"Blue Laws" in 1755

[Shapiro, Fred]

Joel,

Absolutely fascinating.  I have long been aware of this hit in Early American Newspapers/America's Historical Newspapers, but I had assumed it was a misdated newspaper because there are so many 1775 dates in it.  But looking at the page for a few minutes, it has dawned on me that much of this newspaper issue is a dream sequence -- the writer, writing in 1755, is dreaming about a future 1775 newspaper issue.   The "Revolution" referred to is some imaginary British revolution, not the real American Revolution of 1775. The article two articles before the one mentioning _blue laws_ explicitly says that it is describing a dream newspaper issue.   Although I would hope that the OED will check the original paper if it is available, or at least the microform, there seems every reason to believe that this is a genuine 1755 occurrence of _blue laws_.  Well done, Joel!

Fred Shapiro


________________________________________
From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Joel S. Berson [Berson at ATT.NET]
Sent: Sunday, October 28, 2007 5:18 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: "Blue laws 1755 antedates 1762; "blue law" (singular) 1792 not in              OED2

(1)  Well, Fred Shapiro, it's not Paul Scholes' assertion of a
quotation from Smith's phantom 1767 "History of New York", but it may
be (see Note) earlier than the "earliest" 1762 quotation!  "Blue laws," 1755:

"Hartford, (in Connecticut) May 12. Since the happy Revolution, and
the Revival of our old Blue Laws, we have the Pleasure to see the
Lord's Work go on with Success; all different Persuasions do now
again pay our Ministers, which is said to be a great Help to many of
our Towns in the back Settlements."

New-York Mercury, 1755 March 3, 1/3 {EAN].

NOTE:  My eye of suspicion having been poked by the phrase "Since the
happy Revolution" and by a Hartford dateline of May in a March NY
paper, and wondering what revolution there was in New York in 1755
(some constitutional crisis, or "the" Revolution?), I looked further
into this issue.  The "blue laws" item is preceded at a distance by a
headline "The New-York Gazette. May, 20th, *1775*", and there are a
few more items on pages 1 and 2 dated May or 1775.  I browsed
further, but did not see anything blatant that would place the
contents in 1775 versus 1755; a closer reading might reveal something.

As to the masthead, it is Number 134; No. 133 is dated Feb. 24, 1755;
No. 13[5?] is dated March 10, 1755; No. 136 is dated March 17,
1755.  EAN says the NY Mercury was published from Aug. 31, 1752 to
Jan. 25, 1768 (after which its title changed), as does the Harvard
catalog.  If so, the 1775 dates in my issue must be incorrect.

Perhaps I have here, in the spirit of the season, a ghoulish,
Googlish tale.  But I think not; the 1755 date seems to be
genuine.  I have no idea where the May 1775 dates come from.  Perhaps
I should scroll through the microfilm.

(2)  "Blue law", singular, not in OED2.

"He therefore hoped the house would not accept the report then under
consideration; but that they would gratify the very respectable town
of Boston in its request, and permit a bill to be brought in for
repealing this unsocial, illiberal, unconstitutional, rigid blue Law."

("Speech of Mr. Gardiner in the General Court, on the subject of a Theatre.")

Essex Journal, 1792 Feb. 8, 4/3 [EAN].

(3)  An early "blue laws", interdates 1762 (not in OED2) -- 1781 S.
Peters Hist. Connecticut.

They declare that a more unrighteous edict is not among their Blue Laws.

Pennsylvania Ledger, 1778 March 11, 3/3 [EAN].

Joel

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