Thomas Achincloss

October 22

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

New-Hampshire Gazette (October 22, 1773).

“A neat and elegant Assortment of MERCERY, HABERDASHERY, and WOOLEN GOODS.”

Daniel Fowle, the printer of the New-Hampshire Gazette, apparently experienced some sort of disruption in his paper supply in the fall of 1773.  For several weeks, he issued a broadsheet newspaper with four columns on each side rather than the usual standard edition that consisted of three columns on each of four pages.  That meant that he delivered eight columns of news, advertising, and other contents rather than twelve.  It was not the first time in recent years that Fowle made some sort of substitution when he did not have access to sheets of the usual size.

In this instance, that meant Thomas Achincloss’s lengthy advertisement in the October 22 edition accounted for an even greater proportion of the space on the broadsheet than if it had appeared in a standard issue at some other time.  It filled half a column.  Achincloss advised readers that he recently imported and offered for sale a “neat and elegant Assortment of MERCERY, HABERDASHERY, and WOOLEN GOODS,” though most of the advertisement consisted of an extensive list of his wares.  He stocked “Calicoes, newest Patterns,” a “Genteel Assortment of Chintzes,” and “Laces, Knee Straps, [and] Necklaces, different qualities, newest and most fashionable,” along with a variety of other textiles and accessories enumerated in his notice.  Achincloss supplemented that merchandise with a “neat Assortment of Hardware,” an “assortment of Bibles and Testaments, also of various Books and Stationary Ware,” and “Men’s Saddles” and “Riding Whips.”  He presented a multitude of choices to consumers in Portsmouth and nearby towns.

Achincloss realized that promoting this selection may not have been enough to draw prospective customers to his shop.  To incite demand, he made appeals to price before and after describing his inventory.  He initially stated that he sold his goods “at a very low advance” (or only a small markup), but went into more detail in a nota bene at the end of the advertisement.  “The Public may depend, and be assured,” Achincloss declared, “that the Goods being from first Hands and Manufacturers, will be afforded upon as low terms, as any in the place can.”  In other words, Achincloss claimed that he acquired these goods directly from the producers rather than middlemen merchants.  That kept his costs low, allowing him to pass along the savings to his customers.  In turn, he set competitive prices that matched the best deals available in Portsmouth.

The amount of space that Achincloss’s advertisement occupied may have attracted attention.  Once readers perused it, they encountered an array of choices, especially among the dozens of textiles that the shopkeeper listed, as well as assurances of low prices.  In crafting this notice, Achincloss deployed some of the most common marketing strategies in use throughout the colonies.

July 6

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Jul 6 - 7:6:1770 New-Hampshire Gazette
New-Hampshire Gazette (July 6, 1770).

“At the Sign of the Marquis of Rockingham.”

In early July 1770, Thomas Achincloss placed an advertisement in the New-Hampshire Gazette to inform consumers that he sold “a Variety of English Goods, suitable to the Season,” at his shop on King Street in Portsmouth.  To help prospective customers identify his location, he reported that his shop was “next Door to Jacob Tilton’s,” an inn and tavern “at the Sign of the Marquis of Rockingham.”  Tilton’s choice of a device to mark his establishment resonated with cultural and political meaning in ways that other tavern and shop signs often did not.  Samuel Wheeler, a cutler in Philadelphia, marked his workshop with “the sign of the Scythe, Sickle and Brand-iron.”  His sign depicted the products he made and sold.  Duffield and Delany, druggists in Philadelphia, operated their shop “At Boerhaave’s Head.”  Like other eighteenth-century apothecaries, they associated Herman Boerhaave, the influential Dutch physician and botanist, with their business due to his renown as a healer.

In contrast, Tilton did not name his inn and tavern for the Marquis of Rockingham due to any particular connection between the British peer and keeping a public house but instead as a cultural and political statement.  Charles Watson-Wentworth, the second Marquess of Rockingham, served as Prime Minister from July 13, 1765, through July 30, 1766.  During that brief tenure in the office, the American colonies dominated Parliament’s attention.  The Stamp Act went into effect on November 1, 1765, but Rockingham wished to repeal it.  The House of Commons heard testimony about the Stamp Act for three days in February 1766 and voted to repeal the measure on February 21.  George III gave royal assent on March 18.  Internal dissent within the cabinet lead to Rockingham’s resignation a few months later.  He spent the next years in opposition, further enhancing his reputation as a supporter of constitutional rights for the American colonies.  He would briefly become Prime Minister again in 1782, during the final years of the American Revolution.  He used his influence to encourage the British government to acknowledge the independence of the United States.  Already in the late 1760s and early 1770s, the Marquis of Rockingham had a reputation as a friend to the American colonies and a defender of their liberties within the British Empire.  Tilton recognized this and amplified Rockingham’s political stance by making him the personification of the inn and tavern he ran in Portsmouth, New Hampshire during the era of the imperial crisis that ultimately resulted in the American Revolution.