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Catalogue
74
America
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26.
CLINTON, Sir HENRY. A Letter from Lieut. Gen. Sir Henry Clinton,
K.B. to the Commissioners of Public Accounts, Relative to Some Observations
in their Seventh Report, Which may be judged to imply Censure on
the late Commanders in Chief of His Majesty's Army in North America.
London, J. Debrett, 1784. First edition. $375
8vo; pp. 31, (1) (Advert). Sewn as issued; first and final leaves
slightly dust-soiled; a very good, uncut and unopened copy, with
Clinton's Advertisement explaining his publishing of this work tipped-in.
Sabin 13750; Howes C494. Taking issue with the Commissioners' implications
that he had used government funds in an improper manner during the
war with the Colonies, Clinton here defends himself quite heatedly,
and submits documents to prove that, had his orders been read and
acted upon in Britain, the so-called mismanagement of which he is
now accused would not have come to pass. Also mentioned is his concern
with the obvious favouring of Cornwallis by the Commissioners. The
whole question of the leadership of the British troops during the
Revolution, and the competition between Clinton and Cornwallis,
led to its own "war" of correspondence between the two
men.
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A Very Scarce, Very Important Work
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27. [CLODORE, JEAN de]. Relation de ce qui s'est passe, dans
les Isles & Terre-Ferme de l'Amérique, pendant la dernière
Guerre avec l'Angleterre, & depuis en execution du Traitté
(sic) de Breda, Avec un Journal Du dernier Voyage du Sr de la Barre
en la Terre-Ferme, & Isle de Cayenne, accompagné d'une
exacte description du Pays, moeurs & naturel des Habitans. Le
tout recueilly des Memoires des principaux Officiers qui ont commandé
en ces Pays. Par I.C.S.D.V. Où est joint le Journal d'un
nouveau Voyage fait en Guynée, l'année présente,
qui contient le Traité de Commerce, & alliance, fait
avec le Roy d'Ardres, avec l'envoy d'un Ambassadeur de ce Prince
en France. Paris, Gervais Clouzier, 1671. Two volumes. First edition.
$3,000
12mo; 23 f, pp. 386; 4 ff, pp. 494, (f) (original blank). Contemporary
full calf; rebacked with original spines, gilt, laid down; bindings
somewhat worn; lacks 1 sig. (i6) of prelims. (Index to vol.I); overall
a tight and secure copy.
Sabin 13768 (calling for pp. 495-558 in vol. II); JCB III, pp. 214-215:
"The copy described by Sabin as having 558 pages [in vol. II]
is the Boston Athenaeum copy. The Library of Congress copy has the
same number of pages as that entered above" (i.e. as our copy);
JFBell II, p. 68. Although Maggs Cat. 475 V: 4362 calls for a map,
none of our other references comments on the existence of such a
map, nor is one mentioned in the BL Gen. Cat.; Winsor, vol. VIII,
p. 277 refers to "one that apparently belongs to Clodoré's
"Relation" (1671) but is seldom found with it." The
author was the governor of Martinique up until the Treaty of Breda
in 1667. This is an account of the French settlements in the Caribbean
and in Guiana, and of the rivalry with the English there. The Sieur
Lefebre de la Barre had formed a new company for the settlement
of Guiana in 1663; Colbert had approved the project and the advance
party sailed in 1664 in two ships. War between France and England
ensued, and the French fleet under la Barre was defeated near Martinique
in 1667. The Treaty concluded at Breda in that year did not maintain
the peace for long, and the area bounced between England, France
and the Netherlands for some years thereafter. The identity of the
author, based on the initials of the author, I.C.S.D.V., is assumed
by Barbier to be J[ean de] C[lodoré], S[ecretaire] d[e] V[aisseau],
and has been generally accepted as same. This copy is a duplicate
from the Bibliotheca Lindesiana, with the small engraved armorial
bookplate of the Scottish noble family of Lindsay, Earls of Crawford
and Balcarres; there is a small, round duplicata stamp on verso
of free endpapers.
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With the Suppressed Leaves
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28. COGHLAN, Mrs. [MARGARET]. Memoirs of Mrs. Coghlan (Daughter
of the late Major Moncrieffe,) written by herself, and Dedicated
to the British Nation; being interspersed with Anecdotes of the
late American and present French War. New York, J. Fellows, 1795.
First American edition. $775
12mo; pp. xix, (1), (21)-184. Later half hard-grained morocco and
marbled boards; text lightly age-browned throughout, with some light,
scattered foxing; small tears to corners of few leaves, not affecting
text. A nice copy, with bookplate of James Douglas.
Howes C543: "Narrative of a lady famous for her affair with
Colonel Burr in the Revolution"; Sabin 14208; Evans 28442.
This copy contains the suppressed pp. iii-vi of the Preface; Evans
notes that even NYPL's copy contains these pages in facsimile only.
A marvelous little work by a "lady" who, according to
Sabin, "was seduced by Col. Burr, and afterwards led an abandoned
life in New York and Europe." The seduction appears to have
taken place when she was about 13 years old, as she married John
Coghlan, under duress, in 1777 at the age of 14. The marriage was
an unhappy one and after some months she fled her husband and managed
to find the first of many "protectors". The work provides
personality vignettes of many well-known people in England, Europe
and America during the American Revolution, and names such as Charles
Fox, Cornwallis, Putnam, Monckton, Washington, Howe, Amherst, Gage,
Livingston, etc. find their way into her autobiography. The work
caused a scandal when it was first published; on the more serious
side, however, it provides a dismal picture of the place of women
in the society of the time and of the unspeakable conditions of
the debtors' prisons.
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29.
COOPER, SAMUEL. A Sermon Preached before His Excellency Thomas
Pownall, Esq; Captain-General and Governor in Chief, The Honourable
His Majesty's Council and House of Representatives, Of the Province
of the Massachusetts-Bay in New-England, October 16th, 1759. Upon
Occasion of the Success of His Majesty's Arms in the Reduction of
Quebec. Boston: New-England; Green & Russell and Edes &
Gill, [1759]. First edition. $700
8vo; pp. [iii]-xi, (1), (13-53); contemporary marbled paper wrapper;
little chipped at edges; little sporadic foxing; some light staining
on rear blank. A complete copy of a somewhat scarce sermon on the
French and Indian War.
Evans 8330; TPL 4721; Sabin [16601]; JCB 1209; not in Howes. Cooper
lauds the Massachusetts men who took part in both the taking of
Louisbourg from the French the previous year and now in the conquest
of Quebec. He also vaunts British power, religion and general demeanor
over that of its French enemy, and speaks highly of James Wolfe,
who "died to live in the Hearts of Britons, and especially
in the Hearts of British Americans..."
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30.
CORNWALLIS, Earl [CHARLES]. An Answer to that Part of the
Narrative of Lieutenant-General Sir Henry Clinton, K.B., Which relates
to the Conduct of Lieutenant-General Earl Cornwallis during the
Campaign in North-America, in the Year 1781. London, J. Debrett,
1783. First edition. $1,100
8vo; pp. [8], xiv, 260, [4] (Adverts), 1 folding table; errata slip;
later quarter-calf and paper covered boards; morocco spine label;
small discoloration at gutter corner of title, otherwise a fine
copy of an important work.
Howes C787; Adams, American Controversy, 83-29; Sabin [16811]. This
is one of the series of pamphlets issued during the Clinton-Cornwallis
controversy which was, in turn, fuelled by Clinton's certainty that
the Commissioners had always favoured Cornwallis, and that it was
Cornwallis' ineptitude and opinions that led to the catastrophic
termination of the above-mentioned Campaign. Cornwallis here takes
issue with some of Clinton's accusations. The question of the leadership
of the British troops during the Revolution, and the competition
between Cornwallis and Clinton, led to its own "war" of
correspondence between the two men.
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