Settling Accounts

May 3

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

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

Virginia Gazette [Purdie] (May 3, 1776).

“Thirteen months Gazette due mrs. Rind’s estate, 13s. 6d.”

Most early American printers extended generous credit to newspaper subscribers, sometimes allowing them to fall years behind in making payment.  They frequently placed notices calling on subscribers to settle accounts in their own newspapers.  A notice in Alexander Purdie’s Virginia Gazette in the spring of 1776, however, requested that subscribers to a newspaper that ceased publication submit what they owed.

That newspaper had also been known as the Virginia Gazette.  William Rind commenced publishing Rind’s Virginia Gazette in Williamsburg on May 16, 1766.  He changed the name to Virginia Gazette in the fall of 1766.  Following his death in August 1773, his widow, Clementina Rind, published the newspaper for just over a year until her own death in September 1774.  John Pinkney then printed the newspaper, according to the colophon, “for the benefit of Clementina Rind’s estate” or, later, “for the benefit of Clementina Rind’s children.”  He became the sole publisher in April 1775.  Pinkney’s Virginia Gazette folded in the winter of 1776.  The issue for February 3, 1776, is the last known edition.  At the time, it was one of three newspapers named Virginia Gazette printed in Williamsburg.

The notice that ran in Purdie’s Virginia Gazette called on the “gentlemen who are still indebted to the estate of mrs. Clementina Rind, deceased, and mr. John Pinkney, for Gazettes … to send their respective balances” to “the administrator.”  For their convenience, they could dispatch them via “those gentlemen who are chosen delegates for their respective counties” who planned to travel to Williamsburg for meetings in May 1776.  A note at the end of the advertisements reminded subscribers that “Thirteen months Gazette due mrs. Rind’s estate” amounted to thirteen shillings and six pence and “Sixteen [months of the Virginia Gazette] due mr. John Pinkney” amounted to sixteen shillings and eight pence.  Those periods matched the amount of time that Clementina Rind printed the Virginia Gazette and then John Pinkney printed it, indicating that some subscribers had not paid for years, even when asked to settle with Rind’s estate.  Other newspaper printers experienced similar difficulties in collecting subscription fees, prompting some to threaten legal action in their notices.  In this instance, the administrator instead noted the “large debts still due from the said estate.”

April 28

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , ,

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

Thomas’s Massachusetts Spy (April 26, 1776).

“He … most earnestly requests that all who are indebted to him for News-Papers, Advertisements, &c. would pay him.”

The April 26, 1776, edition of Thomas’s Massachusetts Spy opened with a notice from the printer, Isaiah Thomas.  “THE Printer hereby gives notice,” he declared, “that, for the present he shall continue his business in Worcester.”  Thomas had arrived in town a year earlier.  In the spring of 1775, he advertised his intention to establish Worcester’s first printing office and newspaper and entrust both to a junior partner.  As the imperial crisis intensified, however, he departed Boston just before the battles at Lexington and Concord, relocated to Worcester beyond the reach of the British, and set himself up as the town’s new printer.  On May 3, 1775, he published the first issue of the Massachusetts Spy printed in Worcester.  A year later, he considered whether he wished to remain following the British evacuation of Boston.  Although he announced that “for the present he shall continue his business in Worcester,” a month later he leased the newspaper to William Stearns and Daniel Bigelow.  Thomas moved to Salem “with an intention to commence business in that place; but many obstructions to the plan arising in consequence of the war, he sold the printing materials which he carried to that town, and, in 1778, returned to Worcester, took into possession the press which he had left there, and resumed publication of the Spy.”[1]

In late April 1776, Thomas had not yet decided to leave Worcester.  In hopes of maintaining he business he pursued there, he issued a call for customers to pay their bills.  Throughout the colonies, printers (and other entrepreneurs) frequently ran similar notices.  Thomas did so occasionally and “once more, earnestly requests that all those who are indebted to him for News-Papers, Advertisements, &c. would pay him.”  Like other printers, he extended generous credit to subscribers and other customers.  Doing so put his business in a difficult position: “Although the sum due from each person is small, yet his accounts of this kind are so numerous, they were they paid, it would enable him to support his business with credit, and satisfaction to his readers and himself.”  Thomas emphasized the benefits to readers and the public – the quality of the newspaper – rather than taking a more common approach, threatening legal action against those who disregarded his notice.  In the era of the American revolution, printers often proclaimed that their communities should give them credit for publishing newspapers as a public service.

Thomas indicated that customers owed him for both newspapers and advertisements.  Historians of the early American press sometimes assert that printers allowed credit for subscriptions but insisted that advertisers pay for notice in advance.  Thomas’s notice may suggest that he took a different approach, but it depends on what he meant by “Advertisements.”  He could have referred to newspaper notices, though not necessarily.  He might have meant broadsides, handbills, and other advertising materials printed separately.  Thomas’s account books and correspondence may clarify which kinds of advertisements qualified for credit and which had to be paid before they went to press.

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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 Books, 1970), 181.

February 9

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Virginia Gazette [Purdie] (February 9, 1776).

“He remains the publick’s most obedient humble servant.”

When Archibald Diddep, a tailor in Williamsburg, wanted his customers to settle accounts, he resorted to an advertisement in Alexander Purdie’s Virginia Gazette.  Merchants, shopkeepers, artisans, and even printers frequently placed advertisements calling on their customers to pay for the goods and services they purchased on credit.  Sometimes they threatened legal action against those who did not submit payment shortly after such notices appeared in the public prints.  Diddep, on the other hand, used another strategy.

The tailor devised an advertisement that expressed his appreciation to his customers and solicited further business among the readers of the Virginia Gazette, nestling his address to those who owed him money among those other aspects of his notice.  He opened by stating that he “RETURNS his employers in general, and his old customers in particular, the most cordial thanks for past services.”  He then pledged that he “shall be ready to axecute any command which they may hereafter intrust him with.”  Yet he also wanted them to be aware of his circumstances that made it especially important that they make timely payment for the good service they received from the tailor.  “As his family is extensive, journeymens wages very high, and his creditors exceedingly solicitous for their due,” Diddep explained, “he hopes those whose accounts have been long standing will not take it amiss should he earnestly entreat them to make immediate payment.”  In other words, he did wish to bother customers who owed him money, but he wanted them to understand that he had a large family to feed, employees who earned a good living to pay, and creditors who were pressuring him.  The tailor hoped such appeals, playing on sympathy, would prove more effective than threatening to sue.  He also introduced a new policy, announcing that he expected customers “will not hesitate to tender down the cash so soon as their work is done” in the future.  Diddep politely discontinued credit at his shop.  Even with that softer touch, he did not conclude by focusing on finances.  Instead, he seized one last opportunity to generate business and highlight the quality of the service he provided.  “Ladies riding habits are still made by him,” he reminded readers.  For those who would give him business, he “remains the publick’s most obedient humble servant.”  It was a much softer approach than other newspaper notices that demanded customers settle accounts.

January 5

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Virginia Gazette [Purdie] (January 5, 1776).

“The PRINTER is reduced to the necessity of demanding half the year’s subscription money.”

In the final issue of his Virginia Gazette for 1775, Alexander Purdie called on subscribers “to pay in their subscriptions, to enable me to lay in a stock of paper for the winter,” and “all persons indebted to me for BOOKS, STATIONARY, [and] ADVERTISEMENTS” to settle their accounts.  He asserted that it was “impossible to carry on such an expensive business, to the publick’s or his own satisfaction, without punctual payment.”

A week later, Purdie expressed even more alarm in a notice in the first edition of his Virginia Gazette for 1776.  “CONSIDERING the great rise in the price of PAPER, the high expense attending the transportation of it to this place from Philadelphia, and the difficulty there is to procure it almost on any terms,” he explained, “the PRINTER is reduced to the necessity of demanding half the year’s subscription money from every new subscriber to his GAZETTE.”  Newspaper subscribers often enjoyed generous credit, but Purdie made clear that was not a viable option.  He simultaneously renewed his call “that those who owe him for the last 11 months” since he commenced publication of hisVirginia Gazette “send in their subscriptions” and “those that subscribed later … pay in to Dec. 31st … that he may begin a new account, this NEW YEAR, with all his customers.”  Like many other printers, Purdie believed that he performed a valuable service for the public, “hop[ing] to be able to furnish them always with pleasing intelligence, even in these boisterous times.”  Many readers may have considered “boisterous” an understatement as they read news and editorials about the war that commenced at Lexington and Concord the previous April.

Where Purdie placed his advertisement within the issue testifies to its urgency.  Like other newspapers of the era, his Virginia Gazette consisted of four pages printed on a broadsheet and folded in half.  Printers usually printed the first and fourth pages on one side, let it dry, and then printed the second and third pages on the other side.  That meant that the news and advertisements that arrived in the printing office most recently appeared on the second and third pages, inside the folded newspaper.  Purdie’s Virginia Gazette had a heading for “ADVERTISEMENTS” in the final column of the third page.  He could have followed the example of other printers and given his notice a privileged place as the first item under that heading.  Instead, he made it the first item in the first column on the fourth page.  He placed his notice in the upper left corner of the final page, making it the first advertisement readers encountered then they turned to that page.  That also guaranteed a spot for the printer’s notice.  Purdie made it a priority rather than risking that news he had not yet received would be of such significance to justify crowding out his notice.  Purdie made a savvy decision in choosing where to place his notice calling on subscribers and other customers to settle accounts.

December 29

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Virginia Gazette [Purdie] (December 29, 1775).

“All persons indebted to me for BOOKS, STATIONARY, ADVERTISEMENTS …”

As 1775 drew to a close, Alexander Purdie placed a notice in his own Virginia Gazette to tend to the business of running that newspaper.  A year earlier, he and his former partner, John Dixon, ended their partnership.  Dixon took a new partner, William Hunter, and continued printing the Virginia Gazette that he and Purdie had produced together for the last nine years.  Purdie immediately announced that he would commence printing a newspaper, that one also named the Virginia Gazette.  John Pinkney printed a third Virginia Gazette in Williamsburg.

Purdie’s experience and reputation apparently earned him enough customers to make his Virginia Gazette a viable enterprise, though he had to call on them to do their part by paying for the goods and services they purchased on credit.  “The end of the year approaching,” the printer explained, “I shall be much obliged to all my kind customers to pay in their subscriptions, to enable me to lay in a stock of paper for the winter, which useful article is now exceedingly scarce, and very dear.”  A variety of factors contributed to the scarcity of paper, including disruptions in trade with England due to the Continental Association and the outbreak of hostilities at Lexington and Concord in April.

Purdie did not call on subscribers alone to settle accounts.  Instead, he declared that “all persons indebted to me for BOOKS, STATIONARY, ADVERTISEMENTS, &c. will render me a very essential service by discharging their accounts.”  Yet, he placed the greatest emphasis on subscribers, adding a note that underscored the price and scarcity of paper.  “From the very great rise in the price of PAPER, as well as the difficulty of procuring it almost on any terms,” he proclaimed, “the Printer is reduced to the necessity of demanding half the year’s subscription money from every new subscriber to his Gazette.”  Such instructions deviated from the standard narrative about how early American printers ran their businesses.

Historians have often asserted that printers extended credit for subscriptions while requiring advertisers to pay in advance, recognizing advertising as the more significant revenue stream.  Throughout the colonies, many printers did frequent place notices asking, cajoling, and even threatening legal action in their effort to get subscribers to pay.  However, many also specified that subscribers were supposed to pay for half the year “upon entering.”  Difficult times forced Purdie to make that a condition for new subscribers.  He also seems to have extended credit for advertisements, though his notice did not make clear whether he meant newspaper notices or job printing (like handbills and broadsides) or both.  Even as printers followed standard practices, how they actually applied them varied from printing office to printing office.

September 9

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Providence Gazette (September 9, 1775).

“SUBSCRIBERS for the ROYAL AMERICAN MAGAZINE … are desired by the EDITOR thereof to … settle the balance upon that account.”

Joseph Greenleaf acquired the Royal American Magazine in the summer of 1774 and less than a year later suspended publication following the battles at Lexington and Concord.  Some subscribers apparently had not paid for issues already delivered to them, prompting Greenleaf to insert a notice in the June 9, 1775, edition of the Essex Journal.  It called on “Subscribers for the American Magazine at Newbury, Newbury-Port, and the vicinity … to pay their respective ballances to the month of March.”  That corresponded with the final issue of the magazine.

Three months later, Greenleaf’s son, Thomas, ran a similar advertisement in the Providence Gazette.  “THE SUBSCRIBERS for the ROYAL AMERICAN MAGAZINE, in this and the neighbouring towns,” the notice stated, “are desired by the EDITOR thereof,” Joseph, “to call upon the subscriber,” Thomas, “at J. CARTER’S printing-office, and settle the balance upon that account.”  In turn, Thomas “will give a full discharge.”  The younger Greenleaf “learned printing” from Isaiah Thomas, the printer of the Massachusetts Spy and the founder of the Royal American Magazine, and “managed his father’s printing house” in Boston until it closed in 1775.[1]  He left the city and migrated to Rhode Island, where he worked as a journeyman printer for John Carter, the printer of the Providence Gazette, from September 6, 1775, to April 10, 1776.[2]  The advertisement calling on local subscribers to the Royal American Magazine to settle accounts appeared in the first issue of the Providence Gazette published after Greenleaf began working in that printing office.  Even as he set about his new responsibilities, the journeyman renewed the efforts to collect payment from delinquent subscribers who had not paid for the magazines they received.  His advertisement was not as lively as the one placed by his father.  He did not lament “being driven from his house and business by the perfidious [General Thomas] Gage,” the governor and king’s representative in Massachusetts.  Instead, he left it to subscribers to realize why he no longer resided in Boston.  Some may have hoped that they could avoid settling accounts with the Greenleafs while they remained in Massachusetts, but the advertisement in the Providence Gazette reminded them of their obligation.

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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 Books, 1970), 175.

[2] Marcus A. McCorison, “The Wages of John Carter’s Journeyman Printers, 1771-1779,” Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society, 2nd ser., 81 (1971): 273-303.

June 9

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Essex Journal (June 9, 1775).

“The Editor being driven from his house and business by the perfidious [Thomas] Gage.”

Like so many other Bostonians, Joseph Greenleaf, the publisher of the Royal American Magazine, became a refugee who fled from the city during the siege that followed the battles at Lexington and Concord.  When the governor, General Thomas Gage, and the Massachusetts Provincial Congress agreed that Loyalists could enter the city and Patriots and others could depart, each with any of their effects they could transport (except for firearms and ammunition), Greenleaf removed to Watertown.  He crafted his own narrative of what happened in an advertisement that ran in the June 9, 1775, edition of the Essex Journal: “The Editor [was] driven from his house and business by the perfidious –– Gage in public violation of his most sacred engagements, leaving ALL (except Beds and some Clothing) behind.”  Apparently, Greenleaf had not managed to take his press or any of his supplies and other equipment with him.

He found himself in desperate need of money, deprived of his livelihood in Boston.  In his advertisement in the Essex Journal, published in Newburyport, Greenleaf called on “Subscribers for the American Magazine at Newbury, Newbury-Port, and the vicinity … to pay their respective ballances to the month of March, being fifteen months, to Bulkeley Emerson of Newbury-Port,” his local agent in that town.  In a single sentence, Greenleaf gave an abbreviated history of the Royal American Magazine.  The publication, first proposed by Isaiah Thomas in May 1773, had commenced publication with the January 1774 issue.  Thomas published several issues, fell behind, and then suspended the magazine due to the “Distresses” that he and everyone else in Boston experienced due to the Boston Port Act closing the harbor until colonizers made restitution for the tea destroyed there in December 1773.  Almost as soon as he announced that he suspended the Royal American Magazine, Thomas informed subscribers and the public that Greenleaf became the new proprietor.  From August 1774 through April 1775, Greenleaf worked diligently to publish the delinquent issues and get the magazine back on schedule.  He succeeded … until the beginning of the Revolutionary War became too disruptive to continue.

When Greenleaf became the proprietor of the magazine, Thomas transferred all the accounts to him.  Some subscribers thus owed for the entire fifteen months of the magazine’s run from January 1774 through March 1775.  Under the circumstances, the publisher could no longer afford to extend credit to them.  He prorated the subscription fees, but expected that “being driven from his house and business … will no doubt excite the Subscribers to be kindly Punctual, as it is at present the only dependence for support of the Person and Family of their Humble Servant.”  The war meant that Greenleaf could no longer do business as usual.  After leaving Boston, he needed subscribers to pay what they owed.

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The Adverts 250 Project has tracked the entire marketing campaign for the Royal American Magazine from Thomas’s first mention of distributing subscription proposals to Greenleaf’s last advertisements for the final issue.

June 5

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , ,

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

Boston-Gazette (June 5, 1775).

“THE Publisher of this Paper, sincerely returns Thanks to his former Customers for past Favours, and hopes for a Continuance.”

It was the first issue of the Boston-Gazette published in seven weeks.  It was also the first issue of the Boston-Gazette published in nearby Watertown rather than in Boston.  The newspaper underwent other changes following the battles at Lexington and Concord.  A notice placed by the printer (rather than by the printers) hinted at some of them.

Benjamin Edes and John Gill had been partners in publishing the Boston-Gazette since April 7, 1755.  Over the course of two decades, they developed a reputation as two of the printers who most ardently supported the Patriot cause.  In his diary entry for September 3, 1769, John Adams recorded that he joined Edes and Gill and other Sons of Liberty in spending the evening “preparing for the Next Days Newspaper – a curious Employment.  Cooking up Paragraphs, Articles, Occurences, &c. – working the political Engine!”  When the Revolutionary War began, all the newspapers in Boston either folded, relocated, or suspended publication.  Edes and Gill published their last issue on April 17, two days before the momentous events at Lexington and Concord.  They then dissolved their partnership.  Edes moved to Watertown and resumed publication with continuous numbering despite the change in location.  The Boston-Gazetteremained there more than a year with a new issue every Monday.  The last Watertown issue appeared on October 28, 1776.  On November 4, Edes once again published the Boston-Gazette in Boston.

The first issue in Watertown featured only four advertisements, two of them placed by the printer.  In one, Edes expressed his appreciation “to his former Customers for past Favours, and hope[d] for a Continuance” of their subscriptions.  He also needed “also those who are in Arrears, forthwith to discharge their respective Balances, in order to enable him to discharge his just Debts, at this very critical Season.”  In addition to cash, Edes needed other resources to continue publishing the Boston-Gazette.  Another advertisement announced, “CASH given for clean Cotton and Linnen RAGS, at the Printing Office in Watertown.”  Those rags would be made into paper.  Edes had limited access to that essential item; throughout most of the summer his newspaper consisted of only two pages (a half sheet) rather than the usual four pages (a full sheet).  The other two advertisements offered employment opportunities, one to “Journeymen Taylors” and the other to “Journeymen Saddlers.”  In addition, a notice at the top of the first column on the first page invited “THOSE Persons who are possessed of any of Governor Hutchinson’s Letters … to forward them to the Printer hereof, in order for Publication.”  Edes wished to embarrass the former governor and score political points, as he had done two years earlier.  The printer moved his press to Watertown, yet he continued the same political activism.

May 14

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , ,

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

New-Hampshire Gazette (May 12, 1775).

“Those who send Advertisements, are also desired to send the Pay at the same Time.”

On April 28, 1775, a little over a week after the battles at Lexington and Concord, Daniel Fowle, the printer of the New-Hampshire Gazette placed a notice calling on subscribers and other customers “to discharge what they may be in Arrears” and to do so “immediately, otherwise he shall be obliged to discontinue [the newspaper] for some Time.”  He added that all the newspapers published in Boston “are all stopt, and no more will be printed for the present.”  Fowle warned, “that must be done here unless the Customers attend to this call.”  He could not continue publishing the New-Hampshire Gazette without receiving payments for it.

Just two weeks later, he inserted another notice, declaring that he “Designs, if possible, to continue [the newspaper] a while longer, provided the Customers who are in Arrears pay off immediately, to enable him to purchase Paper, &c. which he is obliged to procure at a great Distance and Charge.”  This time he singled out advertisers, a cohort of customers that he had not explicitly mentioned in his previous notice.  “Those who send Advertisements,” Fowle instructed, “are also desired to send the Pay at the same Time.”  Furthermore, “those that are, and have been a long Time in Arrears for Advertisements, &c. are desir’d to pay off, and not oblige the Printer to be perpetually dunning for small Sums.”

In that notice, Fowle revealed an important aspect of his business practices.  Most printers extended credit to subscribers.  Fowle certainly did so, prompting his notices in late April and early May 1775, as well as other notices that he frequently inserted in the New-Hampshire Gazette over the years.  Many historians of the early American press posit that printers allowed for generous credit for subscriptions, permitting subscribers to avoid paying for years, because they generated significant revenue from advertisements.  Doing so, depended on advertisers having confidence in the circulation of newspapers, explaining why printers allowed some subscribers to fall years behind on making payments.  Accordingly, printers supposedly required advertisers to pay for their notices when they submitted them for publication.

Fowle’s notice in the May 12, 1775, edition of the New-Hampshire Gazette suggests that he did not demand payment before publishing advertisements in his newspaper.  The Adverts 250 Project has collected other notices in which printers called on customers to pay for advertisements, though in many cases the use of the word “advertisements” was ambiguous.  It could have meant newspapers notices or it could have referred to printing handbills and broadsides (especially for printers who asserted that they could print “advertisements” with only an hour’s notice).  In this case, however, it seems clear that Fowle meant newspaper notices when he stated, “Those who send Advertisements, are also desired to send the Pay at the same Time.”  Fowle and other printers very well may have adopted practices different from the usual narrative about printers uniformly requiring advertisers to pay in advance.

April 28

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , ,

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

New-Hampshire Gazette (April 28, 1775).

“The Boston News Papers we hear are all stopt.”

It was the sort of notice that printers throughout the colonies regularly inserted in their newspapers, though Daniel Fowle, the printer of the New-Hampshire Gazette in Portsmouth, may have done so with greater frequency than some of his counterparts in other towns.  “The Publisher of this Paper,” he declared on April 28, 1775, “has often called upon his Customers, to discharge what they may be in Arrears.”  This time, however, he did not threaten to stop sending copies to delinquent subscribers who did not pay their bills.  Instead, he suggested that the entire enterprise was at stake, that if he did not receive those payments “immediately” then “he shall be obliged to discontinue [the newspaper] for some Time.”  In other instances, printers addressed subscribers who had not paid in several years, but, again, this time was different.  Fowle proclaimed that “even those who owe but for half a Year are desired to pay off.”

To demonstrate the gravity of the situation, he reported that the “Boston News Papers we hear are all stopt, and no more will be printed for the present.”  Indeed, Fowle had heard correctly.  Five newspapers were published in Boston at the beginning of the month, but none continued uninterrupted by the end of April.  Isaiah Thomas removed the Massachusetts Spy to Worcester before the battles at Lexington and Concord on April 19.  Other printers suspended publication of their newspapers, believing that they would do so only “till Matters are in a more settled State.”  Yet it was the end for the Boston Evening-Post and the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Post-Boy.  The Boston-Gazette and the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter did eventually resume publication, though only the Boston-Gazette survived the Revolutionary War.

At that moment, neither Fowle nor his subscribers knew the fate of Boston’s newspapers or the New-Hampshire Gazette.  The printer asserted that he would cease publication “unless the Customers attend to this call.”  He did so on the same page that carried more extensive coverage of the events at Lexington and Concord than he had been able to publish in the previous issue because of the “different and contrary Accounts of the late Bloody Scene” received in the printing office in the hours immediately after something momentous happened.  When news about those engagements appeared in the April 28 edition, Fowle used thick black borders, usually associated with mourning, to draw attention.  He also inserted a note at the bottom of the first page: “See the other Side of the Paper an Account of the late Battle.”  In addition, instead of the usual four pages, that issue consisted of only two, an indication to readers that Fowle had limited resources.  If they wanted to continue receiving coverage in print to supplement what they heard by word of mouth, subscribers needed to “discharge what they may be in Arrears” and “do it immediately.”