Breeches

March 4

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update, Guest Contribution , , , , , , ,

GUEST CURATOR:  Ethan Sawyer

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

Norwich Packet (March 4, 1776).

“All Sorts of Doe and Buck-Skin Breeches.”

This advertisement announced the arrival of John Saltmarsh, a “LEATHER BREECHES MAKER” from London.  He offered to make breeches for anyone who needed them in Norwich, Connecticut.  He uses both doe and buckskin and made them fit properly.  He also promised they would fit well, offering to “make them fit properly, or demand nothing for his trouble.” This sounds confusing, but it was the equivalent of modern lawyers only asking for a payment if they win.  Saltmarsh was that confident in his ability to make new breeches or alterations that pleased his customers.

I was not sure what “breeches” were when I first read this advertisement.  From an interview with historian Kate Haulman in Vox, I learned that breeches are a kind of pants made distinctive through the wrappings that tighten them just below the knees.  Some had buttons or buckles, but for a cheaper option some just had simple ties to hold them in place.  They were fashionable, which was one reason Saltmarsh said that he was “from London,” but that was not the only way he tried to convince customers to buy breeches from him.  He also focused on service, promising the work to be done with “one Day’s Notice” or else he will compensate the customer for the inconvenience.  He even said, “he will pay for their trouble of coming after them.”  Overall, Saltmarsh ran an honest business. He focused on not only making a good product that fits the needs of each customer, but also on a timetable that works for them.

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ADDITIONAL COMMENTARY:  Carl Robert Keyes

One of my favorite parts of having students in my upper-level early American history courses serve as guest curators for the Adverts 250 Project is observing their sense of wonder and discovery as they encounter everyday life in the eighteenth century for the first time.  That starts with each student compiling an archive that consists of one week of newspapers published during the era of the American Revolution.  Those newspapers look familiar, but they also have significant difference compared to modern newspapers … and not just the long “s” that looks so strange to novice researchers.  The purposes of some advertisements surprise them, such as what are today known as “runaway wife” advertisements in which husbands made public proclamations that they would not pay any expenses incurred by the unruly women who abandoned their household responsibilities (and that gives us a chance to discuss both coverture and the perspectives of the wives who did not have ready access to the public prints).  Students also encounter consumer goods commonly advertised in early America that are not familiar to them, such as andirons and “AMERICAN CAKE-INK.”  Breeches also fall in that category.  Ethan was not the only student enrolled in my senior seminar in Fall 2025 who included an entry on breeches in the advertising portfolio he created throughout the semester.

In addition to seeing fresh perspectives on consumer goods, I am always interested to see which advertisements draw the attention of my students because they usually select different advertisements to examine as guest curators than I would if I produced that entry of the Adverts 250 Project on my own.  I would have skipped over “JOHN SALTMARSH, LEATHER BREECHES MAKER, FROM LONDON,” in favor of the two advertisements for Thomas Paine’s Common Sense that appeared in the March 4, 1776, edition of the Norwich Packet, advertisements even more notable because the printers also included “EXTRACTS FROM A PAMPHLET ENTITLED, COMMON SENSE.”  Perhaps they previewed the pamphlet for the edification of their readers, though they likely also hoped to incite greater demand for sales of the pamphlet at their printing office.  This helps make a point that I underscore in all my courses: the stories that historians tell about the past depend on the sources they consult and, among those, which they choose to examine in greater detail.  Ethan and I both chose advertisements that illuminate the past, though different advertisements engaged our curiosity.  Elsewhere in his advertising portfolio, Ethan examined other advertisements from other newspapers.  Considered together, his advertisements looked at many aspects of consumer culture, commerce, politics, and everyday life during the first year of the Revolutionary War.  They included an advertisement for a riding manual “for gentlemen of every rank and profession,” an advertisement for pig iron, an advertisement for an assortment of books and pamphlets for supporters of the American cause, … and an advertisement for a local edition of Common Sense that appeared in the March 1 edition of the Connecticut Gazette.  When we perused that newspaper, Ethan and I selected the same advertisement!

January 18

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Connecticut Courant (January 18, 1774).

“He employs Workmen who manufacture the Leather in the best Manner.”

Stephen Austin sold “Buck-Skin Breeches” as well as “dress’d Deer Skins, and Shammy Leather” at his shop “South of the Court House” in Hartford.  In an advertisement that he placed in the January 18, 1774, edition of the Connecticut Courant, he not only highlighted the quality of his products but also the skill of those who labored in his shop.  Austin informed prospective customers that he “employs Workmen who manufacture the Leather in the best Manner.”  Among his competitors, Cotton Murray, a tailor, also ran an advertisement in the Connecticut Courant.  The tailor focused primarily on the services that he performed, but also added a nota bene about an employee who dressed leather.  Murray declared that he “carries on Leather Breeches making in all its branches, has a quantity of Leather of the best kind, and has employed a Workman in that business who serv’d his time in Europe.”

Both Austin and Murray promoted contributions that employees made to their businesses.  Artisans often relied on various assistants, whether employees, apprentices, or family members, but such workers did not regularly appear in newspaper advertisements.  Instead, the proprietors personified their shops, especially in an era that most businesses did not have names.  Austin’s shop, for instance, did not have a name.  Instead, his own name and one of the products he sold appeared as headlines.  For Murray, it was his name and occupation in the headlines.  Even artisans who ran shops identified by signs, like Daniel King, a brass founder “At the Sign of the Bell and Brand” in Philadelphia, deployed their own names rather than the sign that doubled as a shop’s name in the headlines of their advertisements.  Such methods emphasized work undertaken by the proprietor while obscuring the labor of others in a shop.  Artisans often considered such name recognition the best strategy for building their own reputations and the reputations of their businesses, but occasionally some of them saw benefits in marketing the skills of their employees.  Austin and Murray both hoped that doing so would help convince customers to select them over their competitors.

October 16

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

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

Connecticut Courant (October 16, 1770).

“They have a Number of Pairs of Breeches already made.”

In the fall of 1770, the partnership of Converse and Stone, “Breeches Makers, at the Sign of the Breeches in Hartford,” took to the pages of the Connecticut Courant to inform “Gentlemen” that they had set up shop.  They told prospective clients that pursued “the Business of Breeches Making in all its Branches,” intending for that short phrase to provide assurances that they possessed all of the necessary skills of the trade and that they could construct breeches in a variety of styles according to the tastes and budgets of their customers.

In a nota bene, Converse and Stone asked potential clients to take note that they “have a Number of Pairs of Breechesalready made, together with skins of the neatest Kind, so that Gentlemen may suit themselves.”  The breeches makers catered to their customers.  Although they could measure clients and construct new garments for those who desired such services, Converse and Stone also offered the convenience of an eighteenth-century version of buying off the rack.  They already made and had on hand an inventory of breeches for men who wished to acquire them in a single visit to the shop. They adopted business practices and a marketing strategy similar to those that Thomas Hewitt, a wigmaker in Annapolis, described in his advertisement running in the Maryland Gazette at the same time.  Hewitt also promoted both custom-made items and “ready made” alternatives.

For those gentlemen who preferred custom-made breeches, Converse and Stone had “Skins of the neatest Kind” that they could examine and choose what suited them when they came to the shop for measurements.  In that case, their breeches were tailor-made in a collaboration between the breeches makers and individual patrons.  The clients expressed their tastes and preferences and Converse and Stone supplied the skill to create the garments envisioned and commissioned by their customers.  In their advertisement, the breeches makers balanced consumer choice and convenience against their abilities and expertise in their trade.

December 30

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

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

dec-30-12301766-south-carolina-gazette-and-country-journal
South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal (December 30, 1766).

“Those who … left Breeches to clean, are requested to call for them.”

Most advertisements for consumer goods and services attempted to convince potential customers to make purchases, to participate in the consumer revolution taking place around them. On occasion, however, shopkeepers and artisans placed advertisements requesting that customers actually take possession of the goods that belonged to them. Two such advertisements appeared in the December 30, 1766, issue of the South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal.

In the first, Alexander Caddell, a “Breeches-maker and Glover,” announced that he planned to return to London. He called on business associates and former customers to settle their accounts, but he also informed anyone who “left Skins to be manufactured for Breeches” to retrieve them. Similarly, those who “left Breeches to clean” had two months to pick them up. Otherwise, Caddell planned to sell them.

dec-30-12301766-advert-2-south-carolina-gazette-and-country-journal
South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal (December 30, 1766).

In another advertisement, Edward Weyman noted that he had “in his Possession sundry Looking-Glasses belonging to different Persons” who had entrusted him with silvering them. He called on the owners to “pay the Charges” and “take them away.” Like Caddell, he threatened to sell them, though he allowed six months, rather than two, for the owners to recover their property from his shop.

In both cases, the advertisers had provided services but presumably had not yet been paid. Selling items that had been abandoned by their owners, after giving sufficient notice that they planned to do so, became a method for receiving payment for their services through a different means.

This situation also illuminates one of the convoluted routes for delivering goods to consumers. Many eighteenth-century advertisements featured new goods that moved along a simple path from producer to retailer to consumer. The breeches that Caddell threatened to sell and the looking glasses that Weyman threatened to sell, however, did not traverse such a simple trajectory. Instead, these used goods had multiple owners, multiple sellers, and rather complicated provenances. The consumer revolution occurred not only because buyers and sellers valued and exchanged new goods but also because they developed markets for used wares, sometimes as an expediency when the original owners neglected to reclaim possessions left in the care of shopkeepers and artisans.