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With the "Supplement" issue as well. Fine content...
With the "Supplement" issue as well. Fine content...
Item # 687300
May 16, 1768
THE BOSTON CHRONICLE, May 16, 1768
* Pro-British American publication
* Tensions build with England
* Tensions build with England
The entire front page and most of pg. 2 are taken up with a continued report titled: "An Account of Corsica; & the Memoirs of the famous Pascal Paoli the commander in chief of the Corsicans."
Page 2 contains a nice & somewhat detailed ad for the famous series of "Letters From a Farmer in Pennsylvania..." done by John Dickinson, which did much to catalyze feelings against the British.
Page 3 has an item noting: "Letters from Rome mention that a Jew, who was going to embrace Christianity, had suddenly disappeared; and as there was reason to suspect some foul play in the affair, the government has caused his nearest relations & the heads of the Jewish community to pay fifty crowns a day till such time as they discovered what was become of the man.". Also: "...It is likewise said that the free duty of excise on the exportation of rum or spirits, the produce of the British sugar plantations in America...will be repealed & instead thereof an allowance of all duties payable on importation be extended to the importation of rum & spirits..." And that: "It is talked that two regiments of foot on the Irish establishment are soon to be embarked for North America."
Included also is the four page "Supplement" issue of the same date with the front page taken up with a wide variety of news reports from London including one item noting: "...the colony agents have orders...to obtain an act of Parliament for the encouragement of the linen manufactury in North America...". An inside page has reports from "Boston" including: "...considering them too as part of the British Empire, and as such, subject to the supreme legislative control of parliament; but since the Americans had denied tis supreme power, since they held opinions the most dangerous, the most traitorous to this country, since even some in England had doubted the supreme power of parliament over them...that the Americans had no right at all, non, to the fishery, it was conquered by our arms & protected by our power..." with more.
The back page mentions that: "...Charles Stewart...now Cashier & Receiv. Gen. of the customs in America. Wednesday next Mr. John Lothrop is to be ordained pastor of the Old North Church in this town...Rev. Dr. Witherspoon, chosen President of New Jersey College...sold off all his household furniture & was soon to proceed for New York or Philadelphia."
Twelve pages in total, 8 1/2 by 10 1/2 inches, very nice condition.
This newspaper published only briefly from December 21, 1767 until 1770. The publishers, John Mein and John Fleeming, were both from Scotland. The Chronicle was a Loyalist paper in the time before the American Revolution. In its second year, Mein printed names in the paper that accused some colonial merchants of breaking a British non-importation agreement. In response, Mein's name appeared on a list of merchants who violated the trade agreement. Mein retaliated by accusing the Merchants' Committee of using the non-importation agreement for illegal profiteering. The irritated readership ransacked the offices of the Chronicle, and ultimately, it ceased operations in 1770. (credit Wikipedia)
Category: The 1600's and 1700's
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