even the Precaution to spell my Name right.”

As readers flipped through the August 6, 1774, edition of the Providence Gazette, they encountered news and editorials on the first three pages, followed by advertisements in the final column on the third page and filling the entire final page.  The news and editorials included an “Address to the Citizens of New-York on the present critical Situation of Affairs … here inserted by Request” signed by “ANGLUS AMERICANUS,” a letter from London’s Morning Post addressed to Lord North, the prime minister, by “A SOLDIER,” and updates from Paris, London, Philadelphia, New York, and Boston.  The short section for news with the header “PROVIDENCE, August 6” relayed six items, including a note that “the Honourable JAMES BOWDOIN, Esq; of Boston, one of the Delegates appointed for the General Congress,” now known as the First Continental Congress, “passed through this Town” two days earlier “on a Journey Southward.”  Most of those items did not relate to local news at all; instead, they drew from reports received in Providence.  For instance, the final item mentioned “a provincial Meeting of Deputies, from the several Counties of Pennsylvania, … held at Philadelphia” with a promise to print the “Resolves and Proceedings” in the next issue.

Providence Gazette (August 6, 1774).

That did not mean that the Providence Gazette did not carry local news.  Indeed, the advertisements, including legal notices, kept readers updated about some of what was occurring in Providence and nearby towns.  In Johnston, Israel Mathewson, Jr., contended with a case of fraud and sought to warn the public against becoming victims of an unscrupulous forger.  He described a “negotiable promissory Note, for the Sum of Twenty-eight Pounds Thirteen Shillings, from me to one Joseph Aldrich.”  That instrument, Mathewson exclaimed, “is false and counterfeited, the Forgery being so gross, that the Author had not even the Precaution to spell my Name right.”  He cautioned others not to “unwarily” accept the note because “I am determined to prosecute for the Forgery, instead of paying the Contents.”  Reading that news among the advertisements in the Providence Gazette had the potential to prevent trouble and inconvenience.  In another notice, Elkanah Shearman of Glocester revealed discord within his household, asserting that his wife, Martha, then “living in Coventry, hath behaved herself in a Manner inconsistent with my Peace, injurious to my Interest, and against her Duty to me.”  He feared that she “will run me in Debt” as well as “diminish my Estate.”  Accordingly, he issued instructions that he would pay “any Debts of her contracting,” expecting merchants, shopkeepers, and other purveyors of goods and services to take note.  Furthermore, he threatened to prosecute for any “Spoil or Waste” on his land or even “Entry without my Leave.”  Martha did not possess any authority to grant access on behalf of her husband.  Her husband expected others to take note of this news.

Several other advertisements delivered local news to readers of the Providence Gazette.  Although John Carter, the printer, limited the amount of local news he selected to publish under the header “PROVIDENCE, August 6,” that did not mean that the newspaper did not contain news from nearby towns.  Advertisers placed notices for a variety of purposes, many of them delivering news in an alternate format.