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A colonial North Carolina newspaper with an intriguing story...
A colonial North Carolina newspaper with an intriguing story...
Item # 718898
June 03, 1775
THE CAPE-FEAR MERCURY, Wilmington, North Carolina, June 3, 1775 This would have to be one of the more interesting colonial newspapers we've offered, primarily for being a forgery.
This title began Oct. 13, 1769, and was suspended for about five months from the fall of 1774 to the spring of 1775. It ceased in September, 1775.
As for the intrigue, best to refer you to this link, which would otherwise be much too lengthy to detail here. And also the Colliers Magazine issue of July 1, 1905 which is viewable online.
To be brief, the mentioned 1905 Colliers article purports the existence of a June 3, 1775 issue of the Cape-Fear Mercury which contains on the front page the Mecklenburg Resolves, or a "declaration of independence" from North Carolina some 13 months before that declared in Independence Hall. This was a hoax believed to have been perpetrated by surviving document signers many years after the event, in an effort to show North Carolina was first in declaring independence from England. See much more online.
The following is taken from the well-respected "History & Bibliography of American Newspapers, 1690-1820" by Clarence Brigham. We've not seen such text devoted to an avowed forgery as this one in his two-volume reference set, which only speaks to its significance:
"...What purported to be an issue of this paper of June 3, 1775 was exploited in Collier's of July 1, 1905 by S. Millington Miller, who claimed that he owned the original. The reproduction printed in Collier's shows only the heading and part of the first and second columns...The paper was immediately believed to be fraudulent & in the 'American Historical Review'...A. S. Salley and Worthington C. Ford showed the paper to be a forgery with the heading based upon an original issue of Nov. 24, 1769 owned by the American Antiquarian Society. The same defects in type, and even fly-specks in the 1769 issue appear in the spurious 1775 heading.
Miller made up his issue by setting up three columns of new matter, which included the Mecklenburg Resolves...But in giving his issue the date of Friday, June 3, 1775, no. 294, he erred in not knowing that Friday fell on June 2, and that because of a hiatus in publishing, the number of such a paper would be no. 258; also that by June, 1775, the heading [masthead] had been altered and the cut of the royal arms omitted. Later Miller manufactured a better forgery than the one furnished to Collier's and differing in set-up--for example, the top line of the second column in the first forgery read "ford.---Messirs. Abednego Ramsdell, Dan-", and in the second forgery: "of Charlestown.---Isaac Gardner, Esq. of.".
At least 3 copies of this second forgery are now located--in the American Antiquarian Society, the Clements Library at the University of. of Michigan, and in the possession of Oliver R. Barrett of Chicago...All of the forgeries were printed on one side of the leaf only, differing from the usual method of printing regular issues of 18th century newspapers."
This issue we are offering is seemingly just the fourth second forgery known to exist, unless it is one of the three cited above. There is loss to the upper right corner, which affects 3 letters in the title, and loss to the bottom right, which causes some text loss. Otherwise, somewhat typical wear at the margins, and the reverse is blank as mentioned above.
A most intriguing newspaper with a fascinating backstory, and apparently very rare as well.
Category: American
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$3,995.00
