London,
Printed by I. D. for Nicholas Bourne and Thomas
Archer, and are to be sold at their shops at the
Exchange, and in Popes-head Pallace.
1622.
[Facsimile] of newspaper page
What is considered by many to be the first bonâ fide and open advertisement ever published appears in a paper entitled Several Proceedings in Parliament, and is found under the date November 28-December 5, 1650. It runs thus:—
BY the late tumult made the 27 of November, whereof you have the narration before; in the night time in Bexfield, in the county of Norfolk, about 12 Horses were stolen out of the town, whereof a bay-bald Gelding with three white feet, on the near buttock marked with R. F., 9 or 10 years old. A bay-bald Mare with a wall-eye and a red star in her face, the near hind foot white, 7 years old. A black brown Mare, trots all, 6 years old. Whomsoever brings certain intelligence where they are to Mr Badcraft of Bexfield, in Norfolk, they shall have 20s. for each Horse.
The following number of the same paper, that for December 5-12, 1650, contains this:—
A bright Mare, 12 hands high, one white foot behind, a white patch below the saddle, near the side, a black main, a taile cut, a natural ambler, about 10li. price, stolne, Decemb. 3. neare Guilford. John Rylands, a butcher, tall and ruddy, flaxen haire, about 30 years of age, is suspected. Mr. Brounloe, a stocking dier, near the Three Craynes, in Thames’s Streete, will satisfy those who can make discovery.
In 1655, Lilly the astrologer availed himself of what was then considered the new plan for ventilating a grievance, and accordingly, in the Perfect Diurnal of April 9-16, he published the following full-fledged advertisement, one of the earliest extant:—
An Advertisement from Mr William Lilly.