Boston-Gazette

September 16

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Boston-Gazette (September 16, 1776).

“JOHN COBURN … has removed into Boston again.”

In the summer of 1776, John Coburn, a goldsmith, returned to Boston to resume business there.  He ran advertisements in the Boston-Gazette and the New-England Chronicle in July.  Although he discontinued his notice in the New-England Chronicle after three insertions, he continued running it in the Boston-Gazette through the end of September.  During that time, he made a significant investment in “inform[ing] his Customers and others, that he has removed into Boston again, and carries on the Goldsmith’s Business at his Shop in King Street, opposite to the American Coffee-House.”

That Coburn stated that he was in Boston “again” indicated that he previously lived and worked there.  Although he did not previously advertise his services, real estate advertisements in several of Boston’s newspapers, including one in the August 19, 1773, edition of the Boston News-Letter, gave his address as “King-street, near opposite to the British Coffee-House.”  Things had certainly changed in the three years since that advertisement appeared.  In December 1773, men disguised as Indigenous Americans destroyed shipments of tea.  In the spring, Parliament responded by passing the Coercive Acts, including the Boston Port Bill that closed the harbor in June 1774.  The city experienced “Distresses,” as Isaiah Thomas described the situation, for many months before hostilities commenced at Lexington and Concord.  British forces occupied the city for several more months during the siege of Boston before evacuating in March 1776.

During that time, many residents of the city departed for other towns, many of them as refugees who left at the beginning of the siege.  Neither news updates nor advertisements reveal when Coburn moved out of Boston, but only when he returned to the shop on King Street that he had formerly occupied.  Among the changes of the past three years, the establishment across the street had a new name, the American Coffee House rather than the British Coffee House.  It had that new name as early as May 1776, at least two months before the Continental Congress declared independence.  As Coburn sought to revive his business in Boston during the Revolutionary War, the location he gave in his advertisements reflected and reinforced the new identity that many readers embraced.

August 19

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Boston-Gazette (August 19, 1776).

“French and Dutch GOODS.”

In an advertisement in the August 19, 1776, edition of the Boston-Gazette, Martin Bicker listed an array of textiles and other goods in stick at his shop.  He offered a “very great choice of callicoes, patches, printed linens, fine lawns, cambricks, silk gauzes, … silk and linen handkerchiefs, cotton and linen checks, … ribbons, black sattin, persians, kid gloves, pins and needles, … middling and coarse broad-cloths, trimmings to match, … breeches patterns, thread and worsted hose, bedticks, buckrams, durants, sagathees, duroys, wiltons, white silk Damascus, writing paper, [and] castor hats.”  Modern readers may not recognize the names of many of those textiles, but eighteenth-century consumers knew them and could distinguish among them.  Bicker invited prospective customers to make selections according to their own tastes and budgets.  To that end, he carried “macaroni velvets,” but he also had “plain” velvets for those who considered the alternative too extravagant or too expensive.  He concluded his list with “&c,” the abbreviation commonly used for et cetera, to indicate even more choices among his “good assortment.”

Bicker’s advertisement looked much like one that would have run in an American newspaper before the Revolutionary War, but with one exception.  The headline proclaimed, “French and Dutch GOODS.”  Bicker reiterated the origins of his wares when he stated that he “has just received a very good assortment of French and Dutch Goods, which are ready for sale.”  He did not explain how he acquired that shipment, though he certainly expected promoting “French and Dutch GOODS” would resonate with consumers in Boston and the surrounding towns.  After all, the Declaration of Independence so recently adopted by the Continental Congress and published in the Boston-Gazette included “full Power to … establish Commerce” among the “Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do.”  When Massachusetts was a colony, Bicker and other entrepreneurs had been restricted to trading with Great Britain.  Retailers gave consumers access to “English Goods,” as they were so often described in newspaper advertisements.  Bicker knew that the origins of his merchandise distinguished his shop from others.  The “French and Dutch GOODS” he sold contrasted significantly with the “Variety of ENGLISH GOODS” offered in the advertisement that appeared immediately above his notice.

July 8

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Boston-Gazette (July 8, 1776).

“A commodious genteel Coach … will set off for New-York in a few Days.”

When Benjamin Edes, the printer of the Boston-Gazette, published a legal notice in the July 8, 1776, edition of his newspaper, he had to get creative with the format.  The notice featured several columns, enough that the notice was wider than the usual column width, but not so wide that it extended two columns.  That would have made preparing that issue more straightforward.

Since that was not an option, however, Edes placed the wider notice in the bottom right corner on the last page and then filled in the rest of the page.  The column on the left appeared as usual.  The middle column began as usual, but halfway down the page it could not continue because the legal notice protruded into that column.  Edes also began the right column as usual, filling in the space until reaching the legal notice in the lower corner.  That left a blank space at the bottom of the middle column.

Edes filled that empty space by rotating four advertisements with type set such that they would otherwise fit in any column in the Boston-Gazette, placing then in a two-by-two grid with text that ran perpendicular to everything else on the page.  That meant that type already set could be used in a standard column or in a rotated column, saving the printer time and effort.  It was a clever solution that allowed the printer to publish the various notices submitted to his printing office, collect revenue for each, and not sacrifice any space in his newspaper.  Doing so required careful planning and a good eye for assessing which notices would fit in which places on the page.

How did the advertisers feel about their notices receiving such treatment?  Did they believe that the unique format called more attention to their advertisements and thus worked to their benefit?  Did they worry that the minor inconvenience of rotating the newspaper to read those advertisements might make them easier to overlook?  Did they care at all as long as their notices appeared in print?  The format testifies to Edes’s ingenuity but not to the reception it received from advertisers and readers.

June 17

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

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

Boston-Gazette (June 17, 1776).

“It is also well worthy the Perusal of every lover of Civil Liberty and good Government in America.”

In June 1776, Thomas Fleet and John Fleet announced that they published a Boston edition of Richard Price’s Observations on the Nature of Civil Liberty, the Principle of Government, and the Justice and Policy of the War with America.  Like many other advertisements for books and pamphlets, their notice included an overview of the contents to entice prospective customers with a preview of what they would encounter when they purchased and read the work.  Section headings included “Of the Nature of Liberty in general,” “Whether the War with America is justified by the Principles of the Constitution,” and “Of the Honor of the Nation as affected by the War with America.”

Yet the Fleets did not leave it at that.  They also composed their own address to the public, drawing attention to it with a manicule.  “This judicious and exceeding well wrote Pamphlet,” they reported, “was Published in London in March last and has had a very rapid Sale there.”  The arguments presented combined with the popularity of the pamphlet, the Fleets explained, “was thought would tend much to open the Eyes of the Nation.”  The pamphlet demonstrated that the American cause had supporters on the other side of the Atlantic, though its publication did not have as much impact on policy as the Fleets suggested that it deserved.  Despite that disappointment, the Fleets considered the pamphlet “well worthy the Perusal of every lover of Civil Liberty and good Government in America.”  That being the case, the Fleets sold copies of their Boston edition “at the moderate Price of one Shilling and six Pence each” instead of the “two Shillings Sterling” that printers in London charged for copied printed there.

During the years that they published the Boston Evening-Post before the battles at Lexington and Concord, the Fleets did not gain the same reputation for advocating for the American cause as Benjamin Edes and John Gill, the printers of the Boston-Gazette, and Isaiah Thomas, the printer of the Massachusetts Spy.  The outbreak of the war may have caused them to stake a stronger position, though they may have also aimed to generate revenue in a city that the British had occupied for nearly a year and departed only a few months earlier.  They followed their promotion of Price’s pamphlet with a reminder that they stocked “A few of that celebrated Pamphlet called COMMON SENSE,” another work embraced by the Patriots who remained in Boston after British forces and their Loyalist supporters evacuated from the city.  The Fleets collaborated with the Edes and Gill in publishing and selling Thomas Paine’s influential political pamphlet.  Even though their advertisement did not necessarily reveal their political principles, the Fleets sought to activate the political principles of their prospective customers to sell their Boston edition of Observations on the Nature of Civil Liberty, the Principle of Government, and the Justice and Policy of the War with America.

April 8

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

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

Boston-Gazette (April 8, 1776).

“TO-MORROW will be published … A NEW Edition of COMMON SENSE.”

The April 8, 1776, edition of the Boston-Gazette featured an update about the local edition of Thomas Paine’s Common Sense announced in the New-England Chronicle four days earlier.  On a Thursday, readers learned that “Next week will be PUBLISHED, and to be SOLD … in BOSTON, A New Edition of COMMON SENSE.”  The following Monday, an advertisement with a headline that proclaimed “COMMON SENSE” informed the public that “TO-MORROW will be published and sold … A NEW Edition of COMMON SENSE.”  In less than a week, the Boston edition went from in the press to in stock and for sale.

The new advertisement included a clarification about where readers could acquire copies: from “J. Gill, and T. and J. Fleet, in Boston, and B. Edes in Watertown.”  The previous version listed only Boston locations, though Benjamin Edes had relocated to Watertown to print the Boston-Gazette there throughout the siege of Boston.  Although the British departed on March 17, Edes and the Boston-Gazette remained in Watertown until the end of October.  Customers could purchase Common Sense from Edes in Watertown or from John Gill, his former partner in publishing the newspaper, in Boston.  In addition, Thomas Fleet and John Fleet, who had printed the Boston Evening-Post before it folded soon after the battles at Lexington and Concord, also sold Common Sense in Boston.

As the number of local editions of Common Sense proliferated in 1776, so did the number of advertisements promoting the popular political pamphlet and the number of newspapers disseminating advertisements about it.  The number of retailers who sold Common Sense also increased.  Although the printers in Boston and Watertown did not do so, others listed the price for a single copy and offered discounts for buying a dozen or more, encouraging booksellers, shopkeepers, and others to purchase copies to sell far and wide.  Counting the number of local editions of Common Sense demonstrates the popularity of the pamphlet compared to other political tracts published during the era of the American Revolution, yet that does not reveal the timing of their publication and sale to readers.  Advertisements for Common Sense, on the other hand, demonstrate when local editions became available to readers.

April 1

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

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

Boston-Gazette (April 1, 1776).

“AN ORATION … To Commemorate the Bloody Massacre at Boston: Perpetrated March 5, 1770.”

The annual tradition continued during the first year of the Revolutionary War.  Each year since the Boston Massacre, residents of the city gathered to mark the anniversary, honor the men who died when British regulars fired into a crowd of protestors, and hear an oration about the dangers of a standing army stationed in an urban port during times of peace.  James Lovell delivered the address in 1771, followed by Joseph Warren in 1772, Benjamin Church in 1773, and John Hancock in 1774.  In March 1775, Joseph Warren gave the last oration before the Revolutionary War commenced with the battles at Lexington and Concord on April 19.  Three months later, he was killed in action at the Battle of Bunker Hill.

Patriots made adjustments to the ritual in 1776.  The British occupation of Boston continued.  The Continental Army, commanded by George Washington, continued the siege of the city.  The Massachusetts Provincial Congress met at Watertown.  It was from there that William Cooper, the “Town Clerk of Boston” in exile, announced that according to a “vote in a town-meeting legally assembled” on March 5, 1775, “an ORATION will be delivered at the meeting-house, in Watertown, on the 5th of March next, … to commemorate the horrid Massacre perpetrated in Boston, on the evening of the 5th of March, 1770, by a party of Soldiers of the 29th Regiment, under the command of Capt. Thomas Preston.”  Refugees from Boston and the inhabitants of Watertown and other nearby towns gathered in Watertown for the annual oration about “the ruinous tendency of Standing armies being placed in large and populous cities, in time of peace.”  It was also a rally for asserting “the necessity of such exertions as the inhabitants of Boston then manifested, whereby the designs of the conspirators against the public safety, have been frustrated.”

Although circumstances forced those “who were inhabitants of Boston” to shift the location for the annual commemoration, other aspects remained constant, including the printing, marketing, and dissemination of the oration a few weeks after the gathering occurred.  This time, Peter Thacher delivered “AN ORATION … To Commemorate the Bloody Massacre at Boston: Perpetrated March 5, 1770.”  Benjamin Edes, who had relocated the Boston-Gazette from Boston to Watertown, printed the pamphlet and sold it at his printing office.  As had been the case with previous orations, this gave those who had been present an opportunity to experience Thacher’s address again and as many times as they wished to read it.  The pamphlet also gave those who had not attended a chance to read what Thacher said and imbibe the arguments made in support of the American cause.  Gathering for the oration was an important civic act, yet the circulation of the oration in print may have had an impact just as significant.

November 20

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Boston-Gazette (November 20, 1775).

“MILITARY INSTRUCTIONS for officers Detached in the Field.”

On November 20, 1775, Benjamin Edes, the printer of the Boston-Gazette, ran an advertisement for a military manual “JUST PUBLISHED, in Philadelphia,” and available at his printing office in Watertown.  The printer had relocated there shortly after the battles at Lexington and Concord, though he did not update the name of his newspaper.  He advertised an edition of Roger Stevenson’s Military Instructions for Officers Detached in the Field published by Robert Aitken.  Although the advertisement proclaimed that the book had been “JUST PUBLISHED,” another edition had been available in Philadelphia since June.  At the time that Aitken advertised it, he noted that “A new Edition of this Book, with some Additions, is now in the Press and will soon be published.”  That likely referred to the edition that Edes stocked, especially considering that the appeals in his advertisement paralleled the advertisement that Aitken published in the Pennsylvania Ledger in August.

Both advertisements opened with an announcement that the book had been published and where to acquire copies, followed by a note that this edition was “Dedicated to his Excellency GEORGE WASHINGTON, Esq; General and Commander in Chief of the Army of the United Colonies of North-America.”  Next, both advertisements commented on the material aspects of the book, noting the “fine Paper and a beautiful new Type” as well as the “12 useful Plates [or illustrations] of the Manœuvres.”  The price in the local currency followed, along with a comparison to the price of a bound London edition.”  As was so often the case in advertisements for books, all that preamble appeared before the title of the book.  Aitken’s much longer advertisement then presented an address “TO THE PUBLIC” drawn from the preface.  Edes did not devote that much space to his advertisement in the Boston-Gazette.  Instead, he inserted a quotation from Ovid: “Fas est et ab roste doceri” (It is right to be taught from the pulpit).  That phrase invoked Stevenson’s experience as a British officer.  Edes did not devise it on his own.  Instead, he borrowed it from the title page.  Overall, Edes did not generate original copy for his advertisement for a military manual printed in Philadelphia.  Instead, he borrowed heavily from Aitken’s advertisement, revising the location where customers could purchase the book and the price in local currency.  He also substituted the quotation on the title page for an excerpt from the preface but did not compose anything new for his advertisement.  The marketing for the book in the Boston-Gazette thus replicated the strategies that Aitken introduced in the public prints in Philadelphia months earlier.  He may even have dispatched a clipping of the advertisement with the copies he sent to Edes.

November 6

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

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

Boston-Gazette (November 6, 1775).

“The following books … are at present much wanted for the use of the students of Harvard College.”

Samuel Langdon, the president of Harvard College, issued a plea in the fall of 1775.  His students needed books!  As he explained in his advertisement in the November 6, 1775, edition of the Boston-Gazette, the college held classes in Concord while the siege of Boston continued … yet students could not acquire many of the texts that they needed because of “the unhappy interruption of communication” and trade with booksellers (and other purveyors of goods and services) in Boston.  Similarly, Benjamin Edes had moved the Boston-Gazette to Watertown following the battles at Lexington and Concord.

Langdon sought “a considerable number of copies” of “Burlamaqui on the principles of natural and political law, 2 vols. 8vo. Gravesend’s elements of natural philosophy, 2 vols. And Ferguson’s astronomy, 1 vol. 8vo.”  In specifying both the number of volumes and the size (“8vo” or octavo) of the books, Langdon made clear that the college preferred certain editions.  He reported that others “suggested” to him “that some copies of said books might be dispersed in the libraries of such private gentlemen” who did not have immediate use for them and thus might be willing to “part with them” to “promote the interest of literature” among the youth attending Harvard College.

Langdon requested that “such gentleman” who did have those books “send any such copies, as soon as may be … with the prices marked.”  They could “depend on receiving their money immediately, or that the books will be returned unused.”  Langdon understood that some readers might not wish to part with volumes from their personal libraries.  Alternately, he suggested that that it would “much oblige the college” if they would loan those volumes “for a few months.”  With classes continuing despite the disruptions caused by the outbreak of hostilities at Lexington and Concord the previous spring, Langdon engaged in an eighteenth-century version of crowdsourcing in his effort to procure books for his students.  The college survived a fire in its library a decade earlier, requesting donations of books to recover.  Now Harvard faced other obstacles and once again turned to the public to provide the books that the college needed.

October 30

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Boston-Gazette (October 30, 1775).

“He pays cash for all kinds of homespun cloths.”

Enoch Brown, a shopkeeper, had a history of promoting domestic manufactures (or goods made in the colonies) as alternative to items imported from Britain.  In the spring of 1768, for instance, he ran an advertisement alerting “those Persons who are desirous of Promoting our Own Manufactures … That he takes in all Sorts of Country-made Cloths at his Store on Boston Neck.”  In the wake of learning about duties levied on certain imported goods in the Townshend Revenue Act, many colonizers set about organizing nonimportation agreements.  They simultaneously embraced goods produced locally as a means of supporting the colonial economy and correcting a trade imbalance with Britain.  Several years later, Brown ran another advertisement with similar themes in January 1775.  Bearing the headline “American Manufacture,” that notice emphasized that the variety of textiles Brown stocked “were manufactured in this Province, and are equal in quality to any, and superior to most imported from England, and much cheaper than can be produced from any part of Europe.”

Although Brown had been at the same location for years, he departed Boston for Watertown following the battles at Lexington and Concord.  That presented challenges for both Brown and his customers, so “for greater Conveniency” he once again moved, this time to “Little-Cambridge” in the fall of 1775.  When he opened his shop, he advertised a “Variety of Winter Goods” for the coming season as well as “sagathees, duroys, camblets,” and other textiles “of American manufacture, which he sells extreme cheap.”  Customers could acquire any of those for low prices, despite the disruptions taking place as the siege of Boston continued.  Committed to giving consumers choices that matched their political principles, Brown sought new merchandise made locally.  In a nota bene at the end of his advertisement, he declared that he “pays cash for all kinds of homespun cloths.”  In so doing, he filled the role of intermediary between producers and consumers, giving both the opportunity to support the American cause.  After all, the Continental Association devised by the First Continental Congress did not merely instruct consumers to cease purchasing imported goods but also called on colonizers to “encourage Frugality, Economy, and Industry; and promote Agriculture, Arts, and the Manufactures of this Country.”  As a shopkeeper who bought and sold homespun cloth, Brown did his part.

September 18

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Boston-Gazette (September 18, 1775).

“AN Assortment of Homespun Manufacture.”

It was a short advertisement, just four lines in the September 18, 1775, edition of the Boston-Gazette, but it spoke volumes about the times in which the advertiser placed it and colonizers read it.  “AN Assortment of Homespun Manufacture, suitable for the season,” the notice announced, “to be sold Cheap.  Inquire of OLIVER MONROE, Taylor, near the Bridge in Watertown.”  Even before the battles at Lexington and Concord marked a new chapter in the imperial crisis, homespun cloth became a symbol of resistance to British abuses, especially duties on imported goods imposed by Parliament.  Over the past decade, colonizers had participated in a series of boycotts, first to protest the Stamp Act in 1765, then in response to the Townshend Acts in the late 1760s, and again when they learned of the Coercive Acts in 1774.  Each time, consumers opted for homespun cloth produced in the colonies as an alternative to textiles imported from England.

At the time that Monroe ran his advertisement, the Continental Association remained in place.  It had gone nine months earlier.  In addition to prohibiting merchants and shopkeepers from selling goods received after December 1, 1774, it called on colonizers to “promote Agriculture, Arts, and the Manufactures of this Country.”  That included purchasing homespun rather than the “Fine assortment” of imported textiles, ranging from corduroys to striped hollands to cambrics, listed in a longer advertisement that appeared in the same column as Monroe’s short notice.  Monroe did not need to invest much effort in marketing his “Homespun Manufacture” because the times spoke for themselves.  Prospective customers already recognized the political significance of the choices they made in the marketplace.  That they read his advertisement in the Boston-Gazette, now published in Watertown as the siege of Boston continued, only underscored the importance of practicing politics when they went shopping.