Massachusetts Spy

November 6

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

Massachusetts Spy (November 6, 1776).

“BEHOLD A COWARD!”

The harsh tone exceeded what appeared in other advertisements placed for the same purpose.  Before the Revolutionary War, advertisements for runaways abounded in American newspapers.  Aggrieved masters ran advertisements for runaway indentured servants, runaway apprentices, and runaway convict servants.  The notices described the runaways and offered rewards for their capture and return.  Disgruntled enslavers ran similar advertisements about enslaved men and women who liberated themselves by running away.  After the war began, desertion notices started appearing.  In many instances, the number of desertion notices eclipsed advertisements about indentured servants, apprentices, convict servants, and enslaved people combined.

Like those familiar advertisements, desertion notices usually followed a familiar format.  Consider one that appeared in the November 6, 1776, edition of the Massachusetts Spy: “DESERTED from Captain William Gate’s Company, in Colonel Jonathan Holman’s Regiment, … Arthur Cary, a Soldier.”  The advertisement described Cary’s featured and clothing.  “Whoever will take up said deserter,” the notice continued, “and return him to me … shall have ten dollars reward and all reasonable charges paid.”  Many similar advertisements appeared in other newspapers in the fall of 1776.

The advertisement that ran immediately above that one in the Massachusetts Spy took a different approach.  It started with a headline that forcefully condemned the deserter: “BEHOLD A COWARD!”  It then told a story about the circumstances under which “DANIEL PITTEE, Ensign, in Capt. Timothy Stow’s Company, in Col. Wheelock’s Regiment,” deserted from “Head Quarters, [at] Ticonderoga” in October.  “THE PUBLIC are desired to take notice,” the advertisement proclaimed, that Pittee “applied … for a discharge upon hearing that the enemy were likely to attack our lines – he was refused and the next Day deserted the Camp.”  The notice, “Published by order of Brigadier General [James] Brickett,” ran in the Massachusetts Spy and newspapers published in Boston because the “infamous Runaway belongs to the south Parish of Dedham, County of Suffolk,” and his officers apparently suspected he was headed that way.  Unlike other advertisements about deserters, this one did not offer a reward for returning him to his regiment.  Instead, it aimed to humiliate and demean the deserter.  Pittee’s request for a discharge when an attack was likely may have been the deciding factor.  Such cowardice differed from the motivations of other soldiers who deserted in hopes of returning home to protect and aid their families.  The headline certainly attracted attention.  From the very first line, this desertion notice differed from others that so often appeared in newspapers during the Revolutionary War.

October 23

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

Massachusetts Spy (October 23, 1776).

“HANNON’s BEST CHOCOLATE, Exceeding Fine.”

A standard run for most newspaper advertisements published during the era of the American Revolution consisted of three or four insertions.  When colophons listed the fees for advertising, the printers offered packages with a set fee for setting the type and running an advertisement that many time.  Of course, advertisers could run their notices more than three or four times, incurring a new fee for each additional insertion.  Most opted for the standard package and then discontinued their notices.

Such was the case with an advertisement for “HANNON’s BEST CHOCOLATE” that ran in the Massachusetts Spy on October 9, 16, and 23, 1776.  Except for patent medicines, few products had brand names in the eighteenth century, yet the advertiser expected prospective customers to recognize the name of the maker of this “Exceeding Fine” chocolate “Sold opposite the TOWN-HOUSE, in Worcester.”  Those who wanted more information could “Enquire of the Printers.”

The advertisement moved around within the Massachusetts Spy.  The first time it appeared, it ran at the top of the first column on the first page, immediately above “PAPERS … published by the order of CONGRESS” in Philadelphia.  The rest of the content on that page consisted of an “Extract of a letter from General Washington to the PRESIDENT of CONGRESS” and other updates about the British invasion and occupation of New York.  The following week, it ran on the final page, two-thirds of the way down the middle column.  For its final insertion, it appeared at the top of the last column on the last page.

No matter where the advertisement ran in the Massachusetts Spy, it was easy to spot.  The advertiser arranged with the printers to have the notice for this “Exceeding Fine” and “BEST CHOCOLATE” enclosed within a border of decorative type.  That distinguished the advertisement from all the other content – advertisements, news, letters – in the newspaper since no other items received similar treatment.  The printing ornaments made it easy for readers to spot, even when it appeared in the middle of columns of dense text in the October 16 issue.  The border drew the eyes of readers and demanded they give their attention to the advertisement.  Although it ran only three times, the advertisement for “HANNON’s BEST CHOCOLATE” likely made an impression on readers of the Massachusetts Spy.

August 28

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

Massachusetts Spy (August 28, 1776).

“The News-Papers will be ready for delivery at TWELVE o’Clock on the usual, day, and not before.”

Residents of Worcester really wanted to read the latest news!  They were so eager to get their hands on the latest issue of the Massachusetts Spy, a weekly newspaper published on Wednesdays, that they caused problems in the printing office.  The disruptions were significant enough that on August 28, 1776, William Stearns and Daniel Bigelow, the printers, found it necessary to insert an advertisement with instructions about when subscribers and others who were curious for “freshintelligence” about the Revolutionary War and other current events should expect to pick up their newspapers.  The printers made their notice the first item in the first column on the first page to increase the chances that the offenders saw it and took note.

“OUR kind Customers and others,” Stearns and Bigelow implored, “are desired to take notice that for the future the News-Papers will be ready for delivery at TWELVE o’Clock on the usual, day, and not before.”  In other words, the printers did not want subscribers and others dropping by the printing office to ask for copies of the latest edition before noon on Wednesdays.  They needed time to produce each new issue, but such inquiries merely distracted them.  Stearns and Bigelow explained that the “reason of this notice is, that we may have MORE time to collect and adjust [or select and edit] the fresh intelligence contained in the Southern mail,” which included both correspondence and newspapers from other towns.  Like other printers, Stearns and Bigelow reprinted extensively from newspapers they received via their exchange networks.  Furthermore, Stearns and Bigelow explained, if local readers waited until noon to pick up their newspapers, then that meant “that the Carriers may be served without DELAY.”  After all, the Massachusetts Spy had many subscribers outside of Worcester.  They also wanted to know the latest news as soon as post riders could deliver their newspapers.

Two weeks earlier, an advertisement for the newspaper’s “Post Rider to Fitchburg,” a town north of Worcester, emphasized that the Massachusetts Spy carried the “freshest and most important intelligence from the Grand Continental Army at New-York,” news that Stearns and Bigelow “published the next morning after the arrival of the Southern Mail, which contains ALL the LATEST advices from the grand seat of military operation.”  Demand for the news apparently matched the interest that the printers sought to incite.  Readers knew that “fresh intelligence” arrived at the printing office on Tuesdays for inclusion in a new issue of the newspaper on Wednesdays and they impatiently tried to get more information about current events before the printers had sufficient time to publish it.

August 21

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

Massachusetts Spy (August 21, 1776).

“Stoughtons grand Stomachic Elixir, proper for all Soldiers to carry with them in the camp.”

During the Revolutionary War, Shephard and Hunt adapted their newspaper advertisements to the times.  The partners operated a store that sold medicines and a “variety of other articles in the Apothecary way” at a store in Worcester in the summer of 1776.  In a notice in the August 21 edition of the Massachusetts Spy, they listed an assortment of patent medicines and medical supplies that commonly appeared in similar advertisements, including “Anderson’s Pills, Hunters Catheters, neat Lancet Cases, Smelling Bottles with Cases, Vials and half pint Bottles by the Crate, or single dozen, [and] Batemans Drops.”

Under other circumstances, apothecaries and other retailers usually listed patent medicines without commentary or explanation.  Those remedies were so familiar to consumers that advertisers did not consider it necessary to elaborate on them.  In this instance, however, Shephard and Hunt did not merely list Stoughton’s Elixir as one among several patent medicines.  Instead, they named it “Stoughtons grand Stomachic Elixir” and stated that the potion was “proper for all Soldiers to carry with them in the camp.”  The apothecaries identified an ailment that commonly afflicted soldiers and made a pitch to them to purchase a medicine that would provide relief.  They provided a small comfort “at a very moderate advance for Cash” to soldiers fighting a war for independence.

That was not the only service that Shephard and Hunt undertook for the war effort.  They informed all customers that they “may depend upon being well used, and with dispatch,” while extending a special invitation to “Gentlemen who supply the Army of the United States.”  In addition to quick and efficient customer service, those “Gentlemen … may be furnished with a number of articles suitable for the camp.”  Apothecaries sometimes prepared boxes of medicines and supplies for ships or homes.  Shephard and Hunt may have done the same for doctors and others in military camps.  Even if they did not, they stocked medical supplies “suitable for the camp” and sought to attract customers affiliated with the American army who would purchase in volume.  As they continued to serve civilian customers, Shephard and Hunt also marketed their wares to soldiers and the army.

August 14

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

Massachusetts Spy (August 14, 1776).

“The freshest and most important intelligence from the Grand Continental Army at New-York.”

An advertisement in the August 14, 1776, edition of the Massachusetts Spy promoted the services of a “Post Rider to Fitchburg,” a town twenty-five miles north of Worcester.  The unnamed post rider stressed that there was no quicker way for residents of that town and others in the vicinity to receive the latest news, especially updates about the war being waged for independence.

The post rider explained that he set out from Worcester on Wednesdays, the same day that William Stearns and Daniel Bigelow published a new issue of the Massachusetts Spy, and “arrive[d] in … Fitchburg every Wednesday night,” supplying the “freshest and most important intelligence from the Grand Continental Army at New-York.”  Readers could depend on it being the latest news because Stearns and Bigelow printed the Massachusetts Spy “the next morning after the arrival of the Southern Mail” on Tuesdays, giving them just enough time to glean the most significant news to include in new issues on Wednesdays.  The letters and newspapers the printers received “contain[ed] ALL the LATEST advices from the grand seat of military operation” as well as “the latest news by the Government Post from Ticonderoga.”  Stearns and Bigelow likely collaborated with the post rider in providing this service as well as in writing an advertisement that promoted the Massachusetts Spy to readers throughout central Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire.  The Massachusetts Spy competed with newspapers published in Boston and Watertown in Massachusetts and Exeter and Portsmouth in New Hampshire, yet subscribers who received the Massachusetts Spy via the “Post Rider to Fitchburg” would “obtain the freshest news much Sooner and Cheaper, than from any other part of the Continent.”  An annual subscription with delivery cost “Ten Shillings per annum (Postage included)” or two shillings more than the base price, “Eight Shillings, per Annum, exclusive of Postage,” listed in the newspaper’s colophon.

The Massachusetts Spy carried all sorts of news, including updates from the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, yet the printers and the post rider believed that readers were most interested in the latest news about the progress of the war. Better than any other newspaper printed in Massachusetts or New Hampshire, the Massachusetts Spy and the “Post Rider to Fitchburg” could deliver that news to subscribers and other readers.

August 7

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , ,

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

Massachusetts Spy (August 7, 1776).

“He once more earnestly begs that those who are indebted to him for News-Papers … would immediately pay their respective ballances.”

When Isaiah Thomas transferred the Massachusetts Spy to William Stearns and Daniel Bigelow and returned to Boston in the summer of 1776, he had difficulty collecting payments from his former customers.  Even though he made several trips to Worcester to tie up loose ends, that was not enough so he resorted to placing advertisements in the newspaper he formerly printed.

“I. THOMAS, the late publisher of this Paper,” he declared, “is very sorry that so many of his Customers are so unkind as to neglect paying him the several small sums due to him for services already performed.”  In addition to newspaper subscriptions, those services likely ranged from job printing of handbills and blanks to purchases of books, pamphlets, stationery supplies, and even patent medicines.  Thomas may even have allowed credit for newspapers advertisements.  He expressed exasperation that he “made several journeys to Worcester on purpose to receive his just due” for the services he had rendered to the public in printing the first newspaper in the town and establishing its first printing office, “but, to his surprise, finds the old proverb verified, ‘Out of sight, out of mind.’”  In case his former customers considered what they owed so inconsequential that Thomas would not miss it, he made a plea that “that those who are indebted to him for News-Papers, &c. (if it is but two-pence) would immediately pay their respective ballances … as so many small sums when collected together will be of essential service” to him.  In contrast, “the want of which will be of great detriment” as he pursued new endeavors.

That advertisement, dated “Boston, July 22, 1776,” was not the first that Thomas ran in the Massachusetts Spy.  He previously inserted a shorter notice, dated “Worcester, June 14, 1776.”  When it did not have the desired effect, Stearns and Bigelow enclosed Thomas’s new advertisement with a border of ornamental type and gave it a privileged place as the first item in the first column on the first page of the July 24 edition of the Massachusetts Spy.  Thomas may have instructed or insisted that the inexperienced printers do so rather than leaving it completely to their discretion.  In subsequent issue, the notice moved to the final page, but the border remained, distinguishing the advertisement from all other content in the newspaper.  The format demanded the attention of readers who had treated Thomas as “Out of sight, out of mind.”

July 24

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Massachusetts Spy (July 24, 1776).

“Transmit … the Names of such Persons … notoriously inimical to the rights of America.”

It was another instance of an advertisement delivering news to newspaper readers.  In this instance, Joseph Henshaw placed an advertisement in the Massachusetts Spy with instructions for the “Committees of Safety … for the several Towns in the county of Worcester” in central Massachusetts.  Those committees “are hereby requested to transmit forthwith to the standing Committee the Names of such Persons in their respective Towns, who are esteemed to be notoriously inimical to the rights of America.”  Henshaw and his committee decided to make the request on July 14, 1776, the same day that residents of Worcester may have participated in the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence in Massachusetts.

The notice (and the Declaration of Independence) appeared in the July 17, 1776, edition of the Massachusetts Spy, the next one that came off the press in the only printing office in Worcester.  It ran at the bottom of the final column on the second page, immediately below news from Boston, dated July 11, and could have been mistaken for another news item selected by William Stearns and Daniel Bigelow except for the thick lines that traditionally separated news from paid notices.  Even if the compositor inserted those lines in error, the notice would have run just once if Stearns and Bigelow considered it a news item.  Instead, it ran again on July 24, this time at the bottom of the first column on the first page.  It followed two other advertisements.  The news for that issue began at the top of the next column.  This suggests that Stearns and Bigelow treated the call to submit the names of people “esteemed to be notoriously inimical to the rights of America” as a paid notice, an advertisement that generated revenue, rather than as a news items published as a public service.  In so doing, they took the same approach as the printers of Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette and the Maryland Journal who simultaneously published an advertisement with instructions for voting for delegates from Baltimore to attend a convention “for the express purpose of forming a New Government” for the state of Maryland.

July 5

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

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

Massachusetts Spy (July 5, 1776).

“The freshest and most important advices will be propagated TWO DAYS SOONER.”

After the siege of Boston ended, Isaiah Thomas considered seeking new opportunities in the city where he had formerly operated a printing office or perhaps in Salem or elsewhere along the coast.  In the spring of 1775, he relocated to Worcester just before the battles at Lexington and Concord.  He had already planned to open a printing office there, establish the town’s first newspaper, and install a junior partner to oversee both endeavors, but the outbreak of hostilities caused him to transfer the Massachusetts Spy from Boston to Worcester and print it himself.  Once the British evacuated Boston in March 1776, Thomas contemplated what to do next.  In June, he transferred the Massachusetts Spyto William Stearns and Daniel Bigelow.

Two weeks after publishing their first issue, Stearns and Bigelow inserted an announcement in the July 5 edition to inform readers that they were changing the publication day of the weekly newspaper from Friday to Wednesday.  They explained the “motive inducing us to make this alteration is, that, most probably, the scene of ACTION will, for a considerable time to come, be in the Southern, Western, and Northern parts of the Continent; which, consequently, will be our greatest sources of intelligence.”  In other words, now that Boston was not at the center of the war, the printers adjusted the publication day to accommodate when they received news from the south, through networks that included New York and Philadelphia, rather than from Boston and its surrounding towns to the east.  “The reason of the Publication of this paper on Friday,” Stearns and Bigelow elaborated, “was, that HEAD-QUARTERS were then in this colony, the principal Seat of Military operation.”  Since that was no longer the case, “the Propriety [of publishing the Massachusetts Spy on Friday] ceases.”  Instead, the “Southern Mail (containing the most material news from all the parts abovementioned) arrives here regularly every Tuesday night.”  By moving publication to Wednesday, “the freshest and most important advices will be propagated TWO DAYS SOONER, than in the present practice.”  Stearns and Bigelow framed this as part of their “uninterrupted endeavour to serve the PUBLIC with the utmost fidelity.”  The printers planned to make the change immediately.  The next issue would be published on Wednesday, July 10, just five days after the issue announcing the change.

At the same time, Stearns and Bigelow attempted to increase the number of subscribers.  In addition to receiving subscriptions at the printing office in Worcester, they also designated local agents in a dozen towns in central Massachusetts and noted that “other gentlemen in various parts of the colony” collected the names of subscribers.  They also planned to hire riders to carry the Massachusetts Spy to other towns on Wednesday night “[i]f a sufficient number of subscribers should appear.”

Thomas had built his reputation through his long experience as a printer.  Stearns and Bigelow did not have the same advantage, yet they likely hoped that proactively adjusting the day of publication, enlisting local agents to accept subscriptions, and hiring riders to deliver newspapers if the number warranted doing so would cultivate confidence among current and prospective subscribers.  They did not have Thomas’s experience, but they demonstrated that they were responsive to changing conditions and would cater to the convenience of their customers.

June 28

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , ,

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

Massachusetts Spy (June 28, 1776).

“Patent Medicines … Turlington’s Balsam of Life, Hooper’s Female Pills.”

In the summer of 1776, Benjamin Greene advertised a “compleat assortment of Drugs and Medicines” available “at his Store, a little to the Northward of the Meeting house,” in Worcester.  He listed some of the items he stocked, including “a quantity of excellent Peruvian Bark, best India Rhubarb, … British oil, [and] Essence of Pepper-Mint.”  Greene also carried popular patent medicines, such as “Turlington’s Balsam of Life, Hooper’s Female Pills, Anderson’s Pills, [and] Stoughtons Elixir.”  Consumers were so familiar with those products that he did not need to say anything about their uses.  In addition, Greene sold a variety of spices, from cinnamon and cloves to allspice and pepper.  Whatever illnesses readers experienced, Green could supply some sort of medicine to alleviate their symptoms.

Greene’s notice was one of the few advertisements that appeared in the June 28 edition of the Massachusetts Spy.  Isaiah Thomas had published the newspaper in Worcester for more than a year after relocating from Boston just as the Revolutionary War began, but, after the siege of Boston ended, he decided to seek opportunities in a larger town on the coast once again.  He opted for Salem rather than returning to Boston, perhaps because of a smallpox outbreak in the colony’s largest port.  William Stearns and Daniel Bigelow began printing the Worcester Spy on June 21.  Greene advertised in that issue and again the following week, one of the few who trusted that the Massachusetts Spy had a large enough circulation under new management to justify the fee for purchasing space in the newspaper.  He was the only purveyor of goods and services to place an advertisement in either issue.  Joseph Jaseph advertised a stolen horse on June 21 and Solomon Jones advertised a lost pocketbook on June 28.  The printers inserted a call for rags to recycle into paper in both issues, echoing their counterparts in towns throughout the colonies.  That meant that Stearns and Bigelow generated some revenue from advertisements, but not much.  Just as they had to convince residents of Worcester and other towns in central Massachusetts to become subscribers, they also had to build a clientele of advertisers following Thomas’s departure.  For a while, it had been uncertain whether the newspaper would continue so advertisers fell away during its suspension.  As they started the process, Greene experienced a lack of competition in the public prints, something that may have benefited his business as much as the advertising copy that he composed.

June 21

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

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

Massachusetts Spy (June 21, 1776).

“ISAIAH THOMAS, having relinquished the Printing business in Worcester.”

The title changed from Thomas’s Massachusetts Spy to The Massachusetts Spy with issue “NUMB. 269” on June 21, 1776.  Two months earlier, Isaiah Thomas informed readers that he intended to remain in Worcester “for the present,” but since then he decided to pursue new opportunities in Salem.  He previewed that decision in a notice in the May 31 edition, the last one he published.  In a lengthy address on the first page, William Stearns and Daniel Bigelow, the new “publishers of this Paper,” informed the public that Thomas “relinquished the Printing business in Worcester” to them.  They now occupied the printing office “near the COURT-HOUSE,” where they undertook “the various branches of said business with the utmost care and fidelity, and will exert their utmost efforts to procure authentic intelligence of affairs, in the various parts of this continent and elsewhere.”  They hoped to attract customers for job printing as well and maintain and expand their subscribers.

The title shifted slightly, but the subtitle, American Oracle of Liberty, remained the same.  Stearns and Bigelow made their editorial stance clear in their address.  “At a time when OUR ALL is at stake, when no less than the fate of the STATES of AMERICA is in agitation,” they proclaimed, “then (of all times) the means of conveying intelligence ought to be encouraged.”  That meant that subscribers had a duty to continue to subscribe and others had a responsibility to support Worcester’s only newspaper by becoming subscribers, placing advertisements, and sharing news as they received it in letters and by other means.  In turn, the printers would do their civic duty.  “The liberty and free exercise of the PRESS,” Stearns and Bigelow continued, “is the greatest temporal safeguard of the state—it assists the civil magistrate in wielding the sword of justice—holds up to public view the vicious, and in their odious colours— … —It detects political impostors, and is a terrific scourge to tyrants.”  Readers could expect the same vigilance and advocacy for the American cause from Stearns and Bigelow that Thomas had a reputation for delivering.

Following Stearns and Bigelow’s address, Thomas inserted a brief notice in which he expressed “sincere thanks to those gentlemen who have settelled with him for News-Papers for the year past.”  The spelling error may have been an actual error rather than an eighteenth-century variation.  Despite their pledge to “do services highly beneficial to their oppressed brethren” in central Massachusetts, their skill as printers paled in comparison to Thomas.  For his part, the printer did not offer words of encouragement or general expressions of gratitude as he departed Worcester.  After thanking subscribers who already settled accounts, he called on those who still owed to “pay their respective balances” to Stearns and Bigelow.  After a hiatus of three weeks, a new issue of the Massachusetts Spy carried news (and a couple of advertisements) to readers.  When news of the Declaration of Independence reached Worcester about three weeks later, Thomas may (or may not) have made the first public reading in New England, but he no longer ran his own newspaper.  He published an account of the battles at Lexington and Concord in the first edition of the Massachusetts Spy printed in Worcester, but now others would cover the Declaration of Independence and its reception in the commonwealth of Massachusetts and other states.