Connecticut Gazette

September 17

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

Connecticut Gazette (September 15, 1775).

“Excellent Accommodations for Passengers.”

In the early months of the Revolutionary War, colonizers who needed to travel between Norwich and New London had an option other going by road between the two towns.  They could instead book passage on “BRADDICK’s NORWICH and NEW-LONDON PASSAGE-BOAT,” according to John Braddick’s advertisement in the September 15, 1775, edition of the Connecticut Gazette.  He offered that service “every Day in the Week, Wind and Weather permitting,” though his advertisement did not specify the time that the boat departed from each town.  Presumably it left Norwich in the morning, sailed about fifteen miles down the Thames River to New London on the coast, remained there for a few hours, and returned in the late afternoon before darkness arrived.  Prospective passengers could get more information from Braddick at his house near Chelsea Landing in Norwich or at the London Coffee House in New London.

Connecticut Gazette (September 15, 1775).

The same issue also carried an advertisement for “Henry Bates’s New-London and New-Haven Passage Boat.”  His service ran weekly rather than daily, transporting passengers over a much longer distance.  Despite the name in the advertisement, Bates’s passage boat actually originated in Norwich on Mondays and remained in New London overnight, departing for New Haven on Tuesdays.  The boat departed for the return trip through the Long Island Sound on Thursdays, though Bates did not indicate whether it arrived in New Haven on Tuesdays or Wednesdays or when it made its stop in New London.  He did state that his service depended on “Wind and Weather.”  Prospective customers could learn more “at Mr. Eliott’s, at the Town Wharf” in New London and “at Mr. Thatcher’s, at the Long-Wharf” in New Haven.

Newspaper advertisements advised readers of the transportation infrastructure that linked cities and towns in the colonies.  Most such advertisements promoted stage services, but along the Connecticut coastline travelers had other options.  Both Bates and Braddick emphasized the “excellent Accommodations” they provided for passengers, attempting to convince them that passage boats offered the most comfortable as well as the fastest way to travel from one town to another.

August 4

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Connecticut Gazette (August 4, 1775).

“Thomas Tileston, HAT-MAKER from BOSTON.”

Thomas Tileston, a hatmaker, ran an advertisement in the Connecticut Gazette for several weeks in the summer and early fall of 1775.  He published it to inform prospective customers that “he has taken a Shop In WINDHAM, … Where he intends the carrying on his Business in all its Branches.”  He currently had in stock the “Best of Beaver, Beaverett, Castor and Felt HATS.”  Tileston promised exemplary customer service, asserting that they “may depend on the best Usage” and promising to undertake all orders “with Fidelity and Dispatch.”

As a newcomer to the area, Tileston introduced himself as a “HAT-MAKER from BOSTON.”  Advertisers often indicated where they previously conducted business or received their training, but this detail had new significance.  Tileston’s arrival in Windham coincided with the outbreak of hostilities at Lexington and Concord and the ensuing siege of Boston. General Thomas Gage, the governor, and the Massachusetts Provincial Congress negotiated an agreement that permitted Loyalists to enter the city and Patriots and others to depart.  After enduring the closure of the harbor a year earlier via to the Boston Port Act and the hardships that resulted, Tileston may have decided to take what might have been his last opportunity to leave the city and establish himself elsewhere before the situation deteriorated even more.  Windham was certainly a small town compared to Boston, yet Tileston did not merely suggest that he brought an elevated sense of fashion with him.  He likely expected that readers might consider him a refugee and hoped that they would believe that he merited support from consumers in his new town.

Given the stakes, Tileston went to additional lengths to draw attention to his advertisement.  A border composed of printing ornaments enclosed his notice, distinguishing it from other advertisements that appeared in the Connecticut Gazette.  Week after week, Tileston’s notice had that distinctive feature, making it easy for readers to spot.  The hatmaker would have had to make special arrangements with the printer for his advertisement to receive such treatment.  Perhaps he even had to pay more for it.  Tileston apparently considered it worth the investment as he sought to establish his business in a new town.

June 30

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

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

Connecticut Gazette (June 30, 1775).

“A Person from Boston … will teach … the several Hands now in Practice.”

A “Person from Boston” sought to open a school in southwestern Connecticut in the summer of 1775.  He placed an advertisement in the Connecticut Gazette in hopes of reaching prospective pupils and their families, stating that he would commence instruction in New Haven “or any of the neighbouring Towns” if a sufficient number of “Scholars” signed up for lessons.  In addition to reading and arithmetic, he taught “the several Hands now in Practice, both Useful and Ornamental,” including “Round Hand, Roman Print, Italic Print, Italian Hand, Old English Print, and German Text.”

The schoolmaster did not give his name, instead merely identifying himself as a “Person from Boston, who was educated by one of the most eminent School-Masters in that Place.”  He asked that those “who may incline to favor and promote this Undertaking … leave their Names with the Printer” of the Connecticut Gazette.  Timothy Green, the printer, likely did more than keep a list of names of interested students.  He served as a surrogate for the anonymous schoolmaster.  Even though residents of New Haven and the vicinity did not know the “Person from Boston,” they did know Green and could ask him for his impressions of the man, whether he seemed reputable and capable of the instruction he proposed. Furthermore, the unnamed schoolmaster left “A Specimen of the above Person’s Performance, in the several Hands mentioned” at the printing office “for the Inspection of any Person who may incline the forward the Undertaking.”  Anyone who visited the printing office for that purpose could chat with Green about the “Person from Boston” as they examined the “Specimen.”

They might have learned that he was a refugee from Boston who left the city following the battles at Lexington and Concord.  When the siege of Boston commenced, Governor Thomas Gage and the Massachusetts Provincial Congress negotiated an agreement that allowed Loyalists to enter the city and Patriots and others to depart.  Other refugees from Boston resorted to newspapers advertisements to attract customers and clients after taking up residence in new towns.  It may have been a similar situation for the “Person from Boston” who found himself in New Haven at the beginning of the Revolutionary War.

June 11

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Connecticut Gazette (June 9, 1775).

“SEIZE the ROGUE!”

Most articles in eighteenth-century newspapers did not have headlines.  Considering that most issues consisted of only four pages and most newspapers were published just once a week, printers did not have the space to include short summaries of the content.  They expected subscribers and others would engage in practices of intensive reading, working their way through the articles, letters, and other “intelligence” that appeared in their newspapers.  Some regular features did have headlines, such as “THOMAS ALLEN’s Marine List” and the “POET’S CORNER” in the Connecticut Gazette, but most articles did not.

Advertisers, on the other hand, sometimes devised headlines for the notices they paid to insert in early American newspapers.  Quite often their names served as the headline.  Such as the case for an advertisement placed by Nathan Bushnell, Jr., in the June 9, 1775, edition of the Connecticut Gazette.  He ran the same advertisement in the New-England Chronicle, deploying the name of the service he provided, “CONSTITUTIONAL POST,” as a secondary headline.  Elsewhere in the Connecticut Gazette, an advertisement intended to raise funds for “Building a Meeting-House, for Public Worship” in Stonington deployed a headline to inform readers that it contained the “Scheme of a LOTTERY” that listed the number of tickets and the available prizes.

John Holbrook of Pomfret intended to attract attention with the headline for his advertisement: “SEIZE the ROGUE!”  Holbrook explained that a “noted thief” had stolen various items from his house during the night of April 28, 1775.  He described “a large silver WATCH with a silver-twist chain, a clarat colour’d coat lately let out at the sides and at the outsides of the sleeves, a jacket near the same colour, both of them lined, … [and] a psalm book with the names of Asa Sharper and Caleb Sharpe in it,” along with other pilfered items.  Holbrook offered a reward to “Whoever brings said villain … with the above articles” or a smaller reward for just “the said thief without the articles.”  Given the amount of time that had passed, there was a good chance that the thief had fenced or sold the stolen items, giving some colonizers greater access to consumer culture through what Serena Zabin has termed an informal economy.  Whatever the fate of the watch, coat, and psalm book, Holbrook used a lively headline to increase the chances that readers would take note of his advertisement.  He did so at a time that editors and others employed in printing offices did not yet craft headlines for most of the news they published.

March 10

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

Connecticut Gazette (March 10, 1775).

“Please to make your Cloth suitable … and not expect a Silk Purse to be made of a Sow’s Ear.”

As spring approached in 1775, Nathaniel Wollys, “Silk-Dyer and Clothier,” took to the pages of the Connecticut Gazetteto advise the public that “he carries on the Clothing-Business” in “several Branches.”  Those included “fulling, colouring, shearing, pressing and dressing of Bays, Fustian, Ratteen and Bearskin,” dying “Cotton and linnen Yarn blue,” “dy[ing] and dress[ing] Silks of all Kinds,” and “tak[ing] out Colours, Spots or Stains of any Kind.”  Colonizers certainly knew the differences among the various textiles Wollys named, even if they are now unfamiliar to most consumers in the twenty-first century.  Like other advertisers who provided services, Wollys emphasized both his own engagement with customers, his “Fidelity and Dispatch,” and the quality of his work, done in “the neatest and best Manner.”

However, the fuller appended a lively nota bene that reminded prospective customers to have reasonable expectations for what he could accomplish with the textiles they delivered to his mill for treatment or cleaning.  Some feats were beyond the skills of any clothier, no matter how experienced.  “Please to make your Cloth suitable for the Work you intend it for,” Wollys bluntly instructed, “and not expect a Silk Purse to be made of a Sow’s Ear.”  Perhaps he reacted to customers who had recently expressed displeasure or dissatisfaction with the finished product, seeking to set the terms for new clients before they hired his services.  If that was the case, former customers may have given voice to the frustration they experienced as they participated in boycotts of imported fabrics and substituted homespun textiles.  While using such cloth became a mark of distinction permeated with political meaning, garments and other items made from homespun were not of the same quality as those made from imported textiles.  Even as consumers made sacrifices in support of their political principles, some of Wollys’s customers may have transferred their disappointment in not having access to the same finery to the clothier who processed the cloth that they increasingly incorporated into their everyday routines.  Wollys could accomplish a lot when he treated cloth “in the neatest and best Manner,” yet clients also needed to be realistic about the anticipated outcomes.

January 20

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , ,

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

Connecticut Gazette (January 20, 1775).

“To be sold … agreeable to the tenth Article of the Association … Apothecaries Drugs.”

On January 12, 1775, the Committee of Inspection for Norwich, Connecticut, placed an advertisement for an upcoming sale of “three Chests and six Casks of Apothecary’s Drugs” that would be held on January 20 in the Norwich Packet.  They ran the notice again a week later, this time stating that the sale would take place on January 24.  That allowed four more days for word of the sale to circulate and attract prospective customers.  It also made possible advertising in the January 20 edition of the Connecticut Gazette, published in New London.

The advertisement specified that the local Committee of Inspection would oversee that sale “at the Town-House in Norwich … agreeable to the tenth Article of the Association of the American Continental Congress.”  That nonimportation, nonconsumption, and nonexportation agreement had been disseminated far wide in the months since the meetings of the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia concluded at the end of October 1774.  The tenth article made provisions for imported goods that arrived in the colonies between December 1, 1774, and February 1, 1775.  The importers had three options.  They could either return the goods, surrender them to the local Committee of Inspection to store until the boycott ended, or entrust them to the committee to sell.  After the sale, the committee reimbursed the importer what they paid for the goods, but applied any profits to relief of Boston where the harbor had been closed to commerce since the Boston Port Act went into effect on June 1, 1774.

The tenth article of the Continental Association also called for “a particular Account [to be] inserted in the publick Papers.”  When the Committee of Inspection for Norwich advertised the sale of “Apothecaries Drugs, Imported in the ship Lady Gage, from London, via New-York, since the first of December last” in both the Norwich Packet and the Connecticut Gazette, they did more than address prospective customers.  They also kept the public throughout the region that the two newspapers circulated updated on compliance with the Continental Association, encouraging others to abide by it as well.

December 16

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Connecticut Gazette (December 16, 1774).

“Embellish’d with an Engraving of the patriotic Bishop of ST. ASAPH.”

With a new year only weeks away, advertisements for almanacs appeared in newspapers throughout the colonies in December 1774.  Most printers who published newspapers also produced almanacs as an alternate revenue stream, joined by other printers who supported themselves by performing job printing.  Consumers had an array of choices when they selected their almanacs for the coming year.

As a result, printers often marketed the contents of their almanacs, emphasizing anything that made them distinctive.  When Timothy Green, the printer of the Connecticut Gazette, advertised “DABOLL’s New-England ALMANACK For the Year 1775,” he indicated that it included the “usual Calculations” as a well as a “Variety of other Matter, both useful and entertaining.”  He emphasized a particular item: “the celebrated SPEECH of the Rev’d Doct. JONATHAN SHIPLEY, Lord Bishop of St. ASAPH; intended to have been spoken on the Bill for altering the Charter of the Province of Massachusetts-Bay; but want of Time or some other Circumstance, prevented his delivering it in the House of Lords.”  Shipley had gained acclaim in the colonies because he had been the only bishop in the Church of England who expressed opposition to the Massachusetts Government Act when Parliament considered how to respond to the Boston Tea Party.  When he did not have a chance to deliver the speech, he opted to publish it instead.

Though Shipley’s speech had little impact in England, the colonizers greeted it warmly.  Several newspapers published the speech, printers advertised pamphlets containing the speech, and Green devoted twelve of the thirty-two pages of Daboll’s New-England Almanack to the speech, anticipating that doing so would entice customers.  Furthermore, he “Embellished [the almanac] with an Engraving of the patriotic Bishop of ST. ASAPH” on the front cover.  Each time readers consulted any of the contents, they glimpsed the bishop whether or not they also read any portion of his speech.  Green advertised Daboll’s New-England Almanack at the same time he promoted his own edition of “The PROCEEDINGS and RESOLUTIONS of The Continental Congress,” joining other printers in producing and disseminating an array of items related to current events and, especially, making a case against the abuses perpetrated by Parliament.

Daboll’s New-England Almanack, For the Year 1775 (New London: Timothy Green, 1774). Courtesy Freeman’s | Hindman.

December 9

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Connecticut Gazette (December 9, 1774).

“Glass buttons having the word liberty printed in them.”

The headline for David Yeaman’s advertisement in the December 9, 1774, edition of the Connecticut Gazette alerted readers that it would document some sort of misbehavior.  “Seize the Rogue,” it proclaimed.  The rogue “broke open” Yeamans’s house and stole several items on November 28.  They included clothing, a “check’d red and white silk handkerchief,” a razor, and “sundry sorts of provisions.”  The unfortunate advertiser offered a reward to whoever apprehended the thief.

Yeamans’s descriptions of the missing garments revealed his taste and sartorial sensibilities.  The thief took a “snuff coloured strait-bodied coat well lin’d and trimm’d with mohair buttons,” a “scarlet waitcoast well lin’d and trimm’d with yellow gilt buttons” that showed very little wear, a “black double-breasted waistcoat considerably worn,” and a “striped blue and white cotton waistcoat lappell’d and trim’d with glass buttons.”  That last piece of clothing testified to more than Yeamans’s sense of fashion. It also said something about his politics and how he felt about the imperial crisis that had been intensifying for the year since the Boston Tea Party.  Those glass buttons had “the word liberty printed in them.”  Yeamans made a statement every time he wore the striped waistcoat adorned with those buttons.

This advertisement, printed immediately below entries from the “CUSTOM-HOUSE, New-LONDON,” and other shipping news in “THOMAS ALLEN’s MARINE LIST,” provided additional coverage of local news, though selected by an advertiser who paid to have it appear in print rather than by the editor who compiled “Fresh Advices from London!” and reports from Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Hartford.  At first glance, it featured a theft, yet the details about one of the stolen garments prompted readers to think about the contents of the articles and editorials in that issue, including discussion of the Continental Association adopted by the First Continental Congress and the impact of the Boston Port Bill on residents of that city.  Those buttons with “the word liberty printed in them” contributed to discussions about politics when Yeamans wore his waistcoat and when he advertised its theft.

December 2

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Connecticut Gazette (December 2, 1774).

“All the Proceedings of the AMERICAN CONGRESS.”

Among the several advertisements that ran in the December 2, 1774, edition of the Connecticut Gazette, a brief notice announced that “All the Proceedings of the AMERICAN CONGRESS, which have yet been printed” were “sold by the Printer hereof.”  That expanded the options that readers had for learning more about the meetings held by the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia from September 5 through October 26.  The Connecticut Gazette and other newspapers provided coverage.  In addition, printers throughout the colonies began publishing, advertising, and selling Extracts from the Votes and Proceedings of the American Continental Congress shortly after delegates concluded their business.  Within a month, William Bradford and Thomas Bradford advertised a “JOURNAL OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE CONGRESS,” an even more complete account to keep colonizers informed about current events.

Timothy Green, the printer of the Connecticut Gazette, was among the printers who produced a local edition of the Extracts, yet when he advertised “All the Proceedings … which have yet been printed” he did not refer to a volume from his own press.  Although printers far and wide quickly created and marketed local editions of the Extracts, only a couple opted to print the more extensive Journal.  The Bradfords advertised their Philadelphia edition.  Hugh Gaine, the printer of the New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury, printed the only other edition.  Green likely sold Gaine’s edition at his printing office in New Haven, given the proximity of that town to New York, though the Bradfords could have dispatched copies via a ship bound from Philadelphia to New England.  No matter which printer supplied Green with copies of the Proceedings, he advertised the journal of the meetings of the First Continental Congress to readers in Connecticut a little over a week after the Bradfords first promoted their edition in the Pennsylvania Journal.  He did so the day after the Continental Association, a nonimportation pact intended to unite the colonies in resisting the Coercive Acts, went into effect.  As readers made decisions about what they would buy and sell, Green presented them with another option for learning about the political principles behind the Continental Association and the other actions taken by the First Continental Congress.

September 9

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Connecticut Gazette (September 9, 1774).

“CONSIDERATIONS on the Measures carrying on by GREAT BRITAIN, against the Colonies in North-America.”

As the number of American editions of Considerations on the Measures Carrying On with Respect to the British Colonies in North-America increased in 1774, so did the number of newspapers that carried advertisements for the political tract.  John Holt, the printer of the New-York Journal, advertised his edition.  Benjamin Edes and John Gill, the printers of the Boston-Gazette, did so as well for their edition.  Ebenezer Watson, printer of the Connecticut Courant, ran his own advertisement when he published a Hartford edition.  Yet it was not solely the printers of the various American editions who advertised or sold the popular pamphlet.  Watson listed local agents in eight towns and two post riders who sold his edition.  David Atwater advertised the New York edition for sale in New Haven in the Connecticut Journal.

Timothy Green, printer of the Connecticut Gazette, joined their ranks with an advertisement in the September 9, 1774, edition of his newspaper.  That made the pamphlet available for purchase in New London in addition to other towns in New England and New York.  Compared to the other advertisements, however, Green’s notice was quite brief, just three lines that completed the column following “THOMAS ALLEN’S Marine List,” a regular feature, on the third page.  “TO BE SOLD by T. GREEN, CONSIDERATIONS on the Measures carrying on by GREAT BRITAIN, against the Colonies in North-America.”  Green did not provide any of the elaborate description about how well the pamphlet had been received in London and how it had influenced residents there to support the American colonies against the abuses perpetrated by Parliament, nor did he encourage readers to review it for themselves so they could be better informed.  Perhaps he expected that the news he printed throughout the rest of his newspaper and the conversations about current events taking place everywhere anyone went those days provided enough reason for colonizers to acquire the pamphlet.  He also did not state which edition he sold, though the variant title in his advertisement suggests that he carried Watson’s Hartford edition.  In stocking and promoting the pamphlet, Green joined printers, post riders, and others in disseminating a political tract intended to influence colonizers and help them in articulating their grievances against Parliament.