The History of the Province of New-York, from the First Discovery to the Year M.DCC.XXXII. To which is annexed, A Description of the Country, with a short Account of the Inhabitants, their Trade, Religious and Political State, and the Constitution of the Courts of Justice in that Colony
THE FIRST HISTORY OF NEW YORK
London: Thomas Wilcox, 1757. First edition.
Quarto (9 11/16” x 7 1/4”, 246mm x 185mm): A4 a2 B-Kk4, binder’s blank [$2 signed; –A1, H2, I2]. 134 leaves, pp. i-vii (title, blank, 3pp. dedication, blank, preface) vii-xii, 1 2-255, blank. With a folding engraved plate.
Bound in later crushed red morocco (re-backed, with the original back-strip laid down) by Riviere & Son (signed at the lower edge of the front turn-in) with gilt-fillet borders and corner ornaments. On the spine, five raised bands. Title gilt to the second panel, author gilt to the third, imprint gilt to the tail. Double gilt fillets to the edges of the boards. Gilt inside dentelle. Marbled end-papers. All edges of the text-block gilt.
Re-backed with the original back-strip laid down. Wear to the corners. Evenly tanned throughout. Damp-stain to the upper edge of the text-block, just touching a few letters of the head-lines in the initial leaves. The map repaired verso. Pencil marginalia and underlining to pp. 89, 168-170 and 174-175. Ex-libris of Shea, completed in manuscript “4695” to the front paste-down. Bookplates of Edward N. Crane and of Edward M. Crane (the latter red sheep gilt) to the front paste-down. Faint ownership signature of “William D. Blacke[r?]/18[..]” to the title-page.
William Smith (1727–1793) wrote the first history of New York. Smith planned and began work on a sequel, treating 1732-1762, which was published posthumously (1826). At first seeking to avoid revolution by siding with the British under Lord North, who proposed granting to the Americans everything short of independence, Smith eventually became a loyalist and emigrated to England. Still, his History gave him legitimacy as an expert on New York, for which he hoped to be granted command and territory by the British. Smith served as the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the British colony of New York (which at the time was essentially confined to the City of New York) 1780-2.[1] The book comprises five historical sections, with the fifth containing a treatment of the legislative and judicial structures in pre-Revolutionary New York.
The identity of William D. Blacke[r?] is difficult to ascertain. Perhaps it is the Irish land agent (1776–1850), who testified before the House of Lords colonisation committee in the course of the potato famine. The bookplate of Shea suggests a collection of children’s literature, and indeed the UCLA Children’s Book collection has a book has a copy of Hawthorne’s Snow Image with the bookplate (completed “186”) and an inscription opposite: “G B Shea/ from/ Himself/ Dec 25/14”.
Edward Nichols Crane (1846–1911) was the nephew-in-law of David Van Nostrand, and from 1888 took the reins of his publishing firm D. Van Nostrand (later Van Nostrand-Reinhold, now part of Wiley). The present volume was lot 852 in his sale of important Americana, 28 March 1913. Perhaps the purchaser was his son, Edward Matthews Crane (1896–1964). He succeeded his father as president, and served in that role for 42 years. A graduate of Princeton (which holds his papers, and where Van Nostrand operated), he fought in WWI before and served, as his father had, as a trustee of the Newark Museum.
Church 1023; Howes S 703; Sabin 84566; Streeter sale II.871.
[1] I thank Mr. Michael Benowitz, Assistant Director of the Historical Society of the New York Courts, for his assistance.
Item #JLR0698
Price: $2,400