The Massachusetts Spy

Overview

The Massachusetts Spy was a Patriot weekly newspaper founded in Boston in 1770 by the printer Isaiah Thomas, and it became one of the most important newspapers of the American Revolution (Encyclopaedia Britannica). Thomas moved the paper to Worcester in April 1775, days before the Battles of Lexington and Concord, after British authorities threatened his press (American Antiquarian Society). From Worcester it carried the first eyewitness account of those battles (Encyclopaedia Britannica), and it had earlier published the Sheffield Declaration (The Berkshire Edge).

What set the Spy apart was not just its politics but its reach. It was the first newspaper aimed at middle-class readers, and while other papers of the time were happy with about 400 subscribers, the Spy had a circulation of 3,500 (Mass Moments). That audience is what made it dangerous: Thomas used the paper to rally support for independence so effectively that the British sought his arrest, and he later recalled having “the honor of being included with John Hancock and Samuel Adams in a list of twelve persons who were to be summarily executed when taken” (Mass Moments). The National Endowment for the Humanities calls it “one of the feistiest newspapers of the Revolution” (National Endowment for the Humanities).

A paper built for the Patriot cause

Thomas founded the Spy in 1770 in partnership with Zechariah Fowle, his former master; Fowle soon retired and Thomas continued the business on his own (Mass Moments). The paper was a Whig newspaper strongly supporting the cause of American independence (American Antiquarian Society), published under the motto “Open to all parties, but influenced by none” (First Amendment Encyclopedia). Its print shop became a gathering place for the Sons of Liberty, and Thomas secretly published handbills for them at night (First Amendment Encyclopedia; Mass Moments). He also arranged for special post riders to exchange news and papers with like-minded citizens in other colonies, because he knew that stories of British abuse of American rights made people angry and spurred them to action (Mass Moments).

The British authorities did not ignore the paper. In 1771, Governor Thomas Hutchinson ordered Thomas prosecuted for malicious libel, but the grand jury refused to indict the printer (Mass Moments). Loyalist Bostonians hanged Thomas in effigy, British soldiers paraded before the Spy office, and Thomas was threatened with tarring (Mass Moments). For a time the paper sported a masthead picture of a snake, symbolizing the colonies, facing off against a dragon, symbolizing the British (First Amendment Encyclopedia). In 1774, the paper published appeals from enslaved people for their freedom (First Amendment Encyclopedia).

The move to Worcester

By mid-April 1775, Thomas concluded he could not safely remain in Boston. As he later wrote, referring to himself in the third person, he “had rendered himself very obnoxious to the friends of the British administration,” and Tories and British soldiers openly threatened him with the effects of their resentment (Mass Moments). Amid rumors that his press was to be seized, he packed up his type, press, and paper supply and moved to Worcester, a safe distance from the British troops stationed in Boston (American Antiquarian Society). The First Amendment Encyclopedia dates his departure with the press to April 16, 1775 (First Amendment Encyclopedia); the American Antiquarian Society places the move in April 1775, two days before the Battle of Lexington (American Antiquarian Society).

In Worcester, Thomas continued to print patriotic rhetoric and detailed descriptions of Revolutionary War battles in the Spy (American Antiquarian Society). The paper carried the first eyewitness account of the Battles of Lexington and Concord, the opening engagements of the American Revolutionary War, and the reports helped to solidify colonial resistance to British rule (Encyclopaedia Britannica). The war was ruinous for the business: the number of subscribers to the Spy fell from 3,500 before the war to 200, and everything but the printing press Thomas managed to move to Worcester was destroyed or stolen during the British occupation of Boston (Mass Moments).

What the Spy carried

The Spy’s most consequential act of circulation came before the war began. The Sheffield Resolves were written on January 5, 1773, by eleven men meeting in an upstairs room of Col. John Ashley’s house in Sheffield, sent to the town meeting on January 12 for approval, and once approved were published in the Massachusetts Spy, also known as Thomas’s Boston Journal (The Berkshire Edge). The resolves opened by declaring that “mankind in a state of nature are equal, free, and independent, and have a right to the undisturbed enjoyment of their lives, their liberty, and their property” (The Berkshire Edge). Some historians dismiss the Sheffield Resolves; others call them the first American Declaration of Independence (The Berkshire Edge).

The wartime reporting mattered just as much. Because Thomas was present at Lexington and Concord, the Spy’s account was a first-hand one, and its reports helped to solidify colonial resistance to British rule (Encyclopaedia Britannica; First Amendment Encyclopedia). According to family legend, Thomas was also the first person in Massachusetts to read the Declaration of Independence aloud, when the express rider carrying it from Philadelphia to Boston stopped in Worcester (Mass Moments). That story is legend, not established fact — but it captures the role the Spy had earned by 1776: the paper through which Worcester first heard the Revolution’s defining news.

Thomas’s later career grew out of the same trade. After the war he became a foremost publisher and printer, and in 1812 he established the American Antiquarian Society, which today holds complete runs of the Massachusetts Spy (Mass Moments; American Antiquarian Society). Britannica dates Thomas’s publication of the Spy to 1770–1801 and says the paper continued publication until 1904 (Encyclopaedia Britannica).

Year	What happened	Source
1770	Spy founded in Boston by Thomas and Fowle	American Antiquarian Society
1771	Hutchinson libel prosecution fails; grand jury refuses to indict	Mass Moments
1773	Sheffield Resolves published in the Spy	The Berkshire Edge
1774	Paper publishes appeals from enslaved people for freedom	First Amendment Encyclopedia
1775	Press moved to Worcester; first eyewitness account of Lexington and Concord	Britannica
1801–1802	Thomas’s tenure ends (1801 per Britannica; retirement 1802 per AAS)	Britannica; AAS
1812	Thomas founds the American Antiquarian Society	NEH
1904	Paper’s publication run ends	Britannica

FAQ

When was the Massachusetts Spy founded?

The Spy was founded in 1770 in Boston by the printer Isaiah Thomas, in partnership with Zechariah Fowle, his former master (Mass Moments). Fowle soon retired, and Thomas continued the paper alone (Mass Moments). It was a Whig newspaper strongly supporting American independence (American Antiquarian Society).

Why did the Spy move from Boston to Worcester?

Thomas moved the press in April 1775 because British authorities threatened to seize it and arrest him for the paper’s Patriot attacks on British rule (American Antiquarian Society). He packed up his type, press, and paper and sent them by night across the Charles River toward Worcester (Mass Moments).

Did the Spy publish the Sheffield Resolves?

Yes. After eleven men drafted the resolves on January 5, 1773, and the Sheffield town meeting approved them on January 12, the resolves were published in the Massachusetts Spy (The Berkshire Edge). Their opening declared mankind “equal, free, and independent,” language that anticipated later revolutionary documents (The Berkshire Edge).

How long did the Massachusetts Spy publish?

Britannica says Thomas published the Spy from 1770 to 1801, and that the paper itself continued publication until 1904 (Encyclopaedia Britannica). The American Antiquarian Society dates Thomas’s retirement to 1802 (American Antiquarian Society). This profile does not cover the paper’s 19th-century owners.

Where can surviving issues of the Spy be read today?

The American Antiquarian Society holds complete runs of the Massachusetts Spy, along with Thomas’s almanacs, pamphlets, broadsides, and books for children (American Antiquarian Society). Thomas founded the Society in 1812 and donated his private library, manuscripts, and newspapers to it (American Antiquarian Society).

What this profile does not claim

This profile does not claim the exact Spy issue date for the Sheffield Resolves — only that the Spy published them — because the exact issue date could not be verified from a source fully read for this profile. It does not claim Thomas was the first person in Massachusetts to read the Declaration of Independence aloud; that is family legend, reported as legend. It does not claim the British actually had Thomas on a formal execution list; Mass Moments reports the “list of twelve” as Thomas’s own later recollection. It does not cover the paper’s 19th-century owners, title changes, or abolitionist era, which no source fully read for this profile documents. Finally, this profile is about the 1770–1904 newspaper only: it is not about SpyCloud, the modern cybersecurity firm, and not about any later publication that reused the Worcester Spy name.