Rag Linen | Online Museum of Historic Newspapers

After extensive archive and internet research, including a few email exchanges with the British Library, it is my conclusion that the first official British newspaper report of the actual July 4th Declaration was published in the August 10 to 13, 1776, London Chronicle.  While the full printing of the Declaration appeared four days later in the August 17 issue of the Chronicle, the August 13 issue features on page three a brief, but hugely significant and historically important breaking news announcement:

Advice is received that the Congress resolved upon independence the 4th of July; and, it is said, have declared war against Great Britain in form.

With this, the people of England learned for the first time that America had officially declared itself independent.  According to history.com, news of the Declaration arrived in London on Saturday, August 10, 1776, and, at approximately 1300 words, took some time to typeset.  The London Gazette also published an August 10 to 13, 1776, issue, but it lacked any mention of the Declaration.  As the official court organ, and perhaps to avoid royal embarrassment, the Gazette also refrained from printing the entire text of the Declaration while other “Mother Country” newspapers jumped at it, including the London Chronicle (Aug 17 – first in Europe), Edinburgh Advertiser (Aug 20), Edinburgh Evening Courant (Aug 21), Belfast News-Letter (Aug 27), etc.  Click the article image to enlarge and read the first British news of America’s July 4th independence, as reported in the London Chronicle, August 13, 1776.

J.L. Bell wrote today about “The Origin of ‘Live Free or Die’” on his Boston 1775 blog. He points to correspondence between a Vermont committee and General John Stark in 1810 as the source of New Hampshire’s motto.

This past weekend, a similar slogan jumped out at me as I was reading the 1774 September 5 Massachusetts Gazette, which is loaded with fascinating content related to the Powder Alarm, and the forced resignations and Massachusetts turbulence caused by the Massachusetts Government Act.  It was one short paragraph, two sentences long, under the dateline “BOSTON, September 5,” that stood out on the third page of the issue:

The spirit of the people, was never known to be so great since the first settlement of the colonies, as it is at this time. People in the country for hundreds of miles, are prepared and determine[d] to “DIE or be FREE.”

“Die or be free” was published by a handful of newspapers throughout the colonies in late 1774 (RI, CT, MA) and then again after Lexington and Concord in 1775 (CT, NY, VA, PA, MA, RI, MD). It also appeared as early as 1769 in the masthead of Solomon Southwick’s Newport Mercury: “Undaunted by Tyrants – we’ll die or be Free”.

As research for his forthcoming book 1775, Derek W. Beck uncovered photos of Dr. Joseph Warren’s skull, which support the idea that Warren was shot facing his enemy, at close range, during the Battle of Bunker Hill. As Beck summarizes:

“Dr. Joseph Warren was shot in the face, looking at his assailant, and given the exit wound, he undoubtedly died instantly. He made no final speeches. He was not shot in the back of the head while retreating. Whether he rallied a few steadfast Yanks to give a final volley into the oncoming British is unknown, but Dr. Warren certainly died facing the swarm of redcoats as they poured over the Breed’s Hill redoubt toward him.”

J.L. Bell also writes about Warren’s death and Beck’s photographic discovery on his Boston 1775 blog. According to Bell:

“After the doctor was killed at Bunker Hill, the British forces put his body in a shared grave, and then after the siege of Boston—on 4 Apr 1776, in fact—the Americans dug him up again… Physicians, including Warren’s brother John, examined this skull in some detail in 1776 to be sure the body was actually his; eventually Paul Revere identified his dental work.”

As Rag Linen’s contribution to the conversation, below are two newspaper reports of great significance and insight to the subject matter of Warren’s death. The top photo, from the 1775 June 29 New England Chronicle (printed in Cambridge, MA, at Harvard College, 3.5 miles west of Breed’s Hill), is a first report of Warren’s death. The second photo, from the 1776 April 25 New England Chronicle (printed in Boston), is the news of Warren’s reinterment and identifying his body by two false teeth. The last paragraph is the latter report is difficult to read so I provided a transcription below.

The last paragraph, difficult to read because of an archival repair to the paper, is transcribed below:

Though the Body (which our savage enemies “scarce privileged with earth enough to hide it from the birds of prey”) was disfigured, when taken up, yet was sufficiently known by two artificial teeth, which were set for him a short time before his glorious exit.

This is a quick follow up to my previous post that featured the 1775 April 17 issue of the Boston Evening-Post. That issue, published by Thomas and John Fleet two days before the Battle of Lexington and Concord, turned out to be its second to last issue under the Fleet brothers.

From the same issue, below is an excerpt containing a variety of local news, including the adjournment of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, which was meeting in Concord. The right column also includes details of “Parties of Minute Men” who captured 29 Tories and forced them to “behave better”.

Without any mention in the issue, the 1775 April 6 edition of Isaiah Thomas’s Massachusetts Spy — featuring the famous serpent “Join or Die” cartoon in the name plate — was his last from Boston.  As the colophon states, it was printed at the “South-Corner of MARSHALL’s-LANE, leading from the MILL-BRIDGE into UNION STREET,” Boston.

In the colophon, Thomas also boasted having “the greatest CIRCULATION of any in New-England.”  While the average subscriber base of New England newspapers was closer to 600 in 1775, the Patriot Boston Gazette and Massachusetts Spy saw their numbers skyrocket during the Revolutionary crisis. The Spy claimed one of the largest circulations in colonial America with 3500.

On the eve of war, 10 days after his last Boston issue, Thomas moved his presses a safe distance from Boston — 42 miles west to the country town of Worcester.

During his rush of packing and moving, Thomas apparently only had time and funds to order two advertisements in other Boston newspapers.  The first ran in the 1775 April 10 issue of the Boston Post-Boy.  The second published a day after Thomas’s actual move date, 1775 April 17, in the Boston Evening-Post.  The second ad, pictured below, “begs the continuance of the favors of his good Customers.”

Unfortunately, Thomas’s begging didn’t work.  By 1780, the circulation of the Massachusetts Spy sank to between 300 and 500, a total circulation loss of about 90 percent in five years. Click here for more details and sources of 18th century newspaper circulations.

Thomas’s advertisement in the Evening-Post also claimed the move from Boston to Worcester was temporary. “As soon as the tranquility of this unfortunate Capital is restored, he intends returning to this Place and serving them as usual.”   That never happened.

According to the American Antiquarian Society, which Thomas founded in 1812, “after the war, Thomas continued to live and work in Worcester. In partnership with former apprentices, he owned several printing offices and bookstores, as well as paper mills and a bindery, employing over one hundred and fifty people. Thomas published newspapers, broadsides, sheet music, periodicals, pamphlets, and a yearly almanac. He produced over four hundred book titles for both adult and juvenile readers, including the first dictionary printed in America and the first American edition of Mother Goose’s Melody (1786). Thomas was Worcester’s postmaster from 1775 to 1801. He joined the Order of Freemasons in Worcester in 1793 and became Grand Master of Massachusetts in 1802. In that year, at the age of fifty-three, Thomas retired to pursue his interests in the history of the young nation and in the origins of printing.”

***Speaking of revolutionary printing, a colonial-era print shop will be opening April 15, 2011, on Boston’s historic Freedom Trail. Rag Linen is honored to have a seat on the new shop’s executive board. For more details about the Printing Office of Edes & Gill, visit bostongazette.org (we also designed their website).

The below advertisement was published in the bottom right-hand corner, page three, of the 1775 April 17 issue of the Boston Evening-Post, which turned out to be its second to last issue.  Published by Thomas and John Fleet, the Evening-Post concluded its run on April 24, 1775, with this passage: “The unlucky transactions of the last week are so variously related, that we shall not at present undertake to give any particular account thereof.  The Printers of the Boston Evening Post hereby inform the Town that they shall desist publishing the papers after this day, till matters are in a more settled state.”

Chapter five is one of my favorites in T.H. Breen’s American Insurgents, American Patriots. It’s titled “The Power of Rumor: The Day the British Destroyed Boston” and focuses on “a frightening rumor that triggered an equally frightening response.”  Below are excerpts from the September 16 and 23, 1774, issues of the New Hampshire Gazette that report 40,000 to 80,000 men in arms who mobilized upon learning the rumored bombardment of Boston.

According to research by Michael Kalin for Paul Revere’s Ride by David Hackett Fischer, between the winters of 1773 and 1775, Paul Revere had two dozen revolutionary rides. Each ride had a unique purpose, including explaining the Tea Party, spreading news of the Intolerable Acts, warning of British attacks and meetings with Whig leaders.  One of Revere’s rides — to share the Suffolk Resolves with the Continental Congress and return with the congressional response — was well documented in the September 30, 1774, issue of the New-Hampshire Gazette. As background, below is an excerpt from Fischer’s book:

In the summer, representatives from towns in Suffolk County, met together, and agreed to a set of resolutions drafted by Dr. Joseph Warren. These “Suffolk Resolves” proclaimed the Intolerable Acts to be unconstitutional and recommended sanctions against Britain. They also urged the people of Massachusetts to form their own government, and prepare to fight in its defense.

After the vote, Paul Revere saddled his horse and carried the Suffolk Resolves to Philadelphia. His mission was urgent. The Continental Congress was in session and waiting for news from New England. Revere left Boston on September 11, 1774, and reached Philadelphia on September 16, nearly 350 miles on rough and winding 18th-century roads in the unprecedented time of five days. The next day, Congress agreed to a ringing endorsement of the Suffolk Resolves — a decisive step on the road to revolution. Paul Revere started home again on September 18, and was in Boston on the 23rd, with news that greatly encouraged resistance in New England.

The response that Paul Revere brought back to Boston, as printed in the New-Hampshire Gazette, is pictured below. Mention of Paul Revere, particularly with reference to a famous ride like this one, is extremely rare.

About three weeks after George Washington learned of Benedict Arnold’s treason, the Boston Gazette published an issue loaded with juicy details. Among the articles was an extract from Nathanael Greene’s orders, mis-dated September 16, 1780, instead of September 26.  Below is the extract:

While reading Benjamin Carp’s terrific new book, Defiance of the Patriots: The Boston Tea Party & The Making of America, I yearned for a supplemental reference guide to help me visualize the stages of the colonial American tea trade before and after the Tea Act of 1773.  This past weekend, I reached out to @bencarp on Twitter and we quickly collaborated to create the following reference guide.  Carp provided the content while I provided the design.  Pick up your copy of Carp’s Boston Tea Party book today and download a print-ready, high-resolution version of the 18th century tea trade guide by clicking the image below or clicking here.  Design geeks will appreciate the fact that the typeface used in this reference guide is Caslon, the same typeface 18th century printers all across Europe and the American colonies used to print books, newspapers and pamphlets.

The September 24 to 28, 1779 issue of the Edinburgh Advertiser gives readers a true first draft of history as it reports, perhaps for the first time anywhere, the famous naval victory by John Paul Jones in the Bonnehomme Richard over the HMS Serapis, known as the Battle of Flamborough Head.  This newspaper report is also of great significance because of its proximity to the event. The Advertiser was printed only 200 miles from Flamborough Head in Edinburgh, the closest major city to the battle, which supports the thought that this is likely the first worldwide report. Below is an excerpt from this exciting issue.

Later in the issue, in an extract of a letter from Newcastle, Sept. 25, we learn “Paul Jones’s squadron spread terror on the English coast wherever he appeared, the inhabitants burying and removing their most valuable effects and getting ready to depart as soon as he landed. It is amazing that this daring adventurer should have continued on our coasts for a month terrifying the people and capturing their property, without the least attempt to disturb him. Two fifty gun ships would have taken the whole of his squadron. Surely the British ministry are fast asleep!”

Defiance of the Patriots: The Boston Tea Party and the Making of America, by Benjamin L. Carp, is hot off the presses and available for sale today at your local book store or from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Borders, Powell’s and Yale University Press. Some online book stores still show a publish date as October 25, but the publisher shipped early so the book should be ready any moment.

I’ve only read the first four chapters (of 10) so far, but I already place Defiance of the Patriots safely among my favorite history books. In fact, it may be top 10 material. J.L. Bell of Boston 1775 puts it best: “For folks interested in the real story of the Tea Party, Defiance of the Patriots is the most thorough and wide-ranging account out there.”

I first heard about Defiance of the Patriots back in April. I had just shared, via Rag Linen, a 1774 newspaper report on the unexpected consequences of the Boston Tea Party. Not long after sharing the historic report, I learned, via Twitter, from J.L. Bell, that the 1774 news item confirms the thesis of Benjamin Carp’s upcoming book. Specifically, that pressure to look good to other ports made Bostonians act radical.

Excited for the new book and its in-depth analysis of the Boston Tea Party, especially after reading this Tufts Journal piece, I contacted Benjamin and invited him to contribute a short piece for the readers of Rag Linen. Benjamin was very kind to accept my offer and has even shared some excerpts from his book, which are appropriately themed. Without further ado…

In 1773, newspapers were the colonists’ primary means of communicating and influencing public opinion. Parliament had passed the Tea Act, and Bostonians were mobilizing against what they regarded as an unjust law. This political movement had two crucial ingredients: communication between Boston and its neighboring towns (who helped comprise the “Body of the People” meetings at the Old South Meeting House), and communication between Boston and the other cities that were receiving tea shipments from the East India Company: New York City, Philadelphia, and Charleston. Neighboring towns and sister cities helped to spread the reasons for resistance and build an atmosphere of mutual reassurance. Newspapers also helped to draw boundaries within the community by publishing threats to the consignees—the merchants who were designated to receive the tea shipments from the East India Company. The consignees and their supporters tried to give as good as they got in the newspapers, but they failed to sway public opinion.

Here are two excerpts from the book that help to illustrate the significance of newspapers. The first, from page 84, describes Bostonians’ reaction to news of the Tea Act, and the newspaper squabbles that followed.

The consignees . . . had no desire to turn down the lucrative Company contract. Richard Clarke took to the newspapers, as “Z.,” to argue that the Tea Act wasn’t such a bad thing. By eliminating the middleman, the new law would make tea cheaper. He was confused about why the Tea Act suddenly caused Bostonians to yelp about the Townshend duty, since the people of Massachusetts had been importing plenty of dutied tea over the last few years. For that matter, Americans silently paid much more to Parliament in duties on wine, sugar, and molasses—why complain about tea? . . . Finally, Clarke argued, the East India Company could prove to be an ally in the fight for charter rights, and might help Americans get the tea duty removed—so long as the colonists didn’t try to ruin the Company’s sales with “unsuitable Behaviour.”

But these arguments failed to sway public opinion in Boston, where the public was forming ranks alongside the Sons of Liberty.

Instead, the consignees began to hear warnings about what would happen to them if they defied their neighbors. On November 1, the Boston Gazette reprinted a letter from “PHILELEUTHEROS” (Greek for “freedom lover”). “Secure yourselves,” this New York writer warned, “from the gathering storm, before it . . . overwhelms you with a sudden, dreadful, and sure destruction.” If the consignees persisted in injuring their country by importing tea, they would not be safe no matter how many troops and fortified walls might surround them. “You cannot readily become your own cooks, butchers, butlers, nor bakers: You will therefore be liable, to be suddenly, and unexpectedly taken off, in the midst of your confidence and supposed security, by those whom you may chance to confide in, and employ. ”The author called upon a local Brutus or Cassius “to sheath their daggers in the hearts of such base, such abandoned and infamous Parricides.” If the consignees hoped to profit from their treason, the author warned, the triumph would be short-lived. Guilt, hatred, and infamy would be their lot for generations to come. The choice was now the consignees’ to make. Threats to their safety lurked around every corner. The consignees would have to watch their backs.

This second passage, from page 139, describes the aftermath of the Boston Tea Party.

The tide swelled into Boston harbor overnight. There was no moonlight to mark the tea’s passage as it slipped away on the churning waves. Eventually the broken chests and clumps of tea formed a floating line, like a winrow of hay, along the surface of the water. The line ran from the South End of Boston along the Dorchester shore to Castle Island, almost as a taunt to the consignees and commissioners. “Those persons who were from the country returned with a merry heart; and the next day joy appeared in almost every countenance, some on occasion of the destruction of the tea, others on account of the quietness with which it was effected.”

Of course, not every countenance was joyful. Admiral John Montagu had been forced to watch the destruction of the tea without being able to lift a finger in response. On the morning after the Tea Party, he took a stroll on the wharf and looked with astonishment at the scene of devastation. He asked some of the Bostonians, “who was to pay the fidler” now? Perhaps they answered with a sudden fear and foreboding, perhaps with a jeering smugness. “The Devil is in this people,” Montagu concluded, “for they pay no more respect to an act of the British Parliament, which can make England tremble, than to an old newspaper.” He then stalked off the wharf.

According to The Development of the Colonial Newspaper by Sidney Kobre (1960) colonial news came from the following sources:

1 // Private letters, containing matters of general interest, sent to residents or to the publisher
2 // Ship captains and sailors at the dock or tavern
3 // Merchants receiving or sending goods
4 // Travelers on sea or land who had some news to tell
5 // Soldiers fighting in wars who returned with information or sent letters
6 // Postcarriers who picked up items on their route
7 // News which came to the governor from governors or from officials in other colonies or from the King
8 // Official news of the colony secured from the governor and (later) the assembly
9 // Postmasters or friends in other colonial towns, who acted as volunteer or unpaid correspondents
10 // Later: Colonial newspapers, when they were established in Philadelphia, New York, Annapolis, Williamsburg, etc., furnished news of their communities