John Estaugh | A rare Quaker tract printed by Benjamin Franklin

John Estaugh

A Call to the Unfaithful Professors of Truth, … to which is added Divers Epistles of the same Author. Philadelphia: Printed by B. Franklin, M,DCC,XLIV (1744)

8vo (142 x 92 mm). Type ornaments in text; very minor pale spotting, mostly affecting the final four leaves. Contemporary paneled calf, blind tooled, likely Philadelphian; rather rubbed, wear to extremities, the binding sound and in entirely original condition.

First edition of a rare Franklin imprint—a tract by the prominent Quaker minister John Estaugh encouraging his fellow Friends of Truth to live up to their faith.

Franklin printed around 2,000 copies of this short theological text for the author's widow, Mrs. Elizabeth Estaugh, who also wrote the preface. "The large number of copies printed in this edition suggests that Mrs. Estaugh meant the book to be distributed to the monthly meetings of the Friends of the Philadelphia-Burlington Yearly Meeting. She presented 200 copies to her own Haddonfield N.J. Meeting, May 17, 1744" (Miller).

Elizabeth Estaugh, born Haddon, was the founder of Haddon Township and Haddonfield, New Jersey. She emigrated alone from England to New Jersey, and developed the Haddonfield Plantation. John Estaugh, whom she had met earlier in England, followed her to America and, soon after, they were married. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow drew on an account of the Estaughs' courtship for his poem "Elizabeth" in Tales of a Wayside Inn. Subsequent editions appeared in London and Dublin, both in 1745.

Very rare at auction—only one other copy has sold in the last sixty years, according to Rare Book Hub.

REFERENCES

Miller 348; ESTC W37661; Evans 5390; Hildeburn 876; Sabin 23040

PROVENANCE

Likely Sotheby's London, Catalogue of Valuable Books and Manuscripts... of the Library of the Late P. M. Pittar, 4 November, 1918, Lot 245 ("original panel calf … fine clean copy")