Siege of Boston

September 8

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Pennsylvania Evening Post Extraordinary (September 8, 1775).

“The publisher would be very glad to have some more good original pieces handed to him.”

When Joseph Greenleaf ceased publication of the Royal American Magazine just after the battles at Lexington and Concord, Robert Aitken’s Pennsylvania Magazine, Or American Monthly Museum became the only magazine published in the American colonies.  Circumstances in Boston prevented Greenleaf from continuing production of his magazine, acquired from its founder, Isaiah Thomas, the previous summer.  Aitken had a more advantageous situation in Philadelphia.

Yet events unfolding in Massachusetts loomed large for Aitken and readers of the Pennsylvania Magazine.  When Samuel Loudon, a bookseller in New York, advertised subscriptions for the magazine in August 1775, he noted that the most recent issue came with a bonus item, a “new and correct Plan of the TOWN of BOSTON, and PROVINCIAL CAMP.”  Aitken highlighted coverage of the siege of Boston and the threat posed by British troops in his own advertisements.  In early September, he informed the public that the contents of the most recent issue included “several useful, curious and interesting original pieces both in prose and verse, embellished with an exact plan of General Gage’s lines on a large scale, with a description of the plan, number of cannon, shot, &c.”  When it came to disseminating news about the Continental Army facing off against British forces during the first months of the Revolutionary War, the Pennsylvania Magazine supplemented coverage in newspapers.

While Aitken certainly welcomed any accounts of current events in Massachusetts, he aimed to compile an array of “useful, curious and interesting” content for his readers.  To that end, he proclaimed that he “would be very glad to have some more good original pieces handed to him.”  During his time as publisher of the Royal American America, Thomas similarly ran advertisements seeking submissions.  He solicited “LUCUBRATIONS,” requesting that “Gentlemen” send them “with all speed to his Printing office.”  Aitken did not make his request solely of men, perhaps recognizing that genteel women participated in belles lettres literary circles as both readers and writers.  Women used pseudonyms, often classical allusions, in those circles.  They could do the same when sending pieces for the magazine.  “The exercise of different gifts or talents,” Aitken declared, “add much to the spirit of a Magazine.”  Like Thomas, he engaged in an eighteenth-century version of crowdsourcing to generate content for his magazine.

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 7

Carl Robert Keyes Uncategorized , , , , , ,

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

Connecticut Journal (June 7, 1775).

“He has left his Business and all his Property … for the Good of the Common Cause.”

In the summer of 1775, William Fallass, a “TAYLOR, from BOSTON,” relocated to New Haven, Connecticut.  Upon arriving in town, he placed a newspaper advertisement to introduce himself to his new neighbors and prospective customers.  Fallass announced that he “designs carrying on his Business in the Shop formerly occupied by Mr. Joseph Howell … and hopes to meet with Encouragement.”  The locals did not yet know him or his work by reputation, prompting him to declare that he “flatters himself that he shall give Satisfaction to those that please to favor him with their Custom.”  The newcomer pledged his best efforts for his clients.

He also offered another reason that residents of New Haven should hire his services.  He had not planned to relocate to another town but instead “left his Business and all his Property (Beds and Apparel excepted) for the Good of the Common Cause.”  The battles at Lexington and Concord and the ensuing siege of Boston upended Fallass’s life and livelihood.  In late April, the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, meeting in Watertown, negotiated with General Thomas Gage, the governor, for safe passage in or out of Boston.  Loyalists could move into the city; Patriots and others could depart.  In each instance, they could take their “Effects” with them, “excepting their Fire-Arms and Ammunition.”  The unfortunate Fallass did not manage to move most of his “Effects,” just his clothing and bedding.  He hoped that sacrifice “for the Good of the Common Cause” would endear him to prospective clients and entice them to do business with him, a refugee.

In that regard, Fallass made a more explicit appeal than Polly Allen and Lucy Allen, milliners and mantuamakers from Boston, did when they ran a newspaper advertisement in Providence earlier in the week.  In both cases, however, advertisements help in tracing the movement of men and women who departed Boston during the siege.  They did not merely leave the city for the countryside; many relocated to other colonies and attempted to revive their businesses in new places as the Revolutionary War began.  Articles and “letters of intelligence” relayed some accounts of current events, yet advertisements played another role in revealing the effects of the war on some colonizers.

June 3

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

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

Providence Gazette (June 3, 1775).

“POLLY and LUCY ALLEN, from Boston.”

On June 3, 1775, Polly Allen and Lucy Allen published an advertisement addressed “To the LADIES” in the Providence Gazette.  That notice served as an introduction upon their arrival in the city, informing prospective customers and the community that “all Kinds of Millenary and Mantuamaking are performed by them, at their House on the West Side of the Great Bridge.”  Since the Allens were new to town, they gave further directions that stated their location relative to a resident familiar to readers, stating that they could be found “next door to Amos Atwell’s, Esq.”  New on the scene, they could not rely on their reputation among an established clientele to generate business.  Instead, they assured prospective customers that they made hats and garments “in the neatest and genteelest Manner, and at the cheapest Rates.”  In addition to skillful work on fashionable clothing at the lowest prices, the Allens also pledged exemplary customer service, stating that “all who are pleased to favour them with their Custom may depend on being well used.”

As part of their introduction, the Allens described themselves as “from Boston.”  That made them refugees, of sorts, who had been displaced during the first weeks of the Revolutionary War.  Following the battles at Lexington and Concord on April 19, militias from throughout Massachusetts, joined by companies from other colonies, besieged Boston.  The Massachusetts Provincial Congress, meeting in Watertown, negotiated with General Thomas Gage, the governor, to allow Loyalists who wished to enter the city to do so.  In return, Patriots and other “Inhabitants of the Town of Boston” could leave.  In each case, they could take their effects with them, “excepting their Fire-Arms and Ammunition.”  The Allens apparently took advantage of safe passage out of the city, along with between 12.000 and 13,000 other residents.  When they introduced themselves in the Providence Gazette as “POLLY and LUCY ALLEN, from Boston,” they did not need to say more for readers to piece together why they chose to relocate at that moment.  The Allens may have hoped that their situation would evoke some sympathy among prospective customers or even some curiosity among those who wanted to hear for themselves what conditions had been like since the Boston Port Act closed the harbor a year earlier and, especially, during the siege in recent weeks.  Some clients may have headed to the Allens’ shop in hope of stories as well as new hats and dresses.

May 21

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter (May 19, 1775).

“Articles of Intelligence, foreign or domestic will be gratefully received.”

It was the first issue of the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter in a month.  Margaret Draper published an issue on April 20, 1775, the day after the battles at Lexington and Concord.  It carried some of the first newspaper coverage of those skirmishes.  Then the presses in Boston went quiet.  Isaiah Thomas had already removed the Massachusetts Spy to Worcester.  The Boston Evening-Post and the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Post-Boyceased publication altogether, while their printers suspended the Boston-Gazette and the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston News-Letter temporarily.  A city that had five newspapers at the beginning of April 1775 did not have any by the end of the month.

On May 19, the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter became the first to resume publication, though it did not manage to stick to a regular schedule during the siege of Boston.  A notice to the public filled most of the first column on the first page of that issue: “AS a Number of Gentlemen are very desirous of a Continuation of the MASSACHUSETTS-GAZETTE, the Proprietor therefore proposed to renew the Publication.”  The siege of Boston continued.  General Thomas Gage had allowed colonizers who wished to depart the city to do so, provided they did not take firearms with them when they departed.  These factors meant new “Conditions” for the newspaper.  It would “contain two Pages in Folio” instead of the usual four since paper was scarce.  In addition, “Communication with the Country is at present impeded” by the siege so “the Number of Customers it’s likely will be but few.”  That meant that “the Price to Subscribers cannot be less than Eight Shillings Lawful Money per Year, one Quarter to be paid at Entrance, and another Quarter Part at the end of three Months.”  Printers often extended credit to newspaper subscribers, but Draper did not have that luxury under the circumstances.  She noted that subsequent issues would appear upon achieving a certain number of subscriber, but that number was next to the left margin, unfortunately not visible in the digitized image of the issue bound into a volume with other editions of the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter.

Draper added a second notice immediately below the first.  “Emboldened by the encouraging assurances of a Number of respectable [gentlemen] … and being willing to oblige them as speedily as possible,” she declared, “we have ventured upon the Publication of the first Paper, hoping that a sufficient Number will be subscribed through the Course of the Week to encourage us to continue it weekly from this Time.”  The next two issues did come out on schedule on May 25 and June 1.  Draper further explained that the “Difficulties attending the Publication of a News-Paper, at this unhappy Period, when almost all Communication with the Continent is cut off, and so every regular Source of intelligence stopped, obliges us to [beg(?)] a twofold Share of that Candor we have formerly experienced.”  Draper needed assistance generating content for the revived Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter.  She suggested an eighteenth-century version of crowdsourcing among those who remained in the city: “we would take this Opportunity to request of Gentlemen who may at any Time be possessed of London Papers, that they would be so kind as to favour us with them.”  Furthermore, “Articles of Intelligences, foreign or domestic will be gratefully received; and if Gentlemen would take the Trouble of forwarding them to us, it would in a great Measure supply the Want of a regular weekly Conveyance.”  Printers regularly reprinted news from other newspapers they received through exchange networks, but Draper no longer had access to new issues of newspapers from other colonies.  She had to depend on other sources, including newspapers from London that residents of Boston had received from correspondents there. Advertisements could also fill some of the space, but few of those appeared in subsequent issues.

May 12

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

New-England Chronicle (May 12, 1775).

“We have removed our Printing-Office from Salem to this Place.”

Sameul Hall and Ebenezer Hall printed the first issue of the New-England Chronicle: Or, the Essex Gazette “at their Office in Stoughton-Hall, HARVARD COLLEGE,” on May 12, 1775.  As they explained in a notice to readers, “we have removed our Printing-Office from Salem to this Place” after receiving encouragement from “many respectable Gentlemen, Members of the Honourable Provincial Congress, and others.”  They did so during the siege of Boston that followed the battles at Lexington and Concord on April 19.  The several newspapers previously published in Boston either ceased or suspended publication, leaving Salem’s Essex Gazette as one of the only newspapers in the colony.  The Provincial Congress, recognizing the value of having ready access to a press and a weekly newspaper, invited the Halls, already known as vigorous advocates of the patriot cause, to join them in Cambridge.  When the Halls commenced printing the New-England Chronicle, they continued the volume and numbering of the Essex Gazette.

Still, circumstances made the New-England Chronicle a new newspaper in the eyes of many readers and renewed the commitment of the printers “to conduct the Business [of printing] in general, and this Paper in particular, in such a Manner as will best promote the public Good.”  The Halls proclaimed that it was imperative that they do so “at this important Crisis — when the Property, the LIVES, and (what is infinitely more valuable) the LIBERTY, of the good People of this Country, are in Danger of being torn from them by the cruel Hands of arbitrary Power.”  The printers made their editorial perspective clear as they introduced the new New-England Chronicle to the public and solicited subscribers.  They hoped to continue providing subscriptions to residents of Salem who had previously supported them, yet they also had an opportunity to expand circulation to new subscribers interested in keeping up with current events, including those who previously read newspapers published in Boston.  The Halls published the New-England Chronicle in Cambridge for eleven months, Samuel maintaining the newspaper on his own following Ebenezer’s death in February 1776.  The last issue printed in Cambridge appeared on April 4, 1776.  Soon after the British evacuated Boston on March 17, 1776, Samuel Hall moved the New-England Chronicle to Boston, dropped the reference to the Essex Gazette in the extended title, and continued the volume and numbering.

New-England Chronicle (May 12, 1775).