A BRIEF JOURNAL OF THE LIFE, TRAVELS AND LABOURS OF LOVE, IN THE WORK OF THE MINISTRY, OF THAT EMINENT AND FAITHFUL SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST, THOMAS WILSON. WHO DEPARTED THIS LIFE, AT HIS OWN HABITATION, NEAR EDENDERRY, IN THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND, THE 20TH OF THE THIRD MONTH, 1725 (COMPLETED COPY OF 100 PAGES)
Dublin, Ireland: Sam. Fuller at the Globe and Scales in Meath-Street, 1728. First Edition. Leather-bound. 12mo, 6.1 in. x 3.8 in., pp. xlviii, 100. Signatures: a-c A-F G². The full G² signature (pages 97-100) is skillfully written in manuscript ink. Contemporary leather boards with decorative frame tooled in blind. Rebacked spine with gilt title to black panel; four raised bands to spine, with gilt bandlines at spine ends. Light rubbing to extremities. Small chips, now repaired, to edges of front and rear boards. Bottom corners just showing. Previous owner's bookplate to front pastedown; another owner's name boldly handwritten in calligraphy on card pasted to front free endpaper. Reinforced hinges. Pages supple and bright. (ESTC T29634) (Sabin 104689). Very Good. Item #86326
Print through page 96, then handwritten for four pages. ESTC lists the book as having 98 pages, plus a leaf with advertising. Presumably, the final two pages of printed text took the manuscript writer four pages to copy. The advertising pages are not found in this copy. Pages 97-100 are handwritten in beautiful, flowing script.
Thomas Wilson (1654 - 1725) was an esteemed minister in the early Society of Friends (Quakers). Born in Soulby, Cumberland, England, he became a Quaker in his youth. He traveled in the ministry through England and Ireland, and visited America twice with his friend James Dickenson. In the year 1695, Thomas Wilson married Mary Bewley of Woodhal, and they moved to Ireland to live out their lives in Edenderry in The King's County. His journal was published posthumously in Ireland in 1728 and contains accounts of Wilson’s visits to America in 1690 and 1713, hence the Sabin citation.
The book consists of a letter "To the Reader" written by John Stoddart (pp. iii - viii), testimonials of Thomas Wilson's character (pp. ix - xlviii), the posthumously published autobiographical journal of John Wilson (pp. 1 - 61), letters written by Wilson (pp. 65 - 94), and a recording of his final days, presumably by John Stoddart (pp. 95-100).
Pastedown bookplate is that of "Thomas Crewdson, Kendal." Name to front free endpaper is "Gendoleyn Crewdson". Gertrude Gwendolen Bevan Crewdson (1872–1913) was an administrator and benefactor of Girton College, Cambridge, and a renowned Egyptologist.
Price: $475.00