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Chapter XII: Books and Libraries.

DURING the early years of the new century the flow of books to New England continued. Judge Sewall constantly imported, as the records of his “Diary” and “Letter-Book” show. In 1701 he ordered

1. Dr. Nehemiah Grew: Cosmologia Sacra (two copies)
2. Dr. Holder: Time
3. Dr. Holder: Natural Grounds of Harmony
4. The Assembly Confession of Faith and Catechisms in Latin.¹

The same year he recorded in a letter to John Love, his London agent,

I have received the Box of Books . . . . Mr. Colman has deliverd me my Dictionary . . . . I was very desirous of the new Edition of the Dictionary. But Mr. Collier has mard and not mended it by his alterations.²

He inquired in the same letter about a book by Sir William Petty on the greatness of London, and about another showing that London is bigger than imperial Rome was, ordering one of the first, and three or four of the second.

In 1705 he bought “the two Folios of Mr. Flavell’s works for £3.10,”³ and sent the following order to London:

Buy for me all the statutes at large made since Mr. Keeble’s Edition 1684. Let them be well Bound in one or two Covers as shall be most convenient:

• The Register⁴

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• Crompton⁴
• Bracton⁴
• Britton⁴
• Fleta
• Mirror⁵

as many of them as you can get in Latin or English;

• Heath’s Pleadings
• Sir Edward Coke’s Reports.⁶

In 1711 he “sent to Mr. Love for the Books following; viz.

• Pole’s English Annotations, two Setts.
• Mr. Henry’s Anotations
• Dutch Annotations.
• Cambridge Concordance;
• Preaching Bible.
• Junius and Tremellius, a fair Print to carry to Church.
• Pareus, his Adversaria on the Bible.
• Dr. Lightfoot’s Works in two volumns
• Harris’s Lexicon Tecnicum.
• Alcuinus;
• Tigurine Bible.
• Pauli Freheri theatrum vivorum
• Eruditione claror.
• Rushworth’s Collections Abridgd and Improvd.
• Dr. Preston’s Works.
• Ray of the Wisdom of GOD in the Creation.
• All Calvin’s Comentaries.
• Dr. Owen on 6-13. of the Hebrs.
• Dr. Saunderson’s Sermons.
• Stillingfleet’s Origines Sacrae.
• Irenicum, Ch. Rome.
• Pearson on the Creeds⁷.”

This list was sent again a few months later with the exception of the “preaching Bible,” Saunderson’s Sermons, and Pearson on the Creeds, and with the following addenda:

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• Supplement to the great Historical Dictionary.
• Dr. Edwards his Tracts.
• Two Herbert’s Poems.
• Mr. Watts’s Hymns.
• Virgil in usum Delphini. I have Ovid’s Metamorphosis; if there be anything else of Ovid in Usum Delphini, let me have it. Dr. Arrowsmith’s Armilla.
• If any of the Old Books be so scarce, that they are very dear; forbear buying them; and acquaint me with the Price.⁸

A year later he recorded

I by him presented his Excellency the Governour with Dr. Calamy’s Abridgment of Mr. Baxter’s Life &c. in Two Volumes, Cost me 30^s . . . ⁹

In 1704 a Madam Rebecca Overton of London considered Boston a sufficiently good market to send over by Mr. Anthony Young “to be by him disposed of for her Most advantage” a consignment of nearly fifty books, mostly theological.¹⁰

Wait Winthrop, like Sewall, was sending to London for old books. Samuel Reade wrote to him in 1708,

Y^e person you mention that did collect those bookes hath been dead many yeares, & none hath succeeded him in that curiosity; y^e bookes almost out of printe, & upon inquiry of severall book-sellers cannot heare of but very few. . . .¹¹

That Sewall and Winthrop sent to London for certain books is not to be construed as an indication that books were difficult to obtain in Boston. The opposite is rather the case. New book shops were opened in addition to all those established before 1700,¹² and these were supplemented by auction sales of imported consignments of books, generally at some coffee-house. Catalogues of these collections

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were printed for free distribution, and the sales were well advertised in the Boston papers. New importations for the regular book trade were also advertised. Boston evidently furnished a good market for the bookseller and sufficient opportunity for the book buyer.¹³

The most zealous and successful book collector of this period was Cotton Mather, who constantly recorded in his diary his joy at the steady growth of his library.¹⁴ The following quotations will give an idea of some of the ways in which it grew.

. . . . I have a mighty Thirst after the Sight of Books, now and then published in Holland: which may upon sending you the Titles be transmitted with the Goods that you may send hither, and I pay here . . . . There is one Thomas Crenius, who had published . . . . ¹⁵

I have had of late Years, many great and strange Accessions to my Library . . . . I will not have unmention’d, a Present of

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Books made me this Winter, from the united Library of our three famous Shepards; which enriched me, not only with printed Books, which very low prized, might be counted worth more than 12 lb. but also with Manuscripts of each of those three worthy Men, which are vastly more valuable than all the other Books. . . . ¹⁶

Within these Few Days, I have received packetts from Gresham-Colledge; by which I am sensible, That some former packetts from them hither, have unhappily miscarried. . . . . ¹⁷

I have newly received large packetts from Tranquebar in the East-Indies; with a New Testament & some little Books of piety, printed in the Damulic Language & character; which are the first things that ever were printed in those parts of the world. . . . . ¹⁸

Mather’s eagerness for books resulted in the gathering of a library of probably four thousand volumes.¹⁹

Unfortunately no comprehensive list of the books in this greatest of colonial private libraries exists. Nearly a century ago descendants of the Mathers gave to the American Antiquarian Society such books of Cotton Mather’s as were still in their possession. From this collection and from books containing Mather’s autograph in various other libraries, Julius H. Tuttle of the Massachusetts Historical Society has compiled a list of books known to have been in his library.²⁰ The following are a few of the titles in that list:

	Collectanea Chymica: [10 tracts]
Hakluyt	Principal Navigations
Hatton	A New Treatise of Geography
Howel, Wm.	An Institution of General History

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Purchas	his Pilgrimage
Boyle, R.	6 vols. of science
Browne, T.	Religio Medici
Digby, K.	Observations upon Religio Medici
Hayward, J.	Life and raigne of King Henrie the IIII
Hayward, J.	Life and Raigne of King Edward the Sixt
Hooke, R.	Several volumes of science
Laet, Jean de	Several volumes of descriptions of countries
———	Judicial Astrologie judicially condemned
Machiavelli	Princeps
Milton	Eikonoklastes
———	Overthrow of Stage Playes, 1600
Plautus	Comœdiæ XX
Prynne	Histrio-Mastix and others
Rawlinson	New Method of . . . History and Geography
Roberts	Merchants Mappe of Commerce
Stubbes	Anatomie of Abvses
Withers	Grateful Acknowledgment of a late Trimming Regulator
Osborn, F.	Miscellany of sundry Essayes
Fletcher, G.	Israel Redux
Delamer, H.	Works

It was during the latter part of this period that the Reverend Thomas Prince began to collect his splendid library of colonial books. It is impossible to determine what books he gathered during these years; but some idea of the number may be gained from the following single item in the manuscript account-book of Daniel Henchman, bookseller, preserved, curiously enough, in the Prince Collection of the Boston Public Library.

Dec. 20, 1726.

Rev^d Tho^s Prince, Dr.

To 56 octavos 2d hand	7.00.00
8 Quartos 5/	2.00.00
3 Folios	2.00.00

During these years the Boston Public Library both grew and suffered loss. On August 31, 1702, the Selectmen ordered

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“that M^r. John Barnard jun^r be desired to make a Cattalogue of all the bookes belonging to the Towns Liberary and to Lodge the Same in y^e s^d. Liberary.”²¹ On February 28, 1704, they further ordered that “Mr. John Barnard Jun^r having at the request of the selectmen Set the Towne Liberary in good order he is allowed for s^d Service two of those bookes of well there are in y^e s^d Liberary two of a Sort.”²¹ The fire of 1711 damaged the Town-House, and Judge Sewall made the following note in his letter-book:

In our Boston Library several valuable Books were lost, as the Polyglott Bible, the London Criticks, Thuanus’s History, a Manuscript in two Folios left by Capt: Reyn [Keyn] the Founder; &c²²

After the fire an attempt was made to recover as many as possible of the books mislaid at the time of the fire, as the following advertisement in The Boston News-Letter of June 8, 1713, shows.

All Persons that have in their Keeping, or can give Notice of any of the Town Library; or other things belonging to the Town-House in Boston, before the late Fire: are desired to Inform the Treasurer of the said Town thereof, in order to their being returned.

The first Volumn of Pool’s Annotations was carryed away in the late Fire in Boston; any Person that has it, or any other Books, carry’d away at that time, or any other Goods, are desired to bring them to the Post Office, that the true Owners may have them again.²³

Of the Harvard Library at this time there are more records, though for a time there seem to have been few gifts. The following are from the records of meetings of the Harvard Corporation.

Voted that the Library keeper within the Space of one month

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next coming, take an Inventory, of all Books, mathematicall Instruments, & other things of value committed to his Custody, & Give receipt for them to the praesident, to be accompted for by him at the Expiration of his Year annually, or at his leaving his place, before he receive his salary.²⁴

Voted

2. That M^r Edward Holyoke be Library keeper for this year & that Six pounds be allowd him for the said Service.

3. That fifty shillings be allowed and paid to M^r Gookin for his taking a Catalogue of the books in the Library.²⁵

Voted, that M^r Presid^t and the Resid^t Fellows agree with Mr Brattle for what Books may be in the late Treasurers Library, they think proper for the College Library.²⁶

Voted, that S^r Welsted be Library Keeper for the Year Ensuing, and that £8 be allow’d him for that Service, and that he be directed to take Speciall Care that the Library and Books be kept in a better and more decent Condition than heretofore.²⁷

On the second of February, 1721-2, Thomas Hollis, who was then just beginning to take an interest in Harvard, wrote to Benjamin Colman that he had two volumes of Milton’s “Works,” the new edition, to send to the college. He also asked for a catalogue of the books in the college library that he might know what to send them.²⁸ This letter resulted in the following actions of the Corporation of Harvard:

The worthy Mr Hollis having Sent Over a new & fair Edic¯on of Milton’s Poetical Works, directing, That if the College have Such like already, the s^d Books are at M^r Colmans Service either to dispose of or keep, Now M^r Colman being desirous that the College sh^d Have these new, fair and Well-bound Books intire, thô part of the Like be in the Library, Voted that what of Milton’s Poetical Works heretofore belonged to the Library be deliver’d

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to the Rev^d M^r Colman to be disposed of as he sees meet.²⁹

Upon the Intimation lately made by M^r. Hollis, and formerly by M^r Neal, that it may be of great Advantage to the College Library, that a Catalogue of the Books in the s^d Library be printed and Sent abroad, Voted, that forthwith the Library-keep^r take an exact Catalogue of the Books in the Library, and that the same be printed in Order to transmitt to friends abroad.²⁹

. . . . The Treasurer is directed to pay the Printer afores^d the Sum of £22.5^s out of the College Treasury from [sic] printing the s^d Catalogue containing 13½ sheets.

2. Voted, That M^r Treasurer pay M^r Sam^l Gerrish the sum of £12.14^s upon the delivery of 300 of the Printed Catalogues.

3. Voted, That Mr Gee be paid out of the College-Treasury £20. for his Service in preparing the Catalogue . . . .

4. Voted, that One hundred of the afores^d Catalogues be sent to England, & that 30 of them be deliver’d to Mr Hollis. . . . ³⁰

This catalogue of 1723 contained about 3100 titles, almost equally divided among folios, quartos, and octavos (including all smaller), the library being catalogued according to size. A selected list of the literary, historical, and scientific books will be found in the Appendix, pp. 272 to 293. Reference to this list will show that Harvard had a satisfactory collection of books, including, outside the field of theology, representative works and authors in philosophy, science, and literature. It is weakest in English literature, but even there some of the best poets, such as Milton and Shakespeare, are found, and many lesser poets from Herbert to Wither. Such prose works as the seventeenth century produced are well represented from Hakluyt to Sir William Temple.

Upon the distribution of the 1723 Catalogue, interest in the Harvard Library greatly increased, especially in England under the stimulus of the interest of Thomas Hollis, himself

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the chief benefactor of the library throughout his life,³¹ and of Henry Newman, at one time “Library-keeper” at Harvard, and from 1709 to 1741 agent of the College in England.³² In 1723 Newman wrote from the Middle Temple to Henry Flint reporting that he was sending copies of the statutes of Cambridge and Oxford, the third and fourth volumes of Brandt’s “History of the Reformation,” and the first volume of Saurin’s “Dissertation on the Old and New Testaments” as presents to the College Library.³³ In 1724 came a gift of books from Isaac Watts.³⁴ Gifts were also received from interested friends at home, as shown by the vote of thanks of the Corporation to Samuel Gerrish “for his bounty to College Library, he having presented to the College sundry Books to the Value of Ten pounds.”³⁵

The Library grew so rapidly after the publication of the 1723 Catalogue that the Corporation saw fit to order, at the meeting of June 2, 1725, the printing of three hundred supplements to the Catalogue, one hundred of which were to be sent to Thomas Hollis for distribution in England.³⁶ This supplement listed 61 titles in folio, 25 in quarto, and 80 in octavo and smaller, a good growth for less than two calendar years. A selected list of these additions will be found in the Appendix, pp. 293 to 295.

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During these years another college library had been established in Connecticut, first at Saybrook and later at New Haven. The library of Yale began with books donated from the ministerial libraries of the colony and grew by means of gifts at home and abroad. Sir Henry Ashurst, for many years the London agent of Connecticut, wrote to Gurdon Saltonstall in 1709 offering to send “M^r Baxter’s practicall volumes” if they would be acceptable to him for the young college.³⁷ Sir John Davie, a graduate of Harvard in 1681, and a farmer at New London when he unexpectedly succeeded to an English title and wealth, sent nearly 200 volumes to Yale in its early days.³⁸ In 1714 there arrived over 700 volumes sent by Jeremiah Dummer, one-fifth given by himself, the rest contributed by various English gentlemen, including Sir Richard Steele, Sir Isaac Newton, Bishop Kennett of Peterborough, Sir Edmund Andros, Francis Nicholson, Sir Richard Blackmore, Dr. John Woodward of the Royal Society, Richard Bentley, Dr. William Whiston, Edmund Halley, the astronomer, and Elihu Yale.³⁹ In many cases these men contributed volumes of their own works, Steele contributing, for instance, “all the Tatlers and Spectators being eleven Volumns.” Besides many theological books, the collection included practically all of the important current books on medicine and philosophy, and representative works on science and in history and literature. Some idea of the books in the latter classes may be gained from the selected lists which follow:

Science

Boyle	Complete works, philosophical and moral
Wilkins	Mathematical works
Woodward	Natural History of the Earth

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Locke	Upon Education
Locke	Essay on Human Understanding
Huylin	Cosmographia
———	Sea Chart of the Mediterranean
———	Guide to the Practical Gauger
———	Miscellanea Curiosa . . . . Discourses read to the Royal Society
———	Musaeum Regalis Societatis
von Helmont	Works
Newton	Principia Mathematica Naturalis Philosophiæ
Newton	Optics
Glauber	Works
Whiston	Astronomical Lectures
Whiston	Theory of the Earth
Gregory	Elements of Astronomy
Halley	Synopsis of Comets
Gassendi	Metaphisica
Hugenius	Discovery of Coelestial Worlds Pemberton View of Sir Isaac Newton’s Philosophy

History and Literature

Raleigh	History of World
Clarendon	History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars
———	Complete History of England to the Reign of William III
Ricaut	History of the Ottoman Empire
Herbert	Memoirs of Charles I
———	Annals of Queen Anne for 1710-1711
Steele, etc.	Tatler
Steele, etc.	Spectator
Blackmore	King Arthur
Blackmore	Prince Arthur
Blackmore	Eliza
Blackmore	A Paraphrase on Job
Blackmore	Creation
Browne	Religio Medici
Browne	Vulgar Errors
Cowley	Works
Chaucer	Works and Life

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Cleveland	“Works of Mr. Cleveland the poet”
Milton	Paradise Lost and all Poetical Works
Milton	Complete Collection of Prose Works
Jonson	Works
Spenser	Works
Wotton	Works
Bacon	Advancement of Learning
Bacon	Natural History
Barclai	Argenis
Buchanani	Poemata
Butler	Hudibras
Temple, Wm.	Miscellany
Glanvil	Sadducismus Triumphatus
Hale	Contemplations
Feltham	Resolves
	The Turkish Spy
	The Athenian Oracle
	A Defence of Dramatic Poetry in Answer to Collier
Collier	Essays
Shaftesbury	Works

In 1718 over four hundred volumes more arrived, the gift of Elihu Yale. These added many classical books, many historical books, and some current literature. Other gifts followed, of which detail is lacking, but the library evidently continued to grow, as is indicated by the following vote of the trustees of Yale at the meeting of September 8, 1731:

Whereas there are several Books in the Library that are duplicates we resolve that one Book or Sett of each duplicate be sold by the Rector & Tutors & the money improved in purchasing of other Books that the Library at present is not furnished with.⁴⁰

An attempt was made to interest Thomas Hollis in Yale, but the attempt failed as the following letter shows:

I have now another letter—anonimous—about Yale College—I know not the man, but supose him to be urged unto it by your

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agent Dummer—I inclose it you. I have no inclination to be diverted from my projected design—if you know the Author, pray let him know so—I have told Dummer the same.⁴¹

The failure to interest Hollis was compensated by the interest which Bishop Berkeley took in the young college, which resulted in his gift, shortly after the close of this period, of over one thousand volumes, including the best of English literature from Shakespeare and Bacon to Pope, Gay, and Swift, with several volumes of plays—even Wycherley.⁴²

Besides these public libraries, at least one semi-public library was established during the latter part of this period in connection with Franklin’s New England Courant, the first issue of which appeared August 7, 1721. In No. 48 of the Courant, published July 2, 1722, is given a list of the books kept in the office of the paper for the use of writers. It includes the following:⁴³

• Shakespeare’s Works
• Virgil
• Aristotle’s Politicks
• Hudibras
• Milton
• The Spectator, 8 volumes
• The Guardian, 2 volumes
• The Turkish Spy
• The Athenian Oracle
• The British Apollo
• The Art of Thinking
• The Art of Speaking
• The Reader
• Cowley’s Works
• Burnet’s History of the Reformation

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• Burnet’s Theory of the Earth
• Oldham’s Works
• The Tale of the Tub
• St. Augustine’s Works
• Tillotson’s Works
• Dr. Bates’ Works
• Dr. South’s Works
• Mr. Flavel’s Works
• Mr. Charnock’s Works
• Many pamphlets.

Of interest in connection with the lists already given arc the lists of the books which William Adams, Yale 1730, packed to carry to college with him at the beginning of his Freshman and Sophomore years:

Acc^t of Books y^t William Adams put up to carry to College, Nov 5. 1726.

• Elisha Coles Dictionary,
• A Latin Grammar,
• A Greek      ”
• Tully’s Offices,
•    ”    Orations,
• Virgil’s Works,
• Horace,
• English Virgil,
• Greek Testament,
• Latin     ”
• Catechisms, and Confessio Fidei,
• Latin Bible,
• Septuagint,
• Florilegium Phraseωn,
• Phraseologia
• Anglolatina, Pasor’s Lexicon,
• Lucius Florus,
• An English Bible,
• A Call to Backsliders,
• English Exercises,
• Ovid de Tristibus,
• Corderius’ Colloquies,

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• Terence,
• Ramus,
• Mr. Willard’s Penitent Prodigal,
• An English Dictionary,
• Observations on the Present State of Turkey,
• The Strong Helper,
• The Everlasting Gospel,
• The life of Mr. Edmund French,
• The Songs of the Redeemed,
• Nomenclator, Singing Book, Catechism,
• Some of his father’s Sermons.⁴⁴

The next year he carried the following, October 23:⁴⁵

• Locke of the Human Understanding,
• Locke of Education,
• Hebrew Bible, with Greek Testament at the end,
• Hebrew Grammar,
• Amesii Medulla Theologiæ,
• Burgersdicii Logica,
• Buxtorf’s Lexicon,
• Clark’s Formulæ,
• Allin’s Alarm,
• Mr. Coleman of Mirth,
• Mr. Williams’ Redeemed Captive,
• Flemming’s Rod or Sword,
• Mr. Penhallow’s Hist: of ye Indian War,
• Mr. Flavel’s Divine Conduct, or Mystery of Providence.
• Kennet’s Roman Antiquities,
• Gordon’s Geographical Grammar,
• Hist. of ye House of Orange
• Pope’s Homer, Vol. 2.
• Homer’s Iliad,
• Dugard’s Rhetorick,
• Grotius, De jure Belli et Pacis,
• Sanderson, De Conscientiâ,
•      ”    De juramento.

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With all the growth of libraries and the means to acquire books, the old custom of borrowing and lending continued, and those who lived near the booksellers sent gifts of books to those who were at a distance. As in the early days of the colonies, the name of Winthrop is most prominent in this exchange of books; but this may be partly because we have more records of the Winthrops than of any other family. Wait Winthrop wrote to his son,

I want Buckstone’s Lexicon for one of the words . . . ⁴⁶

Again he wrote,

I likewise send an Almanack and the Importance of Duncark, which is worth reading if you go through; it is M^r Lechmers⁴⁷ brothers, and must be sent again, and then you may haue more.⁴⁸

John Winthrop wrote to Cotton Mather,

I thank you heartily for yor very agreeable and entertaining communications from y^e Royall Society, and especially for y^e sight of D^r Woodwards Naturalis Historia Telluris.⁴⁹

Cotton Mather wrote to him January 11, 1718-9,

I have begun with sending you, that peece of my dear S^r Richard,⁵⁰ which will prepare you for the rest.⁵¹

November 30 of the same year he wrote,

When shall S^r Richard return! some of my Neighbours dun me for him.⁵²

Again the next February he wrote,

My dear,—Hast thou not yett with thee one of S^r Richards volumes, His “Essayes,” in prose? Examine thy Library.⁵³

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In spite of Winthrop’s tardiness in returning books, Mather continued to send them:

I hope, you have received the packetts which I sent you a few weeks ago: Both a Number of coheleth;⁵⁴ And also D^r Woodward’s pamphletts.⁵⁵

As a borrower Mather wrote to Thomas Prince, April 16, 1718, to ask,

. . . . if you’l favour me, by this Bearer, with the Book of Poetry, you bought the last week at your Booksellers.⁵⁶

Samuel Sewall, writing to John Williams, of Deerfield, added,

Inclosed the Non-Conformists Letter, this weeks News-Letter, Half Duz. Mr. Hobart’s verses, with the occasion; They are chiefly hortatory, and therefore I might honestly print them.⁵⁷

Many similar quotations might be given as further evidence of this custom, but it seems unnecessary to add more than the following statement of Cotton Mather’s which shows how far the practice was carried:

Seldome any new Book of Consequence finds the way from beyond-Sea, to these Parts of America, but I bestow the Perusal upon it.⁵⁸

In the meantime the popular distribution⁵⁹ of books, pamphlets, and broadsides had increased, for Mather recorded in his diary, in 1713,

I am informed that the Minds and Manners of many People about the Countrey are much corrupted, by foolish Songs and Ballads, which the Hawkers and Pedlars carry into all parts of the Countrey. By way of Antidote, I would procure poetical Composures

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full of Piety, and such as may have a Tendency to advance Truth and Goodness, to be published, and scattered into all Corners of the Land. There may be an Extract of some, from the excellent Watts’s Hymns.⁶⁰

When, in the latter part of that year, the Assembly passed laws restricting pedlars,⁶¹ Mather feared lest its provisions might interfere with his plan, for he noted in his diary:

I must also assist the Booksellers, in addressing the Assembly, that their late Act against Pedlers, may not hinder their Hawkers from carrying Books of Piety about the Countrey.⁶²

From the last sentence of the above it would seem that the booksellers made regular use of such hawkers in extending their business; this may have been the case for many years, for Mather planned to have books of piety so distributed as early as 1683.⁶³ Of course it cannot be presumed that these hawkers carried much or, perhaps, any real literature, their stock being made up chiefly of broadside ballads, chapbooks, and almanacs; but if there were so many pedlars selling so many questionable books that a law was necessary to regulate them, evidently there was a public demand for interesting narrative in either prose or verse, if not for real poetry. Most of their ballads and chapbooks were probably imported from England, but such homemade productions as Wigglesworth’s “The Day of Doom,” “The New England Primer,” and Cotton Mather’s “Life of Sir William Phipps” would be among the best sellers.

If James Gray, the only book hawker of whom there seems to be any extant record, may be considered typical, these pedlars found their business profitable. Upon his death the following notice appeared in The Boston News-Letter of April 9-16, 1705:

On Thursday last Dyed at Boston, James Gray, That used to

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go up and down the Country Selling of Books, who left some considerable Estate behind him, and ’tis confidently affirmed that he made a Will, which he left in some honest persons hand, with some other Papers, which have not yet been found: And any person in Town or Country who have said Will or Papers, are desired to bring them unto the Office of Probates in Boston.

Judge Sewall was sufficiently interested in either the man or the case to make a note of the amount of the estate in the margin of his copy of the News-Letter. Edward Bromfield and Paul Dudley were appointed administrators of the estate. According to their final accounting, the value of the estate was £712.11.3, of which £699.06. was in cash, eight bags of coin of all kinds and denominations being listed in the inventory.⁶⁴ “James Gray, Bookseller als. Pedler,” as he is entitled in the Probate Record, had evidently found the country folk of New England ready and eager to purchase his books.

Other information in regard to books owned or read during these years is found in quotations from or references to them. Samuel Sewall, for instance, recorded in his diary,

set out [from Bristol] . . . . for Narraganset. Din’d at Bright’s: while Din¯er was getting ready I read in Ben Johnson, a Folio . . . ⁶⁵

From the folio he copied some dozen lines into his diary. At other times he recorded:

I gave the President and him the reading of Mr. Sewell’s Answer to the Bp. Salisbury’s new preface. . . .⁶⁶ Gave each of them Maroll’s Martyrdom, Marbled.⁶⁷

Inclosed . . . . Dr. Edwards’s Answer to Sacheverell.⁶⁸ Inclosed Mr. Prior’s Epitaph (which Gov^r Saltonstall had not seen before):

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“Monarchs, and Heraulds, by your leave “Here ly the bones of Matthew Prior; “The Son of Adam and of Eve: “Let Bourbon, or Nassau, goe higher!”69

This last quotation is very interesting because it seems to have reached New England before it was published in England. Austin Dobson writes,⁷⁰ “This epitaph does not appear to have been published during Prior’s lifetime.” Prior died in September, 1721, and Sewall quoted the poem January 15, 1721-2. It was probably first published in “A New Collection of Poems,” 1725. It may have circulated in manuscript or even by word of mouth; in either case its reaching America so soon would indicate that some of the colonists were in close touch with English letters. This is also indicated by the following “good device” jotted down by Cotton Mather in August, 1713:

Perhaps, by sending some agreeable Things, to the Author of, The Spectator, and, The Guardian, there may be brought forward some Services to the best Interests in the Nation.⁷¹

Anything he might have sent would probably have been too late for publication, as The Guardian ceased with the issue of September 22, 1713; on the other hand, as it began publication May 28, 1713, Mather was not slow to realize its value. At the end of his printed sermon or “essay,” “A New Year Well Begun,” which bears the date of January 1, 1718-9, Mather added New-Tears-Day, “From Sir Richard Blackmore’s Collection of Poems, Printed at London, Anno 1718.” Still another example of colonial interest in English literature is the item published in The New England Courant No. 22, January 1, 1722, “a noble Duke is about to erect a Monument in Westminster Abby to the Memory of Milton, the Poet.”⁷²

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That James Franklin was interested in Milton as a poet is shown by the presence of a copy of Milton in the Courant library,⁷³ and by his twice quoting from “Paradise Lost,” once with the introductory remark, “Hear how the lofty Milton sings of this in his own inimitable Strain.”⁷⁴

Another who was interested in Milton was the Reverend Thomas Buckingham of Hartford, who carried with him on the expedition against Crown Point in 1711, along with a Bible and Psalm-book, “Milton on Comus,” as he called it in his journal.⁷⁵

Speaking of the reprinting of “George Barnwell” in The New England Weekly Journal, beginning February 14, 1732, Miss Cook remarks:⁷⁶

One of the most noteworthy realistic tragedies of the eighteenth century was thus reprinted in the Puritan stronghold of America, within a surprisingly short time of its first appearance.⁷⁷ This fact seems to have escaped observation until now. Probably a stray copy of the play had found its way into Kneeland’s book-shop. We cannot suppose that it had a place in the Prince or Byles libraries! Evidently Boston readers were rather more liberal in their tastes than we have been accustomed to think.

If we recall the interest in contemporary literature which has been shown in this chapter, as well as the possibility that John Dunton sold plays and romances in Boston nearly fifty years earlier,⁷⁸ it will not seem so strange that such a play as “George Barnwell,” with its sturdy Puritan morality, should be reprinted in Boston. On the contrary, such reprinting is just what we might expect when we take into consideration the evidences of the growing liberality of life in Boston which will be presented in the next chapter, as well as the constantly increasing accessibility and appreciation

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of books and literature of all kinds during the last forty, and especially the last twenty, years of the first century of colonial life. At the close of its first century New England was in touch with and responding to the literary movements of England.⁷⁹

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