NO listed Copies
- 935G R[ichard] Brown[e]
The English-School Reformed: containing, first, rules, shewing the nature of vowels, consonants, syllables, diphthongs, dividing of syllables, and of stops and points. Secondly, a praxis shewing the use of the said rules, in a dialogue. Thirdly, words from one, to six an seven syllables, exactly divided. Fourthly, a collection of words that agree in sound, but differ in sense, and spelling. Fifthly, another collection of words that are writ one way and sounded another. Sixthly, English words contracted, figures and numeral letters, &c. and, lastly, an accidence adapted to our English tongue. By R. Brown, master of a private school in St. Ann’s Parish, Westminster.
London: Printed for A. and J. Churchil at the Black Swan, 1710 $2900
Octavo 179mm pp. [iv] [2] 3-110 1-2 [i] Fourth Edition Contemporary calf expertly repaired and refurbished (by Riley of Haverthwaite). Pencil marks on p. 78, paper uniformly light browned. A good copy of an unrecorded edition. Last four leaves are “Good Manners for Schools: or Qui mihi done into English verse” by R. Foord. Lacks endpapers.This text appears to serve as an educational supplement to school attendance. Some sections employ a question-and-answer format, facilitating two-person study. On page 91, for example, the author responds to a question about English noun declension thus: “And after this manner are all Nouns Substantives declined that are not defective, that is, that have both Numbers: As for such that want either Singular or Plural, the very sense of the word itself sufficiently denotes. Thus, as Goods, Riches, Victuals, &c. want the Singular; so all proper Names of Persons, Places, or Things, want the Plural; as Richard, Thomas, London, Ale, Sack, Wheat, Barley, Gold, Silver; so Righteousness, Integrity, Drunkenness, &c.” The text is readable and entertaining, and offers insight into the educational curriculum of the day.The first and third editions of this book contain an aditional engraved title page, as engraved plates are printed separately and are not included in the signed gathering. The unsigned first gathering of this unrecorded fourth edition is [iii], indicating that there is possibly a half title missing.Previous owners’ names and notes in ink in a mainly contemporary hand on the pastedowns and verso of the final leaf. All editions of this work are rare.
ESTC notes only the first and third editions (1700 and 1707, respectively).
2. 931G John Bailey 1644-1697
Man’s chief End To Glorifie God, Or Some Brief Sermon-Notes. On I Co. 10. 31. By the Reverend Mr. John Bailey, Sometime Preacher and Prisoner of Christ at Limerick in Ireland, And now Pastor to the Church of Christ in Watertown in New=England. John 17.4,5. I have Glorified thee on Earth and now Father Glorifie me with thine own Self. Pet. I. 15. I will endeavour that after my Decease you may have these things always in remembrance.
Boston: Printed by Samuel Green, and are to be Sold by Richard Wilkins Bookseller near the Town-House. Anno 1689 $13,000
Octavo 5.8 x 3.75 inches a4, A-K8; A-C8 (Lacking text leaves A5 and H6, and the blanks C7 and C8). First edition. This is a lovely copy that tells the story of early printing and life in the wild American colonies from the earliest period. In 1689, when it was new, it was bound practically and economically in a simple sheepskin binding. (Think of the seventeenth century American sheep!) This in itself is a testament to the firm footing already gained by the earliest English inhabitants of the Massachusetts Bay colony. All domestic breeds of sheep, cow and fowl were imported from the old world on board the same ships that carried the religious and economic aspirants who made the transatlantic voyage. The binding has not been changed or repaired since the seventeenth century, and although it is worn and shows its knocks, its very survival is worthy of respect. “The Reverend John Bailey was born near Blackburn, Lancashire. Thomas, his father, as described by Cotton Mather: ‘was a man of a very licentious conversation; a gamester, a dancer, a very lewd company-keeper. The mother of this elect vessel one day took him, while he was yet a child, and calling the family together, made him to pray with them. His father coming to understand at what a rate the child had prayed with his family, it smote the soul of him with a great conviction, and proved the beginning of his conversion unto God.’“Having walked far to attend non-conformist services, and having suffered imprisonment several times, John Bailey began, at the age of twenty-two, to preach so successfully at chester, and then at Limerick, that ‘he seemed rather to fish with a net than with a hook.’ When arrested, he asked his judges if praying and preaching with inoffensive Christians was a greater crime than carousing at a tavern. The recorder of the court replied: ‘We will have you to know, it is a greater crime.’“After fourteen years in Ireland he came over to Boston in 1683/4, remaining there as assistant at the Old South Church until he was installed at Watertown, in October 1686.” (Quoted from The Founders by Charles Knowles Bolton) Evans; 456; Wing B-448; Wing B-449; Evans; 457. {Evans and Wing treat ’Man’s chief end to glorifie God’ and ’To my loving and dearly beloved Christian friends …’ as separate bibliographical items, however the preface to ’Man’s chief end to glorifie God’ calls for ’To my loving and dearly beloved Christian friends …’; verify whether these items were also issued separately.} Eight copies in U.S. libraries, two copy in the U.K. No copies in Irish libraries.
Copies – Brit.Isles LinkBritish Library
Congregational Library
Dr. Williams’s Library
Copies – N.America LinkAmerican Antiquarian Society
Boston Athenaeum
Boston Public, Main
Harvard University
Harvard University, Houghton Library
John Carter Brown Library, Brown University
Massachusetts Historical Society
New York Public Library
3. 926G Benjamin Jenks 1648-1724
Two letters written to a gentleman of note guilty of common swearing. The second edition. To which is added a third letter to another gentleman in the commission of the peace’ exciting him to the performance of his part in executing the late act against profane cursing and swearing.
London: Printed for Benj. Tooke, at the Middle-Temple Gate in Fleetstreet, 1965 $3500
Octavo 6 X 3 1/2 inches pp. 76 [2, errata & blank] First Edition Contemporary calf, rebacked and endpapers renewed. Title repaired at lower corner, a few leaves close-trimmed at lower margin just touching the edge of one or two catchwords, a couple of manuscript corrections, some spotting and water stains, mainly to second part. 18th century ownership inscription to renewed f.e.p. “From Noble Organs, Sir, we expect Harmonious Sounds: and Verses of Humour should not be prostituted to the basest uses” (p. 39).Jenks was a Church of England clergyman and author. He matriculated at Queen’s College, Oxford. He remained minister at Harley until his death. He published a number of sermons, meditations, and books of prayer. These latter proved especially popular and were reprinted into the nineteenth century. According to the ODNB, “Jenks developed moralizing messages in several of his writings, lecturing against swearing, ledness, and lust”, notably in his several letters on swearing, which were usually addressed to “a Gentleman of Note”.The letters were first published in 1691 [Wing J5A/ESTC R216972]. This second edition of Jenks’ Two Letters also includes his Third Letter. The Third Letter was also issued separately and is recorded on ESTC as Wing L1660/R26782 (Lambeth Palace Library, Harvard University, Harvard University Houghton Library only). The first edition is a very rare book with ESTC recording only two copies (British Library and Huntington only). This second edition of Jenks’ letters, published 1965, is unrecorded on ESTC. Wing J5A/ESTC R216972; Wing L1660/ESTC R26782
4. 938G Samuel Willard (1640-1707)
The Peril of the Times Displayed, or, The Danger of Mens taking up with a Form of Godliness, But Denying the Power of it. Being The Substance of several Sermons Preached: By Samuel Willard, Teacher of a Church in Boston, N.E. Sumenda sunt amura Salubria.
Boston : printed by B. Green, & J. Allen. Sold by Benjamin Eliot, 1700. $15000
Duodecimo 5 1/4 X 3 inches A-G . First edition This copy is bound in original American sheepskin over scabbard, quite worn. Willard,was “the son of a military and political leader, and destined to become one of the most important preachers among the second generation of New England Puritans, was born at Concord, Massachusetts. Trained in orthodoxy at Harvard College, he graduated in 1659, and was the only member of his class to go on for an M. A. degree. He served two churches (Groton and Boston’s South Church), played a leading role in the Reforming Synod of 1679, and at the end of his life was acting president of Harvard.Basic to all of Willard’s preaching was the doctrine of the covenant. He uncompromisingly opposed sectarian and Anglican Arminianism by preaching the Reformed doctrines of predestination, total depravity, limited atonement, irresistible grace, and perseverance of the saints. He denied the possibility of real preparatory works, and consistently magnified the sovereignty of divine grace.Willard equally opposed Antinominanism by means of the historic Reformed emphases on revelation, justification, and sanctification. Throughout his ministry he propagated and defended New England’s orthodoxy on infant baptism, a learned ministry, and the alliance of church and state in religion, opposing both Baptist and Quaker inroads. Willard was also influential in halting the Salem witchcraft trials in 1692, and in promoting the historic fast day four years later.” Seymour Van DykenMany of his sermons were published in his lifetime, but his magnum opus, A Compleat body of Divinity was published posthumously, the largest book ever printed in New England at the time. This book was quite influential upon the next generation of ministers in New England, including Stoddard and Edwards. None of Willard’s works are currently in print. Willard preached at Boston’s Third Church during the illness of Rev. Thomas Thacher and gave an election-day sermon on June 5. The Third Church called Willard to be its Teacher, an associate pastor, on April 10, 1678. When Thacher died on October 15, Willard became their only pastor. Members of the congregation included a variety of influential members of the colony: John Hull, Samuel Sewall, Edward Rawson, Thomas Brattle, Joshua Scottow, Hezekiah Usher, and Capt. John Alden (the son of John and Priscilla Alden of Plymouth). His wife Abigail died sometime in the first half of 1679; in July of that year he married Eunice Tyng, a possible sister-in-law of Joseph Dudley.
Holmes, T.J. Increase Mather, 168; Evans, 963 Wing (2nd ed.), W2289
Copies – N.America LinkAmerican Antiquarian Society
Boston Public, Main
Harvard University, Houghton Library
Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery
Massachusetts Historical Society
New York Public Library
Peabody Essex Museum, Phillips Library
University of Virginia
5. 700G F.G. = Francis Gregory 1625?-1707
Oνομασικὸν βραχύ (Onomastikon brachy) sive. Nomenclatura brevis Anglo-Latino-Græca. In usum scholæ Westmonasteriensis. Per F.G. Editio duodecima emendata. Together with Examples of the five declensions of nouns; with the words in propria quæ maribus and quæ genus reduced to each declension_
London : printed by J. Macock, for Richard Royston, book-seller to His most Sacred Majesty 1672 $2,200
Octavo, 6 3/4 X 4 1/2 inches. A-E8 This copy is bound in full original sheep cords worn spine torn but sewing and binding still holding! Gregory, born about 1625, was a native of Woodstock, Oxfordshire. He was educated at Westminster under Busby, who, as he afterwards said, was not only a master but a father to him, and in 1641 was elected to a scholarship at Trinity College, Cambridge, graduating M.A. in 1648. He returned to Westminster School as usher till he was appointed head-master of the grammar school at Woodstock. He was a successful teacher, and numbered among his pupils several sons of noble families. An ardent royalist he was chosen to preach the thanksgiving sermon for the Restoration at St. Mary’s, Oxford, 27 May 1660, and afterwards published it under the title of ‘David’s Return from Banishment.’ He also published ‘Votivum Carolo, or a Welcome to his sacred Majesty Charles II from the Master and Scholars of Woodstock School,’ a volume of English and Latin verses composed by Gregory and his pupils. Shortly afterwards he became head-master of a newly founded school at Witney, Oxfordshire, and 22 Sept. 1661 he was incorporated D.D. of Oxford University from St. Mary Hall. He was appointed a chaplain to the king, and in 1671 was presented by Earl Rivers to the living of Hambleden, Buckinghamshire. He. kept this post till his death in 1707. He was buried in the church, where a tablet was erected to his memory._ This book consists of Parallel vocabulary : Then Examples of the five declensions of nouns; followed by Examples of Adjectives. _ Not in Wing see G1899E a different printer According to the ESTC there are 28 editions printed between 1651 and 1769 listing only eleven copies in the US, This copy is listed with only one copy at the Westminster School (where else could you expect?!)
6*** 670G Edmund Gurnay ±1648
The demonstration of Antichrist. By Edmund Gurnay, Bach. Theol. p. of Harpley Norfolke
London:Printed by I[ohn] B[eale] for Iames Boler, and are to be sold at the signe of the Marigold in Pauls Churchyard 1631 $2,900
Octavo, 5 1/4 X 3 1/4 inches. First edition A12,B5{ lacking b6 Blank}. This copy is bound in calf boards rebacked. Gurney matriculated at Queens’ College, Cambridge, on 30 October 1594, and graduated B.A. in 1600. He was elected Norfolk fellow of Corpus Christi College in 1601, proceeded to M.A. in 1602, and B.D. in 1609. In 1607 he was suspended from his fellowship for not being in orders, but was reinstated by the vice-chancellor. In 1614 he left Cambridge, on being presented to the rectory of Edgefield, Norfolk, which he held till 1620, when he received that of Harpley, Norfolk. Gurney was inclined to puritanism, as appears from his writings. On one occasion he was cited to appear before the bishop for not using a surplice, and on being told he was expected to always wear it, ‘came home, and rode a journey with it on.’ He further made his citation the occasion for publishing his tract vindicating the Second Commandment. Thomas Fuller, who was personally acquainted with him, says: ‘He was an excellent scholar, could be humourous, and would be serious as he was himself disposed. His humours were never prophane towards God or injurious towards his neighbours.’ Gurney died in 1648. Gurney was married, and apparently had a son called Protestant (d. 1624—monument at Harpley). DNB STC (2nd ed.), 12529 [Stationer’s Register: Entered 29 January [1631.]
Copies – Brit.Isles British Library
Cambridge University Library
Cambridge University Magdalene College
Congregational Library
Lincoln Cathedral Library
Oxford University Copies – N.America :Folger Shakespeare &Huntington (only)
Fuller’s Worthies, p. 258, ed. 1652
7. 305G Charles Buchanan. b. 1660 or 61
The Nature and Design of Holy Days.
London: printed by W. B. for Richard Sare, at Grays-Inn-Gate, in Holborn, 1705. $2,200
Octavo, . First Edition A-I4/8/K3 +19 Full page engravings. There is an engraved frontispiece, discolored, and nineteen full-page engravings extraneous to the text. Bound in full modern calfskin, largely intact, contents with some browning along the gutters, some leaves becoming loose, endleaves with old tape, contemporary annotations. And Price on title page: Price 6d stitch’d, or 8d Bound. This book is not only rare but it is probably unique, with the illustrations, the Estc lists the book as anonymous, yet is undoubtedly but Charles Buchanan. ESTC makes no mention of frontispiece or illustrations. Three editions listed in ESTC, the first and third editions each only show one Copies – Brit.Isles National Library of Scotland
Oxford University
Oxford University Corpus Christi College
U.S. library location: the Houghton Library, the second edition has no North American holdings, see ESTC T170660.
8. 293G Robert Russel fl 1692
Seven Sermons: Viz. I. Of the Unpardonable Sin against the Holy Ghost: or, the Sin Unto Death. II. The Saint’s Duty and Exercise: in Two Parts. Being an Exhortation to, and Directions for Prayer. III. The Accepted Time and Day of Salvation. IV. The End of Time, and Beginning of Eternity. V. Joshua’s Resolution to Serve the Lord. VI. The Way to Heaven Made Plain. VII. The Future State of Man: or, a Treatise of the Resurrection. By Robert Russel, at Wadhurst, in Sussex
Boston:Reprinted by John Allen, for John Eliot, at his shop in Orange-Street,1718 $1,600
Duodecimo, 6 X 3.25 inches. A1 (lacking A2-A5) A6 B1&2, B5&6, CI6, K1&2,(lacking K3&4)L1&2 (lacking L3&4)L5&6, N1-6, O1 (lacking O2-5) O6, P1 (Lacking P2-5 (P6 blank) This book is bound in sheep over scabord and sewn on two leather sewing supports , a typical early American binding. All Editions of this book are quite rare, there are only two copies of the Boston editions both at American Antiquarian Society Worcester. Of Russell, I could find very little, yet he was immensely popular, especially in the colonies being reprinted in Boston in 1701, 1727 & 1728. There is no doubt that Russell’s style of sermonizing upon sin met with the Mather’s approval. All early editions are quite rare. Estc Locates only one copy at The American Antiquarian Society .
9. 606G John Reading 1588-1667
Dauids soliloquie. Containing many comforts for afflicted mindes. As they were deliuered in sundry sermons at Saint Maries in Douer. By Io: Reading.
Printed [by John Legat] for Robert Allot, and are to be sold at his shop in Saint Pauls Church-yeard at the signe of the Greyhound :1627 $950
Octavo, 5 1/2 X 3 inches . A-V X .Leaves A1, A11, A12 are blank. With additional engraved title page (plate), signed: F. Hulsius invenit et sculps·. This copy is bound in original soiled vellum. Reading matriculated at Magdalen Hall, Oxford, on 4 May 1604, and graduated B.A. on 17 October 1607. He took holy orders about 1614 and was chaplain to Edward la Zouche, 11th Baron Zouche of Haringeworth, Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports and governor of Dover Castle. After preaching at Dover many sermons before his patron, Reading was appointed minister of St. Mary’s on 2 December 1616, at the request of the parishioners, . He secured a position of influence in the town, and subsequently became chaplain to Charles I . Although his sermons advocated Puritan principles, he supported the king’s cause in the English Civil War. In 1642 his study at Dover was plundered by parliamentary soldiers, and he was imprisoned for nineteen months. By direction of Charles I, and William Laud, Reading was made the rector of Chartham, Kent, on 27 January 1643. The House of Commons declined to sanction Reading’s institution, and appointed Edward Corbett. Laud refused to abandon Reading. A prebend in Canterbury which was bestowed on Reading at the same time brought him no advantage. In July 1644 he was presented by Sir William Brockman to the living of Cheriton, Kent, and in the same year Reading was appointed by the Westminster Assembly to be one of nine commissioned to write annotations on the New Testament. Shortly after 1645, on the discovery of a plot for the capture of Dover Castle by the royalists, he was arrested by command of Major John Boys, and hurried to Dover Castle, and next day to Leeds Castle. There he composed the “Guide to the Holy City.”’ He was at length discharged by the parliamentary committee for Kent, and the restitution of his goods was ordered; but his livings were sequestered. On 8 January 1647 he was a prisoner in the Fleet Prison. On 10 March 1650 he attacked the right of unordained preaching in a public disputation with the baptist Samuel Fisher of Folkestone. Fisher used arguments from Jeremy Taylor’s “Discourse of the Liberty of Prophesying,”’ which Reading had already criticised in print.Reading was restored to his Dover living shortly before the English Restoration of 1660. On 25 May 1660 he presented to Charles II, on his first landing, a large bible with gold clasps, in the name of the corporation of Dover, and made a short speech, which was published as a broadside. He was shortly afterwards restored to Chartham, made canon of the eighth prebend of Canterbury, and reinstituted to Cheriton on 18 July . In October following the university of Oxford conferred on him the degree of D.D. per literas regias. Before August 1662 he resigned the living at Dover. STC (2nd ed.), 20788 Estc Locates Folger and Huntington only.
10***723G Langston, John. 1641-1704
Lusus poeticus Latino-Anglicanus in usum scholarum. Or The more eminent sayings of the Latin poets collected; and for the service of youth in that ancient exercise, commonly called capping of verses, alphabetically digested; and for the greater benefit of young beginners i the Latin tongue, rendred into English. By John Langston teacher of a private grammar-school near Spittle-fields, London .
London : printed for Henry Eversden at the Crown in Cornhil, near the Stocks-market, 1675. $2,400
Octavo, 5 3/4 X 3 3/4 Inches . First edition, 2nd edition in 1679 and 3rd edition in 1688. This copy is bound in full 17th century calf, recently expertly rebacked. This alphabetically arranged compendium of eminent sayings by Latin poets for the service of youth in capping of verses is the work for which Langston is best remembered. He issued a lesser known grammatical work, “Poeseos Graecae Medulla”, in 1679. He published nothing of a religious nature, but issued the following for school purposes: 1. ‘Lusus Poeticus Latino-Anglicanus,’ &c., 1675, 8vo; 2nd edition, 1679, 8vo; 3rd edition, 1688, 12mo (intended as an aid to capping verses). 2. ‘ π . Sive Poese Græcæ Medulla, cum versione Latina,’ &c., 1679, 8vo.” “LANGSTON, JOHN (1641?–1704), independent divine, was born about 1641, according to Calamy. He went from the Worcester grammar school to Pembroke College, Oxford, where he was matriculated as a servitor in Michaelmas term 1655, and studied for some years. Wood does not mention his graduation. At the Restoration in 1660 (when, if Calamy is right, he had not completed his twentieth year) he held the sequestered perpetual curacy of Ashchurch, Gloucestershire, from which be was displaced by the return of the incumbent. He went to London, and kept a private school near Spitalfields. On the coming into force of the Uniformity Act (24 Aug. 1662) he crossed over to Ireland as chaplain and tutor to Captain Blackwell, but returned to London and to school-keeping in 1663. Under the indulgence of 1672 he took out a license, in concert with William Hooke (d. March 1677, aged 77), formerly master of the Savoy, ‘to preach in Richard Loton’s house in Spittle-yard.’ Some time after 1679 he removed into Bedfordshire, where he ministered till, in 1686, he received an invitation from a newly separated congregation of independents, who had hired a building in Green Yard, St. Peter’s parish, Ipswich. Under his preaching a oongregational church of seventeen persons was formed on 12 Oct. 1686. Langston, his wife, and thirty others were admitted to membership on 22 Oct., when a call to the pastorate was given him; he accepted it on 29 Oct., and was set apart by four elders at a solemn fast on 2 Nov. A ‘new chappell’ in Green Yard was opened on 26 June 1687, and the church membership was raised to 123 persons, many of them from neighbouring villages. Calamy says he was driven out of his house, was forced to remove to London, and was there accused of being a jesuit, whereupon he published a successful ‘Vindication.’ The publication is unknown, and Calamy gives no date; the year 1697 has been suggested. Langston’s church-book gives no hint of any persecution, but shows that he was in the habit of paying an annual visit of about three weeks’ duration to London with his wife. He notices the engagement with the French fleet at La Hogue on 19 May 1692, ‘for ye defeat of wh blessed he God,’ and the earthquake on 8 Sept. in the same year. The tone of his ministry was conciliatory ‘towards people of different perswasions.’ In November 1702 Benjamin Glandfield (d. 10 Sept. 1720) was appointed as his assistant. Langston died on 12 Jan. 1704, ‘aetat. 64.’ (DNB). Wing L411; Harvard,Huntington,U of Ill, U of Texas,Yale . Arber’s Term cat. I 213.
Copies – Brit.Isles British Library
Cambridge University King’s College
Durham University Library
National Library of Scotland
National Library of Wales
Nottingham University Library
Oxford University Bodleian Library
Signet Library
The National Trust
Winchester College Fellows Library
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