Benjamin Franklin | An extremely rare Franklin pamphlet, the only complete copy of the two extant

Benjamin Franklin

Some observations on the proceedings against the Rev. Mr. Hemphill: with a vindication of his sermons. Philadelphia: Printed and Sold by B. Franklin, 1735

Small 8vo (155 x 98 mm). Type ornaments, with early ownership signature and annotations in text; general wear, with some dampstaining and a few small spots, lightly toned, the textblock trimmed close, shaving the signature and annotations on the title, losses at the corners of the title, chewed, mostly affecting the last gathering, with losses touching a few letters, a hole in the final leaf with loss to a small portion of two lines of the text. Disbound. Brown morocco slipcase, chemise.

The extremely rare first edition of this Franklin imprint, a pamphlet penned by the young Benjamin Franklin, one of just two copies known and the only example to retain all of its leaves.

Franklin wrote this controversial pamphlet anonymously and published it under his own imprint. In it, he defends Samuel Hemphill, a young Presbyterian minister who, in April 1735, had been charged with unsound doctrine by his Synod and suspended from his pastoral duties—the first heresy trial in American Presbyterian history (William S. Barker, "The Hemphill Case," p. 243).

After excommunicating Hemphill, the Synod published an explanation of its actions titled An Extract of the Minutes of the Commission of the Synod. Franklin responded with the pamphlet offered here. As he recalled in his autobiography: "About the year 1734 there arrived from Ireland a young Presbyterian preacher, named Hemphill, who delivered with a good voice, and apparently extempore, most excellent discourse, which drew together considerable numbers of different persuasions, who join'd in admiring them. Among the rest, I became one of his constant hearers, his sermons pleasing me, as they had little of the dogmatical kind, but inculcated strongly the practise of virtue. … Those, however, of our congregation who considered themselves as Orthodox Presbyterians, disapprov'd his doctrine, and were join'd by most of the old clergy, who arraign'd him of heterodoxy before the synod, in order to have him silenc'd. I became his zealous partisan, and contributed all I could to raise a party in his favor. … There was much scribbling pro and con upon the occasion; and finding that, tho, an elegant preacher, he was but a poor writer, I lent him my pen and wrote for him two or three pamphlets, and one piece in the Gazette of April 1735. Those pamphlets, as is generally the case with controversial writing, 'tho eagerly read at the time, were soon out of vogue, and I question whether a single copy of them now exists" (pp. 167–68). 

Franklin's pamphlet was obviously popular, quickly running to a second edition. It was answered in turn by A Vindication of the Reverend Commission of the Synod purportedly written by Jonathan Dickinson (Miller).

Evidently, this is the only copy of the first edition in private hands. The only other copy known at Yale University lacks the title page and final leaf—and is only identifiable as a first edition due to the differences in the setting of type in gatherings A and B.

REFERENCES

Miller 105; ESTC W17011; Evans 3904; Ford 5; Hildeburn 511; William S. Barker, "The Hemphill Case, Benjamin Franklin and Subscription to the Westminster Confession," in American Presbyterians, Vol. 69, No. 4 (1991), pp. 243-256

PROVENANCE

Charles Heartman, offered in 1930 for $2,500 — Samuel Freeman and Co., auctioned in 1937 (per Miller) — Goodspeed, offered in 1938 and 1940 — Laird U. Park Jr. (Sotheby's New York, 29 November 2000, lot 96)