New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury [Newark]

November 2

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury [Newark] (November 2, 1776).
“Members of the New York Whaling Company are desired to meet … in Newark.”

The advertisement called on “Members of the New York Whaling Company … to meet at the House of Josiah Pierson, in Newark,” on November 9, 1776.  It ran in the New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury published by Hugh Gaine in Newark following the British occupation of New York.  Gaine left the city, as did the New York Whaling Company, yet the printer did not remain in Newark for long.  The November 2 edition that carried the New York Whaling Company’s notice happened to be the last one that Gaine printed in Newark before returning to New York to resume publication of the New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury in the occupied city.  He published a total of seven issues in Newark from September 21 through November 2.

Meanwhile, according to Clarence S. Brigham, “Gaine’s New York office, under the inspection of the British authorities, had been used for the publication of a paper with the same title, and the same volume numbering, … but issued weekly” from September 30 to November 4.[1]  Gaine’s name remained in the imprint in the first of those issues, but did not appear in subsequent ones.  It returned with the November 11 issue.

In his History of Printing in America, Isaiah Thomas provided a brief overview of Gaine and his newspaper during the imperial crisis and the war.  The New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury “appeared rather a neutral paper.  Gaine seemed desirous to side with the successful party; but not knowing which would eventually prevail, he seems to have been unstable in his politics.”  When the war began, Gaine “leaned toward the country,” but then left New York for Newark just before the occupation.  He soon returned “and printed under the protection of the king’s army; and … devoted his paper to the royal cause.”[2]  He apparently believed “that appearances were against the ultimate success of the United States,” but after the American victory Gaine petitioned the state legislature for leave to remain in the city, and having obtained permission, his press was employed in book printing.”[3]  He discontinued the New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury after the British left the city, having published it for thirty-one years.

Ironically, the first item on the first page of the last issue published in Newark was “An ACT to punish TRAITORS and disaffected PERSONS” passed by the state government in Princeton on October 4, 1776.  Gaine would soon become one of those “disaffected PERSONS” when he returned to New York and resumed publication of the New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury there.

**********

[1] Clarence S. Brigham, History and Bibliography of American Newspaper, 1690-1820 (Worcester: American Antiquarian Society, 1947), 512-513.

[2] Isaiah Thomas, The History of Printing in America: With a Biography of Printers and an Account of Newspapers (1810; New York: Weathervane Books, 1970), 497-498.

[3] Thomas, History of Printing, 472-473.

September 21

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , ,

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

New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury [Newark] (September 21, 1776).

“AN assortment of dry goods … at the house of Mr. John Dixen, near Mr. Horton’s Meeting House, in Morris County, New-Jersey.”

When Samuel Loudon discontinued publication of the New York Packet, his advertisement in the New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury explained that the “City of New-York, is now invaded by a powerful Fleet and army” so the “Inhabitants are obliged to seek a Retreat in the Country.”  Hugh Gaine, the printer of the New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury, was one of those inhabitants who decided to leave New York at the beginning of the British occupation.  The September 21, 1776, edition featured a new location in the colophon: “Newark, in East-New-Jersey.”  That issue consisted of only two pages instead of the usual four, perhaps the result of paper shortages, perhaps because Gaine did not have time to publish a full issue, or perhaps due to other circumstances related to getting out of the New York.  He printed only seven issues in Newark before returning to New York.

The masthead proclaimed that newspaper “Contain[ed] the freshest Advices Foreign and Domestic.”  In the three most recent news updates, Gaine reported that “Yesterday Morning a very heavy firing was hear on York Island from Bergen Town,” “We hear there are no more than one thousand of the King’s troops now in New-York, and those principally Englishmen,” and “About 3 o’clock this morning, a most dreadful fire was discovered from the heights back of this town, which upon the appearance of day light was supposed to be the city of New York in flames.”  That was the first newspaper coverage of the burning of New York City.

The first Newark edition of the New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury had half a dozen advertisements placed by customers as well as one for bibles, writing supplies, and patent medicines that Gaine sold ay his new printing office.  The news and advertisements, as Clarence S. Brigham notes, “were expressly intended for New Jersey.”[1]  The advertisement that appeared immediately below news about the conflagration in New York City promoted an “assortment of dry goods (not before exposed to sale) just opening at the house of Mr. John Dixen, near Mr. Horton’s Meeting House, in Morris County, New-Jersey.”  It listed dozens of items to entice prospective customers.  The advertisement concluded with a nota bene drawing attention to a “small assortment of the above goods, particularly such articles as will suit the army, … opened at Mr. John Halstead’s, in Elizabeth-Town.”

**********

[1] Clarence S. Brigham, History and Bibliography of American Newspapers, 1690-1820 (Worcester: American Antiquarian Society, 1947), 513.