W.P. Bartlett

February 21

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , ,

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

Essex Gazette (February 21, 1775).

“GARDEN SEEDS.  Just imported … from LONDON.”

Each year the Adverts 250 Project chronicles the marketing efforts of women who sold garden seeds in Boston.  The appearance of their advertisements in the several newspapers published in that city heralded the changing of the seasons from winter to spring.  They participated in an annual ritual, not unlike printers who began advertising almanacs for the coming year each fall.  Their advertisements in the public prints signaled to readers that spring was indeed on its way.

Those advertisements sometimes appeared as early as the middle of February in years before the Continental Association went into effect on December 1, 1774.  The First Continental Congress devised that nonimportation agreement in response to the Coercive Acts.  By the end of the third week of February 1775, neither Susanna Renken, who was often the first to advertise garden seeds in the Boston press, nor any of her sister seed sellers published any advertisements.  In addition to the Continental Association constraining trade, the harbor had been closed to commerce because of the Boston Port Act since June 1, 1774.  In Salem, however, W.P. Bartlett advertised a “fresh Assortment of GARDEN SEEDS” in the February 21 edition of the Essex Gazette.

Bartlett reported that the seeds were “JUST IMPORTED, in the Venus, from LONDON.”  The “INWARD ENTRIES” from the custom house in the January 24 edition document the arrival of the Venus, establishing Bartlett received the shipment of seeds in the period between December 1, 1774, and February 1, 1775.  The tenth article of the Continental Association made provision for goods that arrived during that period, specifying that importers could refuse them, surrender them to the local Committee of Inspection to store while the nonimportation agreement remained in force, or transfer them to the committee to sell to recover the costs with any profits donated for the relief of Boston.

Some advertisements in the Essex Gazette and other newspapers indicated that importers opted for the third option, but other advertisements suggest that some disregarded the Continental Association.  In the same issue that carried Bartlett’s advertisement for garden seeds, Stephen Higginson hawked “English and India GOODS” that he “Just IMPORTED in the Venus … from London.”  That certainly defied the Continental Association.  What about the garden seeds that Bartlett peddled?  Did they deserve special consideration since they contributed to the “Frugality, Economy, and Industry” and promotion of “Agriculture, Arts, and the Manufactures of this Country” called for by the eighth article of the Continental Association?

December 28

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Essex Gazette (December 28, 1773).

“At private Sale, Choice Bohea Tea.”

Tea, tea, tea.  Everyone was talking about tea after Parliament passed the Tea Act in 1773.  That legislation allowed the East India Company to sell tea directly in colonies without paying export taxes in London.  This reduced the cost of tea for American consumers, but many colonizers resisted because this arrangement included paying duties when the tea was unloaded from the vessels once they arrived in American ports.  If they paid those duties, colonizers would implicitly recognize Parliament’s right to tax them.  They had rejected such assertions when they protested the Townshend Acts and, as a matter of principle, rejected them once again, even when presented with the prospect of buying tea at lower prices.  Many also worried about greater enforcement to prevent smuggling, realizing that they illicit trade also yielded bargain prices.

The talk about tea continued as colonizers anticipated the arrival of ships carrying tea belonging to the East India Company.  The talk about tea continued when three of ships arrived in Boston and residents prevented them from unloading their cargo.  The talk about tea continued after the destruction of that tea during a protest now known as the Boston Tea Party.  The December 28, 1773, edition of the Essex Gazette, for instance, featured plenty of talk about tea.  Two of the three columns on the first page covered the “Proceedings of the PEOPLE, previous to the Destruction of the Tea at Boston.”  The final column followed up with “the following Particulars respecting that HAPPY EVENT, the Destruction of the East-India Company’s ministerial Tea,” reprinted from the December 23 edition of the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter.  At the bottom of that column, a short item with a dateline from “NEWPORT, December 13,” reported that “[b]y a letter from Boston, it seems as though our brethren there had some fears that we should receive the India Company’s detestable Tea; but we think it may be safely affirmed, that it will not be suffered to be sold here.”  Furthermore, there would be consequences “if landed, which is scare possible.”  The article proclaimed that such tea “will be reshipped on board the LIBERTY, and sent to GASPEE, the first favourable wind or weather,” invoking memories of another significant protest, the burning of the Gaspee in June 1772.  Elsewhere in that issue, news articles of varying lengths summarized talk about tea in New York, Philadelphia, and Portsmouth.

Among all that talk about tea, W.P. Bartlett, an auctioneer, advertised “Choice Bohea Tea” available “At private Sale.”  In Salem as in Boston, advertising, selling, buying, and drinking tea did not cease immediately as a rection to the Boston Tea Party.  Tea remained on the market as colonizers continue to debate what to do about tea and how to continue protesting against the Tea Act.