Endorsement of Successor

April 6

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

Essex Journal (April 6, 1774).

“The business will be carried on as usual by his sons.”

In the spring of 1774, Patrick Tracy of Newburyport, Massachusetts, ran an advertisement in the Essex Journal to request those he owed money to call on him to settle accounts because he had “quitted the business he has been in of late years.”  Only after that did the conscientious entrepreneur also instruct “all who are indebted to him … to make speedy payment, more especially those whose debts have been long standing.”  Tracy made what he owed his priority, signaling how he did business and suggesting to current and prospective customers that they could expect similar treatment from his sons who carried on the business.  Tracy considered that business well enough known that he did not indicate his occupation.

His sons, however, revealed that they “have taken the business lately carried on by their honoured father” and “carry on the distillery as usual” in an advertisement that conveniently appeared immediately below Tracy’s notice in the April 6 edition of the Essex Journal.  Their father deployed more subtle means in attempting to pass along his clientele to his sons, while they instead emphasized their desire for “the continuance of his good customers and the custom of all others.”  The elder Tracy established a reputation during his many years in business.  His sons hoped to benefit from the customer loyalty their father had cultivated, asserting a “mutual advantage” for all involved.

To that end, they also made clear that they put the interests of their customers and associates first.  In addition to operating the distillery “as usual,” they also stocked “an assortment of English Goods, which they will sell by wholesale upon reasonable terms, and so as to afford a profit to the purchaser.”  Though they intended to make money on those transactions, the distillers associated “profit” with their customers who purchased imported goods from them, reversing the usual relationship between sellers and buyers.  Shopkeepers and others who purchased those items to sell retail would acquire them at low enough prices that Jackson, Tracy, and Tracy practically guaranteed that they could in turn offer such bargains that retail customers would purchase their wares.

In their newspaper advertisements, Tracy and his sons carefully choreographed his departure from the family business and their role in continuing its operations.  They sought to maintain and even expand the existing clientele by emphasizing certain principles, including paying what they owed to associates and selling merchandise at such “reasonable terms” that everyone involved benefited from the transactions.

February 28

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Boston Evening-Post (February 28, 1774).

“I the Subscriber intend leaving off the Baking Business very soon.”

“The Baking Business will be carried on as usual by the Subscriber.”

Mary Surcomb and William Flagg worked together in placing advertisements in the February 28, 1774, edition of the Boston Evening-Post.  Surcomb took to the pages of that newspaper to advise the public that she “intend[s] leaving off the Baking Business very soon.”  She wished to express her “hearty Thanks to those Gentlemen and Ladies who have favoured me with the Custom since my late Husband’s decease.”  She had not previously advertised her services in any of Boston’s newspapers, though she had placed estate notices in both the Boston-Gazette and the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter following the death of her husband in the fall of 1773.[1]  Those notices indicated that Richard had been a baker as well.  As widows in early America often did, Surcomb continued operating the family business.  In Williamsburg, for instance, Clementina Rind printed the Virginia Gazette after her husband passed away in August 1773, about the same time that Surcomb’s husband died.  For Surcomb, assuming responsibility for the business may have been an extension of her previous responsibilities.  She likely assisted her husband in all kinds of ways, including baking and interacting with customers.

Surcomb appended a nota bene to her advertisement, informing readers that the “Business will be carried on as usual by Mr. William Flagg.  Perhaps Flagg had previously been affiliated with the business as an employee and continued working with the widow.  Whatever his history with the Surcombs, Flagg took over their business and aimed, with Mary’s blessing, to maintain their clientele.  In his own note, he declared that “the Baking Business will be carried on as usual by the Subscriber, who is determined to give universal Satisfaction.”  Rather than the full line that separated other paid notices from each other, a half line demarcated where Surcomb’s portion of the advertisement ended and Flagg’s portion began.  Visually, the format presented a narrative consistent with the copy.  Surcomb and Flagg carefully communicated the transition from one proprietor to the other, including an endorsement from Surcomb for her successor.

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[1] See Boston-Gazette (October 25, 1773) and Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter (October 7, 1773).

September 23

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

Pennsylvania Gazette (September 23, 1772).

“He hereby recommends to them, as a person qualified to serve them on the best terms.”

As fall arrived in 1772, Richard Humphreys took to the pages of the Pennsylvania Gazette to inform prospective customers that he “now carries on the GOLDSMITH’s Business, in all its branches” at “the house in which PHILIP SYNG lately dwelt” near the London Coffee House in Philadelphia.  In an advertisement in the September 23 edition, he made appeals similar to those advanced by other artisans who placed notices in the public prints.  He emphasized the choices that he offered to consumers, asserting that he stocked a “NEAT and GENERAL ASSORTMENT of GOLD and SILVER WARE.”  Humphreys also highlighted his own skills, promising that customers “may be assured of his utmost ability to give satisfaction, both in the quality and workmanship” of the items he made, sold, and mended.

In addition to those standard appeals, Humphreys published an endorsement from another goldsmith, Philip Syng!  Syng reported that he recently relocated to Upper Merion.  In the wake of his departure from Philadelphia, he “informs his friends and former customers, that they may be supplied as usual, at his late dwelling, by the above-named RICHARD HUMPHREYS.”  Syng did not merely pass along the business to Humphreys.  He also stated that he recommended him “as a person qualified to serve” his former customers “on the best terms, and whose fidelity” in the goldsmith’s business “will engage their future confidence and regard.”  With this endorsement, Humphreys did more than set up shop in Syng’s former location.  He became Syng’s successor.  In that role, he hoped to acquire the clientele that Syng previously cultivated.  Syng’s endorsement also enhanced his reputation among prospective customers.

Artisans frequently stressed their skill and experience in their advertisements.  Some detailed their training or their previous employment to assure prospective customers of their abilities and competence.  Such appeals required readers to trust the claims made by the advertisers.  Endorsements also required trust, but they did not rely solely on the word of the advertisers themselves.  In this instance, another goldsmith, one known to “friends and former customers” in Philadelphia, verified the claims that Humphreys made in his advertisement.  Syng staked his own reputation by endorsing Humphreys, a marketing strategy intended to give prospective customers greater confidence in the goldsmith who now ran the shop near the London Coffee House.

December 15

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

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

dec-15-12151766-new-york-mercury
New-York Mercury (December 15, 1766).

“She has employ’d a young woman lately arrived from London.”

When she decided to “decline Business for the present,” shopkeeper and milliner Elizabeth Colvil announced the eighteenth-century equivalent of a going-out-of-business sale. She “resolved to dispose of all her shop goods by wholesale and retail, at prime cost, for ready money only; the sale to continue till all are sold.” Colvil was liquidating her merchandise, enticing prospective customers with low prices in order to move the process along as quickly as possible.

In and of itself, that sort of promotion distinguished Colvil’s advertisement from many others of the period, but it was not the only aspect of her announcement that set it apart. After listing much of her remaining merchandise and promising “sundry other goods too tedious to mention,” Colvil indicated that she had hired an assistant, a young woman who had recently arrived from London. Her assistant, “who understands the millinary business, in all its branches,” would stay on until Colvil closed shop. At that time, she would pursue the business on her own “in the most extensive manner.” Although Colvil was not selling her shop to her assistant, she was setting her up as her successor.

To that end, Colvil made an appeal to current and prospective customers: “those ladies that shall please to favour her [the young woman recently arrived from London] with their custom, may rely on being served on the best terms, and their work done in the neatest and most fashionable manner.” Colvil voiced a strong endorsement of her assistant, directing the women of New York to patronize her assistant’s shop once Colvil had departed the marketplace.

This differs significantly from most eighteenth-century advertisements in which male merchants, shopkeepers, and artisans indicated the amiable end of a partnership or the transfer of a business from one man to another. In such cases they used advertisements to announce a change in status but did not incorporate an extensive endorsement of the new business or its proprietor.

Elizabeth Colvil probably knew a thing or two about the particular difficulties of being a woman and operating a business in eighteenth-century America. As a result, she attempted to assist her assistant in launching her own shop, recognizing that a young woman, especially one new to the city and unknown to most of its residents, would benefit from establishing a good reputation as quickly as possible. Colvil’s endorsement in her advertisement was the first step. The assistant working with customers was the second. She could build up a clientele, drawing on Colvil’s network of patrons, while the senior shopkeeper and milliner was still active in the business. In this advertisements, Elizabeth Colvil advocated on behalf of a fellow female entrepreneur.