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London: Printed for John Gwillim, in Bishops-gate-Street, 1696.
12mo in 6's, [6], 88pp. Wanting H6 (Yale gives as blank) and G3-G4 (pp.71-74) . 12mo, original blind-stamped brown leather over thin wooden boards. Covers worn showing the wooden boards at some edges, some staining to edges and endpapers, hinges fragile, but still a very exciting copy with no restoration or repair at any time attempted. With three ownership inscriptions.
This book is identical to the only other known copy which is at the Beinecke Library at Yale University. This volume is identical in binding, blind tooling, type of paper, typography (the upside down “commas” used as apostrophes, for instance), pagination, etc. The Yale copy is declared “A Boston Piracy” and dated 1708 by Yale, the date likely because of the inscription. These two copies, Yale’s and the present one, are different from the Trinity College, Cambridge copy, and are clearly not the same edition. Note that Trinity's is '79' [ie. 81] pp long and has pp. 79-81 mis-numbered as 81, 80, 79. This copy is not mis-numbered and neither is Yale's. The above copy collates to, and is identical to, the Yale copy in all respects, including the binding in calf over wooden boards, and the pattern of the blind tooling.
The binding with its wooden boards, instead of pressed paper, is a Colonial feature, as is the simple leather binding with rough blind tooling. The English binders did not use wooden boards at this time, and were considerably more sophisticated and skilledin design and. Yale suggest the printer of this edition to be Reynier Jansen who was of Dutch origin.
The second edition of the French Convert (London: John Gwillim, 1699) [British Library; Folger.. Wing F2183C; ESTC R215101] paginates: [6], 6, 13-36, 35-82pp (p.36 has the "36" in the right margin). This is a fix of the first edition (Trinity's copy) which paginates: [6], 79 [ie. 81], [1] pp, but with a new error included in the middle. Both are distinct from the above 88pp. version.
Interestingly, Harvard has a fragment of a copy lacking the title page and pp. 99-102, 111-112 (Hollis 004145315). Their copy has a ms. inscription dated 'July 1702'. This cannot be either this copy under offer (88pp), the London: 1699 (2nd edition, 82pp), or the London: 1704 (3rd edition, 82pp) a copy of which is at the Newberry. The earliest American edition with a legitimate imprint is the Boston: 1725 edition. [8], 123, [1]pp. AI 2637.
John Gwillim had some association with the New World. His publications include An account of the great divisions amongst the Quakers in Pensilvania' (1692). He also enjoyed a bit of popular fiction alongside his Quaker-bashing. In 1702 he published a redaction of 'Amadis de Gaul' by J. S. (given as popular author, John Shirley).
The inscriptions in the book add further evidence of its early American origin. Note that different genealogical sources spell the surname Lamson or Lampson, but identify the same people.
[1.] 'B. Edwards, 1737' inverted, on the rear paste-down.
Benjamin Edwards (c.1690-1774) lived in Wenham, MA. On 8 January 1717/8 he married Abigail Lamson (1695-) of Ipswich, MA. Abigail was the daughter of John Lamson and Abigail Woodbury. Benjamin Edwards owned the book when he was in his 40s. Abigail (Lamson) Edwards had two sisters (Martha and Priscilla) and two brothers (John and Peter). Her brother, John Lamson of Ipswich MA (1698-1774) married Elizabeth Day (1705-1779 at Topsfield, MA) in 1722. They had six children: Elizabeth, John, Lucy, Daniel, Robert, and Ruth. These are Abigail (Lamson) Edwards' nephews and nieces.
[2.] 'Ruth Lampson, Her Book, Ipswich, Aper [superscripted 'ce'], 12th 1754'. [Benjamin Edwards was Ruth Lampson's uncle.] Ruth Lampson, daughter of John Lampson, was baptised on 10 February 1733/4 in Topsfield, Essex County, MA. She owned the book in her early 20's. Samuel Bradstreet jun. (baptised 30 March 1729, Topsfield MA) and Ruth Lampson declared their intention to marry on 3 October 1762 in a record of Topsfield, Essex County, MA. Ruth died a widow on 25 July 1777 at the age of 44. Samuel Bradstreet, her husband, had died on 6 July 1777 at the age of 49. These dates and ages are from gravestone records at Pine Grove Cemetery. Samuel Bradstreet jun. was the son of Samuel Bradstreet (1699-December 1762).
Samuel Bradstreet was the son of John Bradstreet (1652-1719). John Bradstreet was the son of Gov. Simon Bradstreet (1603/4-1697) and Anne Dudley (1610/12-1672), who (as Anne Bradstreet) was the first American woman writer and the first American poet to have her works published. Ruth was her great grandaughter[-in-law].
[3.] 'John Kingdom' on the titlepage.
'THE BOOKSELLER to the READER' (A2) purports that the text was sent to Gwillim with a covering letter signed 'R. D.' and dated 'Spittle-Fields, June 13. 1696.' The text itself is offered with an initial letter signed 'A. D'Auborn' and dated 'Nants in Britannie, May 2. New-Stile, 1696' (A3).
The French Convert
This work is not the 'French Lettr:' listed in the 1700 will of Boston bookseller Michael Perry (Littlefield p.177). That document notes 168 copies of a text that is almost certainly Cotton Mather's 'A Present from a Farr Countrey, to the People of New England' (Boston: By B. Green, and J. Allen, for Michael Perry, at his shop, under the west end of the Town-House, 1698). 53, [1]pp. 8vo. The 168 copies are valued at 14s, or 1d each, presumably the trade/asset price. Mather's text contains 'an excellent letter full of divine rarities, lately written from a terrible prison in France'. [Wing M1142A]
Cushing's attribution of this text to John McGowan is obviously incorrect. It has also been attributed (alongside most other anonymous works of the period) to Defoe. Given the nature of the text, this is plausible.
The Yale copy of this book was donated by Herman W. Liebert (1911-1994) who was the first librarian of the Beinecke. Rosenbach calls him 'a scholar of wide learning and the most active librarian I have ever met, has an insatiable love of great books and Beinecke was fortunate to have him as an advisor’.
[ESTC N469065]. $15,000.00
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