Taverns as Political Venues

October 3

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Post-Boy (October 3, 1774)

“I beg the Favour of such Tavern Keepers to send their Names immediately to MILLS and HICKS.”

The first advertisement in the October 3, 1774, edition of the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Post-Boy, purportedly placed by Isaac Bickerstaff, announced the impending publication of an “ALMANACK for 1775.”  Bickerstaff, however, was a pseudonym.  Benjamin West provided the astronomical calculations, though Nathaniel Mills and John Hicks, the printers of both the newspaper and the almanac, likely compiled the rest of the content for Bickerstaff’s Boston Almanack, for the Year of Our Redemption 1775.  That explains the privileged place the advertisement received.

Yet Mills and Hicks did not insert this notice immediately after the news merely in hopes of increasing sales for the almanac once it went to press.  They also deployed it as a means of crowdsourcing some of the contents.  Writing as Bickerstaff, the printers requested, “If any new Houses of Entertainment have been opened, or if any were omitted in my last ALMANACK, I beg the Favour of such Tavern Keepers to send their Names immediately to MILLS and HICKS.”  The printers would then pass along those entries to “Bickerstaff” to incorporate into “his” forthcoming almanac, but any proprietors who wished to have their establishments included needed to act quickly or risk missing out on the opportunity.

This advertisement previewed some of the useful contents of the almanac for prospective buyers, including those who lived outside Boston but might have occasion to visit.  Yet Mills and Hicks did not provide a list of taverns only to direct readers to “Houses of Entertainment” where they could eat, drink, and socialize.  Instead, they put together a guide to places where customers could expect to discuss politics and learn more about current events, realizing that taverns were popular places for stoking political engagement during the imperial crisis.  At the time Mills and Hicks published their advertisement, the harbor was closed due to the Boston Port Act and the other Coercive Acts enraged residents of city.  Mills and Hicks disseminated news and opinion via their weekly newspaper, but they also knew that a lot of information circulated among patrons gathered in taverns.  A list of “Houses of Entertainment” served as a compendium of places for discussing politics and hearing the latest updates before they appeared in print.

November 21

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Nov 21 - 11:21:1769 Essex Gazette
Essex Gazette (November 21, 1769).

“Meet at the King’s-Arms Tavern in Salem.”

The King’s Arms Tavern in Salem was more than just a place for colonists to eat, drink, and socialize. It was also a place for men to gather to conduct business of various sorts, sometimes mercantile but other times political.   Two advertisements in the November 21, 1769, edition of the Essex Gazette called on colonists to attend meetings at the King’s Arms Tavern.

The first concerned a meeting to be held that day. Dated November 13, it originally ran in the previous issue, giving a week’s notice about a meeting for the “Gentlemen of the Committees, chosen by the Towns of Salem, Marblehead and Gloucester, on the Affair of the Fishermen, paying to Greenwich Hospital.” This matter concerned “allowances” of six pence a month that according to laws passed by Parliament in the early eighteenth century seamen were expected to pay to support the Greenwich Hospital in England. Since that institution provided for the widows and children of seamen, Parliament deemed it only fair that seamen should provide the funds for its operation. It was sometimes possible, however, to receive exemptions.[1] For the maritime communities of Salem, Marblehead, and Gloucester, this represented an important political issue, one that predated the Stamp Act, the Townshend Acts, and other legislation passed by Parliament after the Seven Years War,

The second advertisement announcing a meeting at the King’s Arms Tavern gave only one day’s notice. It informed the “Merchants and Traders of this Town, who are Importers of British Manufactures, &c. from Great Britain” of a gathering at the tavern in the evening of the following day. Presumably this meeting concerned nonimportation agreements enacted in protest of the duties imposed on paper, glass, tea, and other goods imported from Britain.

Both of these meetings had political overtones, indicating that colonists gathered at the King’s Arms Tavern, like so many other taverns in colonial America, to practice politics. Taverns were not establishments devoted solely to entertainment. Instead, they were places for exchanging information and formulating plans to take political action. As the events that led to the American Revolution unfolded, meetings in taverns played a significant role, rivaling those gatherings held in colonial assemblies. Power emanated from both venues, not just the one with elected representatives.

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[1] Allyn B. Forbes, “Greenwich Hospital Money,” New England Quarterly 3, no. 3 (July 1930): 519-526.