John Boyle

December 13

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Essex Gazette (December 13, 1774).

“The WONDERFUL APPEARANCE of an Angel, Devil and Ghost.”

It resembled a Dickens story decades before Charles Dickens wrote “A Christmas Carol” or anything else!  In December 1775, John Boyle published and advertised “The WONDER of WONDERS! Or, the WONDERFUL APPEARANCE of an Angel, Devil and Ghost, To a Gentleman in the Town of BOSTON, in the Nights of the 14th, 15th, and 16th of October last.”  His advertisements first appeared in the Massachusetts Spy in early December and very soon after in other newspapers in Boston as well the Essex Gazette in Salem and the Essex Journal in Newburyport.

That gentleman, Boyle suggested in his advertisements, was apparently a Loyalist “To whom in some Measure may be attributed the Distresses that have of late fallen upon that unhappy Metropolis.”  The Boston Port Act had closed the harbor to commercial shipping, the Massachusetts Government Act had given the royally appointed governor more authority at the expense of the locally elected legislature and town meetings, and the Quartering Act provided for a greater presence of British soldiers.  The unnamed gentleman who supposedly experienced these visitations shared his experience with a neighbor and then agreed to their publication “as a solemn Warning to all those, who, for the sake of aggrandizing themselves and their Families, would entail the most abject Wretchedness upon Millions of their Fellow-Creatures.”  J.L. Bell, who has been chronicling Boston in the era of the American Revolution in a daily research blog for nearly two decades, notes, “All but the most credulous readers knew that this presentation was a sham designed to lend a wild cautionary tale some veneer of veracity.”

Bell examines “Wonder of Wonders” in three entries, the first introducing the pamphlet and its publication history, the second relaying the visitation by the angel, and the third recounting the visits by the devil and a ghost as well as interpreting the story in the context of how the imperial crisis unfolded in Boston.  Bell summarizes the pamphlet as purportedly an “account of a wealthy friend of the royal government whose sleep was disturbed by three supernatural visitors warning him to change his ways and start caring more about his neighbors.”  On the first night, the angel provides a warning to get back on the right path, a footnote explaining that the gentleman received compensation for his support of the officials dispatched to Boston from Britain but not specifying which services he provided.  The gentleman initially dismissed this visitor as “a delusion” until the devil visited the next night.  Their conversation covered “the previous nine years of conflict through Loyalist eyes.”  The editor conveniently provided an alternate interpretation of events in footnotes.  On the third night, the ghost of one of the gentleman’s ancestors appeared and chastised him for betraying principles that had been in place since the founding of the colony.  Colonizers settled New England, the ghost declared, “for the sake of enjoying that liberty which was denied them at home.”  The gentleman realizes the error of his way and vows to repent.

Bell wonders about the intended audience for the pamphlet, “Loyalists who needed converting” or Patriots “who enjoyed the sight of an opposing gentleman scared into submission.”  It very well could have been both, though describing it as “a solemn Warning” seemed to invite Loyalists to take heed.  The advertisement invited the curious of all political persuasions to purchase and read the pamphlet, supplementing the spectacular title with promises of four images that adorned the work.  Depictions of “THE DEVIL,” “AN ANGEL, with a Sword in one Hand, a Pair of Scales in the other,” “BELZEBUB, holding in his right Hand a folio Book, and in his left a Halter,” and “A GHOST, having on a white Gown, his Hair much dishevelled,” enhanced the story.  Whoever the intended audience may have been, Boyle aimed to generate revenue with the pamphlet by advertising widely and disseminating copies to local agents in other towns.

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Quotations not drawn from the advertisement come from J.L. Bell’s Boston 1775: History, Analysis, and Unabashed Gossip about the Start of the American Revolution in Massachusetts.

August 11

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter (August 11, 1774).

“Mrs. Draper … proposes to continue publishing the Paper herself.”

With a notice in the August 11, 1774, edition of the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter, Margaret Draper became the sole printer responsible for publishing that newspaper.  Who served in that role had changed several times over the past several months.  On May 5, Richard Draper, Margaret’s husband who had printed the newspaper for many years, placed an advertisement seeking a “Printer that understands collecting News, and carrying on a News Paper” to assist him because his “very low State of Health, prevents his making such Collection of Intelligence and Speculation, as his Customers must have expected.”  A week later, he ran a new notice to advise his customers of “a Co-Partnership with Mr. JOHN BOYLE.”  The “Co-Partnership” of Draper and Boyle, he promised, “will Endeavor to support the Reputation the said Paper has had for many Years past.”  At the same time, he made a pitch for advertisers, noting that the “great number of Customers on the Western Roads, make it peculiarly advantageous for those who advertise therein.”  The following week, an updated masthead for the May 19 issue included the names of both printers.

That partnership lasted only a few weeks.  Richard died on June 5.  A death notice and obituary ran as the first time in the first column of the first page in the June 9 edition, followed immediately by a notice that the “Co-Partnership between RICHARD DRAPER and JOHN BOYLE is dissolved by the Death of the former.”  In turn, the newspaper “will now be carried on by MARGARET DRAPER and JOHN BOYLE,” who renewed pledges that “the utmost Endeavors will be taken to maintain the Character it has had for upwards of Seventy Years past.”  Black borders, indicative of mourning, embellished the mastheads for the standard issue and the supplement that accompanied it.  The masthead for the standard issue stated, “Published by MARGARET DRAPER and JOHN BOYLE, at their Printing-Office in Newbury Street.”  In contrast, the masthead for the supplement only named one of them: “Published by JOHN BOYLE, at his Printing-Office in Newbury Street.”  Apparently portions of the newspaper went to print before the widow and her departed husband’s partner worked out all the details of their new arrangement.  Both names appeared in the masthead for the next several issues as well as in an updated version that first appeared on June 30: “Published by DRAPER and BOYLE in Newbury-Street, where Advertisements, &c. for this PAPER are taken in, and all other Printing-Work performed.”

This new partnership endured for two months, concluding with a notice “To the Public” that “MARGARET DRAPER & JOHN BOYLE, agreeable to Contract, … dissolved by mutual Consent” their partnership.  The colophon portion of the masthead simply declared, “Draper’s,” as it had prior to the Richard’s death.  In addition to announcing that she now operated the newspaper on her own, Margaret issued a call for friends, customers, and the public to provide “some reputable Means of Subsistence” for her.  To that end, she “solicit[ed] the Favor of further Subscriptions” that would allow her to “keep up the Credit which the Paper had for a long Time sustained in the Days of her deceased Husband.”  She ran the printing office on her own for several months before entering into an agreement with John Howe to manage the business.  That made her one of several female printers, along with Sarah Goddard, Anne Catharine Green, and Clementina Rind, in the colonies on the eve of the American Revolution.

May 5

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter (May 5, 1774).

“A very low State of Health, prevents his making Collection of Intelligence and Speculation.”

Printers often inserted notices about their own businesses immediately after any local news items they published, increasing the chances that readers would take note even if they did not closely examine the advertisements that followed.  Such was the case for a notice that Richard Draper placed in the May 5, 1774, edition of the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter.  Right below news from Boston and Worcester, he declared, “The Publisher and Printer of this Paper being in a very low State of Health, prevents his making such Collection of Intelligence and Speculation, as his Customers must have expected to be given them.”  He especially lamented that he had been hampered in gathering news “since the arrival of the last Vessels,” acknowledging that ships arriving from London brought updates about Parliament’s reaction to the destruction of tea in Boston Harbor the previous December.  Colonial printers had to hustle to acquire the latest news and rumors from the other side of the Atlantic, learning what they could from captains and convincing merchants to share excerpts from the letters they received.

Even though a two-page supplement featuring “INTERESTING INTELLIGENCE” from London accompanied the May 5 edition, Draper did not consider himself up to the task of collecting and collating all the news flowing into the busy port.  That being the case, he addressed his subscribers, “beg[ging] their Indulgence till he recovers Strength, or till the Paper falls into other Hands.”  Planning for the latter, at least for the near future, he advised that a “Printer that understands collecting News, and carrying on a News Paper … may be concerned on very advantageous Terms” upon applying to Draper at his printing office.  His appeal met with success.  In the next issue he announced that he entered a “Co-Partnership with Mr. JOHN BOYLE, who was regularly brought up and has since carried on the Printing Business in this Town.”  Together, the partners would “Endeavor to support the Reputation the said Paper has had for many Years past.”  Draper alluded to the long publication history of the newspaper, established seventy years earlier.  In his History of Printing in America (1810), Isaiah Thomas described the Boston News-Letter (later the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter) as “the first newspaper published in this country,” dismissing the single issue of Publick Occurences published in 1690.[1]  Thomas reported that Draper’s “ill health render[ed] him unable to attend closely to business” so Boyle “undertook the chief care and management of the newspaper.”[2]  A month later, Draper died.  Hs widow, Margaret, continued in partnership with Boyle for about a year, but they went their separate ways after the Revolutionary War began.  She then took John Howe as a partner, continuing to publish the newspaper “until the British troops left Boston in 1776.”  Thomas notes that it was the only newspaper “printed in Boston during the siege.”[3]  Despite Draper’s poor health and other turmoil, his newspaper lasted longer than any of the others published in Boston at the time he requested the “Indulgence” of his subscribers.

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[1] Isaiah Thomas, The History of Printing in America: With a Biography of Printers and an Account of Newspapers (1810; New York: Weathervane Book, 1970), 231.

[2] Thomas, History of Printing, 145.

[3] Thomas, History of Printing, 231.