Earliest ad for a publication on an American crime?
Item # 705714
THE LONDON GAZETTE, England, June 5, 1673 A very interesting issue as the bottom of the back page has an advertisement for the publishing of a pamphlet titled "Mr. Baxter Baptized in Blood..." with further details noting: "...containing a horrible murther [murder] committed by four Anabaptists upon the person of Mr. Josiah Baker near Boston in New England, the whole matter, having been enquired into, and examined at the Council Bord, is found altogether false and fictitious."
But it was not fictitious.
This could well be the earliest advertisement for a crime-related publication of an American event, as the London Gazette was the first successful newspaper in England having begun just 8 years prior. There were essentially no American newspapers until 1704.
There is much online concerning this event. One account notes that in 1673 word reached England that the Rev. Josiah Baxter had been ruthlessly murdered in Boston. Baxter, an Anglican minister, had publicly debated a group of Baptists over their interpretations of the Bible. The Rev. Baxter had gotten the better of the argument, but his opponents would not let the dispute end there.
Complete as a single sheet issue, 6 3/4 by 10 3/4 inches, very nice condition.
Category: The 1600's and 1700's










