Rider

June 18

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Massachusetts Spy (June 14, 1775).

“This Paper now has the greatest advantage for News, from ALL quarters, of any in this Province.”

Isaiah Thomas, the printer of the Massachusetts Spy, took his press and left Boston just before the battles at Lexington and Concord in April 1775.  He announced his intention to continue publishing the newspapers at a new printing office he established in Worcester, safely away from the British officials he angered with his advocacy for the patriot cause.  Printing his newspaper in another town at the beginning of the Revolutionary War meant building up a new customer base, something that Thomas diligently endeavored to do.  During the first months that he published the Massachusetts Spy in Worcester, he regularly placed advertisements promoting the newspapers and encouraging colonizers in central Massachusetts and beyond to become subscribers.

Interspersed with news on the third page of the June 14, 1775, edition of the Massachusetts Spy, Thomas placed a notice that proclaimed, “This Paper has now the greatest advantage for News, from ALL quarters, of any in this Province.  Those who incline to become customers may know the Conditions, by turning to the last Page, column 3d.”  Readers who followed those instructions encountered the “PROPOSALS For continuing the Publication of The MASSACHUSETTS SPY, OR American ORACLE of LIBERTY,” including the extensive list of local agents who received subscriptions in nearly three dozen towns in Worcester County.  Those proposals had appeared in every issue of the Massachusetts Spy since Thomas began printing it in Worcester on May 3, initially on the front page and then migrating to the last one.

In addition to the proposals, readers found another notice from Thomas, one that furthered his argument that his newspapers “has now the greatest advantage from News, from ALL quarters, of any in this Province.”  He announced that he “has engaged Two RIDERS, one to go from hence to CAMBRIDGE and SALEM, the other to PROVIDENCEand NEWPORT.”  The printer then explained that the “great advantage that will arise to the Public, from their going to, and coming from, the places abovementioned, is well known, especially with regard to fresh and authentic intelligence.”  The rider that went east gathered the latest news from the siege of Boston, while the rider who headed south acquired newspapers from other colonies that made their way by land and sea to the printing offices in Rhode Island.  Thomas did not exaggerate in describing his network for receiving news to reprint in the Massachusetts Spy as superior to any other newspaper then published in the colony.

That was not the only notice in which Thomas discussed the communications infrastructure he developed in the spring of 1775.  Two weeks earlier, he announced a plan to establish riders to both Cambridge and Providence.  A week later, he ran an advertisement about a new “Post-Rider to Cambridge and Salem” who covered one of the proposed routes and another advertisement abut a “Post-Rider to Providence and Newport” who followed the other one.  Both appeared again in the June 14 issue, supplementing the proposals and Thomas’s other notices promoting the Massachusetts Spy.  He devoted more space to his own advertisements than paid notices from customers!  The success of the enterprise, however, depended on the public.  Thomas “begs the assistance of the public to support this undertaking, by promoting the circulation of News-Papers, and helping the Riders to such business as they may be thought capable of transacting.”  The printer did not focus solely on distributing the Massachusetts Spy but instead the “circulation of News-Papers” in general.  That contributed to his livelihood, but that was not the printer’s only purpose.  Having already witnessed the power of the press, he aimed to keep the public informed about current events, charging them with taking some responsibility in that endeavor.

February 23

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

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

Pennsylvania Journal (February 23, 1774).

“A RIDER between Philadelphia and that place.”

William Stenson played a part in establishing and maintaining the communication infrastructure that connected Baltimore and Philadelphia and points in between in the mid 1770s.  Though it had not displaced Annapolis, Baltimore became an increasingly significant urban port on the eve of the American Revolution.  In August 1773, William Goddard launched the Maryland Journal, the city’s first newspaper.  At about the same time, Joseph Rathell attempted to establish a subscription library, but could not manage to generate sufficient interest to compete with William Aikman’s circulating library in Annapolis.  For a small fee, Aikman delivered books to subscribers in Baltimore.

Still, Baltimore was becoming an increasingly important commercial center, a place of interest for merchants and others in Philadelphia.  That created an opportunity for Stenson.  On February 23, 1774, he informed readers of the Pennsylvania Journal that he was “employed by a number of Gentlemen in Baltimore, &c. as a RIDER between Philadelphia and that place” and offered his services during his weekly transit.  He left Philadelphia “early every Thursday morning” and arrived in Baltimore “on Friday evening.”  He stayed until Monday morning and returned to Philadelphia “on Tuesday evenings.”

Stenson attempted to hire his services by the year, suggesting how regularly he believed some prospective clients in Philadelphia wished to contact correspondents in Baltimore and towns on the way.  He offered a “yearly subscription,” pledging that “whatever affairs may be committed to the care of the subscriber, will be performed with all possible fidelity and dispatch.”  For those not ready to pay for his services for an entire year, the rider promised that they “may have their business done at reasonable rates.”  Clients could contact him or leave orders “at Mr. WILLIAM GRAHAM’s, at the sign of the Black Horse” on Market Street.  Alternately, a “subscription paper now lies at the London Coffee-House,” a popular gathering place for Philadelphia’s merchants to conduct business.  Stenson aimed to make procuring his services as convenient as possible for his prospective clients.