William Stearns

July 5

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

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

Massachusetts Spy (July 5, 1776).

“The freshest and most important advices will be propagated TWO DAYS SOONER.”

After the siege of Boston ended, Isaiah Thomas considered seeking new opportunities in the city where he had formerly operated a printing office or perhaps in Salem or elsewhere along the coast.  In the spring of 1775, he relocated to Worcester just before the battles at Lexington and Concord.  He had already planned to open a printing office there, establish the town’s first newspaper, and install a junior partner to oversee both endeavors, but the outbreak of hostilities caused him to transfer the Massachusetts Spy from Boston to Worcester and print it himself.  Once the British evacuated Boston in March 1776, Thomas contemplated what to do next.  In June, he transferred the Massachusetts Spyto William Stearns and Daniel Bigelow.

Two weeks after publishing their first issue, Stearns and Bigelow inserted an announcement in the July 5 edition to inform readers that they were changing the publication day of the weekly newspaper from Friday to Wednesday.  They explained the “motive inducing us to make this alteration is, that, most probably, the scene of ACTION will, for a considerable time to come, be in the Southern, Western, and Northern parts of the Continent; which, consequently, will be our greatest sources of intelligence.”  In other words, now that Boston was not at the center of the war, the printers adjusted the publication day to accommodate when they received news from the south, through networks that included New York and Philadelphia, rather than from Boston and its surrounding towns to the east.  “The reason of the Publication of this paper on Friday,” Stearns and Bigelow elaborated, “was, that HEAD-QUARTERS were then in this colony, the principal Seat of Military operation.”  Since that was no longer the case, “the Propriety [of publishing the Massachusetts Spy on Friday] ceases.”  Instead, the “Southern Mail (containing the most material news from all the parts abovementioned) arrives here regularly every Tuesday night.”  By moving publication to Wednesday, “the freshest and most important advices will be propagated TWO DAYS SOONER, than in the present practice.”  Stearns and Bigelow framed this as part of their “uninterrupted endeavour to serve the PUBLIC with the utmost fidelity.”  The printers planned to make the change immediately.  The next issue would be published on Wednesday, July 10, just five days after the issue announcing the change.

At the same time, Stearns and Bigelow attempted to increase the number of subscribers.  In addition to receiving subscriptions at the printing office in Worcester, they also designated local agents in a dozen towns in central Massachusetts and noted that “other gentlemen in various parts of the colony” collected the names of subscribers.  They also planned to hire riders to carry the Massachusetts Spy to other towns on Wednesday night “[i]f a sufficient number of subscribers should appear.”

Thomas had built his reputation through his long experience as a printer.  Stearns and Bigelow did not have the same advantage, yet they likely hoped that proactively adjusting the day of publication, enlisting local agents to accept subscriptions, and hiring riders to deliver newspapers if the number warranted doing so would cultivate confidence among current and prospective subscribers.  They did not have Thomas’s experience, but they demonstrated that they were responsive to changing conditions and would cater to the convenience of their customers.

June 21

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

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

Massachusetts Spy (June 21, 1776).

“ISAIAH THOMAS, having relinquished the Printing business in Worcester.”

The title changed from Thomas’s Massachusetts Spy to The Massachusetts Spy with issue “NUMB. 269” on June 21, 1776.  Two months earlier, Isaiah Thomas informed readers that he intended to remain in Worcester “for the present,” but since then he decided to pursue new opportunities in Salem.  He previewed that decision in a notice in the May 31 edition, the last one he published.  In a lengthy address on the first page, William Stearns and Daniel Bigelow, the new “publishers of this Paper,” informed the public that Thomas “relinquished the Printing business in Worcester” to them.  They now occupied the printing office “near the COURT-HOUSE,” where they undertook “the various branches of said business with the utmost care and fidelity, and will exert their utmost efforts to procure authentic intelligence of affairs, in the various parts of this continent and elsewhere.”  They hoped to attract customers for job printing as well and maintain and expand their subscribers.

The title shifted slightly, but the subtitle, American Oracle of Liberty, remained the same.  Stearns and Bigelow made their editorial stance clear in their address.  “At a time when OUR ALL is at stake, when no less than the fate of the STATES of AMERICA is in agitation,” they proclaimed, “then (of all times) the means of conveying intelligence ought to be encouraged.”  That meant that subscribers had a duty to continue to subscribe and others had a responsibility to support Worcester’s only newspaper by becoming subscribers, placing advertisements, and sharing news as they received it in letters and by other means.  In turn, the printers would do their civic duty.  “The liberty and free exercise of the PRESS,” Stearns and Bigelow continued, “is the greatest temporal safeguard of the state—it assists the civil magistrate in wielding the sword of justice—holds up to public view the vicious, and in their odious colours— … —It detects political impostors, and is a terrific scourge to tyrants.”  Readers could expect the same vigilance and advocacy for the American cause from Stearns and Bigelow that Thomas had a reputation for delivering.

Following Stearns and Bigelow’s address, Thomas inserted a brief notice in which he expressed “sincere thanks to those gentlemen who have settelled with him for News-Papers for the year past.”  The spelling error may have been an actual error rather than an eighteenth-century variation.  Despite their pledge to “do services highly beneficial to their oppressed brethren” in central Massachusetts, their skill as printers paled in comparison to Thomas.  For his part, the printer did not offer words of encouragement or general expressions of gratitude as he departed Worcester.  After thanking subscribers who already settled accounts, he called on those who still owed to “pay their respective balances” to Stearns and Bigelow.  After a hiatus of three weeks, a new issue of the Massachusetts Spy carried news (and a couple of advertisements) to readers.  When news of the Declaration of Independence reached Worcester about three weeks later, Thomas may (or may not) have made the first public reading in New England, but he no longer ran his own newspaper.  He published an account of the battles at Lexington and Concord in the first edition of the Massachusetts Spy printed in Worcester, but now others would cover the Declaration of Independence and its reception in the commonwealth of Massachusetts and other states.