Margaret Draper

May 21

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter (May 19, 1775).

“Articles of Intelligence, foreign or domestic will be gratefully received.”

It was the first issue of the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter in a month.  Margaret Draper published an issue on April 20, 1775, the day after the battles at Lexington and Concord.  It carried some of the first newspaper coverage of those skirmishes.  Then the presses in Boston went quiet.  Isaiah Thomas had already removed the Massachusetts Spy to Worcester.  The Boston Evening-Post and the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Post-Boyceased publication altogether, while their printers suspended the Boston-Gazette and the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston News-Letter temporarily.  A city that had five newspapers at the beginning of April 1775 did not have any by the end of the month.

On May 19, the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter became the first to resume publication, though it did not manage to stick to a regular schedule during the siege of Boston.  A notice to the public filled most of the first column on the first page of that issue: “AS a Number of Gentlemen are very desirous of a Continuation of the MASSACHUSETTS-GAZETTE, the Proprietor therefore proposed to renew the Publication.”  The siege of Boston continued.  General Thomas Gage had allowed colonizers who wished to depart the city to do so, provided they did not take firearms with them when they departed.  These factors meant new “Conditions” for the newspaper.  It would “contain two Pages in Folio” instead of the usual four since paper was scarce.  In addition, “Communication with the Country is at present impeded” by the siege so “the Number of Customers it’s likely will be but few.”  That meant that “the Price to Subscribers cannot be less than Eight Shillings Lawful Money per Year, one Quarter to be paid at Entrance, and another Quarter Part at the end of three Months.”  Printers often extended credit to newspaper subscribers, but Draper did not have that luxury under the circumstances.  She noted that subsequent issues would appear upon achieving a certain number of subscriber, but that number was next to the left margin, unfortunately not visible in the digitized image of the issue bound into a volume with other editions of the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter.

Draper added a second notice immediately below the first.  “Emboldened by the encouraging assurances of a Number of respectable [gentlemen] … and being willing to oblige them as speedily as possible,” she declared, “we have ventured upon the Publication of the first Paper, hoping that a sufficient Number will be subscribed through the Course of the Week to encourage us to continue it weekly from this Time.”  The next two issues did come out on schedule on May 25 and June 1.  Draper further explained that the “Difficulties attending the Publication of a News-Paper, at this unhappy Period, when almost all Communication with the Continent is cut off, and so every regular Source of intelligence stopped, obliges us to [beg(?)] a twofold Share of that Candor we have formerly experienced.”  Draper needed assistance generating content for the revived Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter.  She suggested an eighteenth-century version of crowdsourcing among those who remained in the city: “we would take this Opportunity to request of Gentlemen who may at any Time be possessed of London Papers, that they would be so kind as to favour us with them.”  Furthermore, “Articles of Intelligences, foreign or domestic will be gratefully received; and if Gentlemen would take the Trouble of forwarding them to us, it would in a great Measure supply the Want of a regular weekly Conveyance.”  Printers regularly reprinted news from other newspapers they received through exchange networks, but Draper no longer had access to new issues of newspapers from other colonies.  She had to depend on other sources, including newspapers from London that residents of Boston had received from correspondents there. Advertisements could also fill some of the space, but few of those appeared in subsequent issues.

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.