Shoplifting

October 6

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Freeman’s Journal (October 5, 1776).

“Return or pay for it … or expect a visit from some one more inquisitive than polite.”

During the era of the American Revolution, newspapers frequently carried advertisements about thefts and burglaries, usually describing the items taken and offering rewards for bringing the culprits to justice.  If possible, the victims also wanted the stolen goods returned, asking readers to “stop” or confiscate them if they encountered them in the marketplace.  In some instances, the advertisements identified who had taken the items, but in most cases they relied on describing the goods as a means of identifying the burglars and thieves.  Such instances gave some people, both those who stole the goods and those who purchased them via what Serena Zabin has termed an “informal economy,” opportunities to participate in the transatlantic consumer revolution.

The victim of a theft in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in the fall of 1776 seemed to know who had taken “a Piece of back Taffety Ribbon off the counter, in a shop in Queen Street.”  The unfortunate shopkeeper placed an advertisement in the October 5 edition of the Freeman’s Journal, informing the woman who absconded with the ribbon that “the proper owner is not at all disposed to give it to her.”  The shopkeeper advised the shoplifter “to return or pay for” the ribbon “without further notice” or else “expect a visit from some one more inquisitive than polite.”  Whether that person was the shopkeeper, someone with standing to arrest or prosecute the shoplifter, or someone with a more unsavory character, the advertisement did not specify, leaving it to the imagination of the woman who stole the ribbon.  The shopkeeper also noted that the shoplifter took the ribbon “between 12 and 1 o’clock at noon, on Friday the 20th” of September, giving such precise details to imply that the shopkeeper did indeed know the identity of the shoplifter and could dispatch “some one more inquisitive than polite” to visit her to remedy the matter.  Most advertisements about thefts and burglaries called on the public for assistance, but this advertisement about a shoplifter addressed a single reader, the shoplifter herself, as the shopkeeper took a different approach to using the power of the press to recover the stolen goods.

October 2

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Oct 2 - 10:2:1767 New-London Gazette
New-London Gazette (October 2, 1767).

“WILLIAM ROGERS, a notorious villain, for shop lifting.”

In the fall of 1767, William Crossing placed an advertisement in the New-London Gazette to warn readers that William Rogers, a “notorious villain,” had escaped from his custody. According to Crossing, he had “lawful authority to hold” Rogers “for shop lifting.” Advertisements concerning theft appeared regularly in newspapers throughout the colonies. Sometimes retailers indicated that goods had been stolen from their shops. Other times advertisers reported that thieves took items from their homes. Theft, rather than purchasing, became an alternate means for some colonists to participate in the consumer revolution in eighteenth-century America.

Crossing described a particular kind of theft: “shop lifting.” While it came as no surprise that this crime existed in colonial America, the use of that particular term to describe it made me wonder when “shoplifting” entered the English lexicon. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, “shoplift” was used as a noun as early as 1665 and as a verb as early as 1756 (a little over a decade before it appeared in today’s advertisement). Describing “one that steals out of shops” as a “shoplift” has fallen out of use, now described by the OED as historical and rare. The term “shoplifter,” on the other hand, has survived from the 1660s and is still in common use today.

Although “shoplift” and “shoplifter” described petty criminals in Restoration England, the OED does not include any examples of “shoplift” as a verb until nearly a century later, when it appeared in the July 22, 1756, edition of London’s Public Advertiser. The newspaper reported on fabrics stolen from a linen draper’s shop. The OED also indicates that the word “lyft” had been in use as early as 1585. In 1824, Sir Henry Ellis, a prominent antiquarian and eventually principal librarian of the British Museum, noted the meanings of several words associated with theft in Early Modern English: “ffoyste is to cutt a pocket, nyppe is to cut a purse, lyft is to robbe a shoppe.” In its original iteration, “lyft” did not need further clarification to indicate that it referred to stealing goods from a shop while pretending to be a customer. The origins of the term “shop lifting” date back to the time of Shakespeare, long before the transatlantic consumer revolution of the eighteenth century.