The Present State of New-England. Being a narrative Of the Troubles with the Indians in New-England, from the first planting thereof in the year 1607, to this present year 1677: But chiefly of the late Troubles in the two last years 1675, and 1676. To which is added a Discourse about the War with the Pequods in the year 1637

Hubbard, William; John Foster (map)

Edité par Thomas Parkhurst, London, 1677

A propos de cet article

Second edition (same year as first). London: Printed for Tho. Parkhurst, 1677. Quarto (7 11/16" x 5 3/4", 196mm x 145mm). [Full collation available.] With the woodcut folding map framed separately. Bound in contemporary sheep (rebacked, with the original backstrip laid down), with a double blind fillet border. Blind roll on the edges of the boards. All edges of the text-block speckled red. Presented in a quarter brown morocco slip-case with chemise. Presented with its folding map, which has been framed separately. Rebacked (with the original backstrip laid down). Map framed separately. Fore-corners worn. Some skinning to the boards. First free end-paper renewed. Text-block evenly mildly tanned, with a little foxing in the margins mostly. Very good margins (over 20mm at the fore) with preserved deckles (G3 lower, G4 fore). Bookplate of Charles Lemuel Nichols M.D. on the front paste-down. Ink acquisition inscription of "Richard Wiyth 1699/ his book cost 6 pence" with shelving perhaps below on the recto of [pi]2. On the same page, upside-down, a four-line poem with the first line repeated on the rear paste-down). On the verso of the final page of text (2G4): "Richard Wiyth his book 1699/ cost 6 pence" and immediately below, "John Weyth have Read this book/ Great part over" in the same hand as the poem. William Hubbard (1621-1704) was born in Ipswich in England, but emigrated with his parents, and was a member of Harvard's first graduating class in 1642. He then went on to be pastor of the Congregational church at Ipswich, Massachusetts. In addition to A General History of New England (published posthumously), Hubbard wrote an account of the "Troubles with the Indians," with special attention paid to "King Philip's War" (King Philip being the anglicization of Metacom(et), sachem of the Wampanoag) fought from 1675 through 1678 in places. The first edition of the work was printed earlier in the same year in Boston (Dorchester), and enjoys a watershed distinction: including the earliest map printed in America. John Foster cut and printed the map, based on explorations of the state between 1652-1664. The block was sent to London and partially recut, with "The Wine Hills" replacing "The White Hills," in order to accompany the London text (which refers to the map, and to which the map refers with numbers). Foster was Boston's first printer and the first engraver in America. Richard Wiyth and John Weyth (both forms of the name now usually rendered as Wyeth) were doubtless relations. Wiyth bought the book in 1699 for sixpence. Weyth subscribes on the final page that he has read the book a "Great part over." What is particularly intriguing is the four-line manuscript poem: "Wars there is and wars will be/ Until the end of days/ All never did nor will agre/ But stil will {will} mischeifs rais" The structure of the poem is a pair of iambic couplets, the first line of each being a tetrameter (the first line is a syllable short), the second a trimeter. This is what hymnists call "common meter" or 6.8.6.8. Can this be the drafting of a hymn? John Wyeth (as it is ordinarily spelt, 1770-1858) was a publisher of hugely popular collections of sacred music (of which some he set himself), having worked as a printer in Santo Domingo and then Harrisburg by way of Philadelphia. Can this be an unpublished hymn by John Wyeth? The book was sold as a Henry E. Huntington duplicate (Anderson Galleries, New York, 2-5 January 1917, lot 167 (printing the poem)), presumably before it came into the collection of Charles Lemuel Nichols (1851-1929). Nichols was a physician who served as president of the American Antiquarian Society, and amassed a formidable collection of early Americana. His bookplate was designed and engraved by Sidney Lawton Smith. He designed the bookplates of, inter alia, A.E. Newton, the AAS, the Harvard College Library and the Metropolitan Museum. Burden, The Mapping of North America II:484; ESTC R1358; Schwartz-Ehrenberg p. 119; Wing H3212.

N° de réf. du vendeur 6JLR0128

Détails bibliographiques

• Titre: The Present State of New-England. Being a narrative Of the Troubles with the Indians in New-England, from the first planting thereof in the year 1607, to this present year 1677: But chiefly of the late Troubles in the two last years 1675, and 1676. To which is added a Discourse about the War with the Pequods in the year 1637
• Éditeur: Thomas Parkhurst, London
• Date de parution: 1677
• Reliure: Hardcover
• Édition: Second.
• État de l'article: Very good
• Catalogues du vendeur:
  • Maps & Atlases
  • Americana