Curé

1796 · 007817 — Philadelphia : Re-printed for Richard Lee by Dunning Hyer and Palmer - Printers 1796. First American Edition. Hardcover. This complete two-volume first U.S. edition of 1796 is bound in contemporary marble calf. The bindings feature gilt ruled spines with rectangular gilt-printed burgundy spine labels and circular gilt-printed black spine labels. Condition is good plus. The period bindings remain fully intact the boards still firmly connected. As might be expected the bindings show age and wear the boards and spines variously scuffed the corners worn through. The text blocks have a slight swell the boards a slight outward warp. The contents of both volumes are notably clean the endpapers browned the contents less so. Spotting is minimal appearing substantially confined to the endpapers and page edges. The same single clearly vintage owner name is inked to the upper right corner of each title page. <br /> <br />This U.S. edition “RE-PRINTED FOR RICHARD LEE” in Philadelphia in 1796 by “DUNNING HYER AND PALMER – PRINTERS” followed the British edition of 1795 J. Ridgeway London. This work was the product of the incarceration of the author - Reverend William Winterbotham 1763-1829. Winterbotham’s prosecution was “a celebrated instance of overreaction by the authorities through nervousness in the wake of the French Revolution.” <br /> <br />The sixth of fifteen children Winterbotham “left school after an argument with the schoolmaster” and thereafter apprenticed to a silversmith. He eventually started in business for himself as a silver buckle-maker “but illness forced a temporary return to his parents.” His “early dissolute life” changed when he underwent conversion. In 1787 he began to preach and in 1789 became a Baptist. In this newly found zealous life he ran afoul of the politics of the day. <br /> <br />In a sermon on 5 November 1792 on the double anniversary of the 1605 Gunpowder Plot and the revolution of 1688 Winterbotham “made reference to the French Revolution and to contemporary abuses as he saw it of the contract between king and people. This aroused local feeling and a prosecution was talked of. In an attempt to put matters right he preached a sermon” on 18 November but “on 25 and 26 July 1793 he was tried at the Exeter assizes for both sermons and found guilty.” The result was a significant fine and imprisonment most of which he spent at Newgate prison. <br /> <br />It was in Newgate that Winterbotham wrote An Historical Geographical and Philosophical View of the Chinese Empire as well as An Historical Geographical Commercial and Philosophical View of the American United States. Upon release from Newgate in November 1797 Winterbotham returned to preaching. He was publicly ordained in 1801. “He was frequently invited to preach around the country and in 1812 was one of the signatories to the formation of the Baptist Union.” ODNB <br/><br/> Re-printed for Richard Lee by Dunning, Hyer and Palmer - Printers hardcover