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

“MRS. WINDSOR … has declined being connected with Mrs. SAGE, in a Boarding-School.”

In an advertisement that ran in a midweek supplement to the South-Carolina Gazette, Ann Sage announced that she opened a “New Boarding-School, FOR YOUNG LADIES” on September 15, 1774.  The curriculum included “READING, TAMBOUR, EMBROIDERY, and all Kinds of NEEDLE-WORK.”  Sage presumably taught reading and those feminine arts herself.  For an additional price, students could learn “WRITING, ARITHMETIC, DANCING and MUSIC.”  Sage may have provided some of that instruction, but another advertisement suggests that she hired tutors to supplement the lessons she provided.

Immediately below Sage’s notice, Mrs. Windsor declared that she “declined being connected with Mrs. SAGE, in a Boarding-School; which is to be opened on the 15th.”  Dated September 1, Windsor’s advertisement previously appeared separately from Sage’s announcement, including in the September 13 edition of the South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal.  She did not elaborate on her reasons for not joining Sage’s endeavor, instead advising “her FRIENDS in particular, and the PUBLIC in general” that she “continues, as usual, to instruct Young LADIES upon the HARPSICHORD.”  Windsor requested the “Continuance of the Patronage and Encouragement of her Friends and Acquaintances.”  She had her own enterprise to oversee.

What was Windsor’s purpose in even mentioning Sage’s school in her advertisement?  She could have sought pupils without commenting on her refusal to be affiliated with the boarding school.  Perhaps Sage had attempted to recruit Windsor as a partner in the endeavor rather than merely a tutor who occasionally gave lessons to students who paid additional fees.  In that case, Sage may not have had time to continue offering lessons to her existing clientele.  Her newspaper notice made it clear that she wished to continue those relationships as well as gain new students.  Yet the details she provided (and those she did not) hinted at an untold story, perhaps some interesting gossip, especially when Windsor’s advertisement appeared immediately below Sage’s notice.  The “Friends and Acquaintances” that Windsor thanked for the “Continuance of [their] Patronage and Encouragement” (and other readers as well) otherwise may not have thought anything about Windsor’s other prospects, but her intervention in the public prints could have prompted some to discreetly ask questions here and there to discover if they had missed out on something interesting.