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PENN, William. Some Account of the Province of Pen

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London: Printed and sold by Benjamin Clark, 1681. [1], 10 pp, small folio (279 x 172 mm). Blue crushed morocco by Riviere & Son, title stamped in gilt on the upper cover and spine, inner dentelles gilt, a.e.g. Condition: expert restoration to the title with a few letters supplied, other skillful repairs, minor soiling to the title and terminal leaf; scratch on the front cover. Provenance: Frank C. Deering (blue morocco gilt booklabel). the first edition of the first promotional tract to penn's colony and the first extended account of pennsylvania. On 4 March 1681, to resolve the Crown's debt to the Penn family, Charles II granted the vast area west and south of New Jersey to William Penn. Immediately "WP initiated a series of actions to lay the groundwork for planting his new colony." This included contact with numerous leading Quakers in England and Wales, the appointment of several agents, and most importantly the publication of this promotional tract "to describe the new colony and the opportunities that were available to persons wishing to settle there or invest in the venture ... [It] is the basic pamphlet" (Bronner & Fraser). The successful settlement of Penn's new charter was due principally to William Penn's marketing of the region, beginning with this work. "Penn's advertising campaign for his new colony in the early 1680s was the most successful English colonial recruitment drive since the Puritans had founded Massachusetts fifty years before ... and provided the necessary momentum that got the Quaker colony off to a successful start" (Dunn, William Penn and the Selling of Pennsylvania). The work is quite rare on the market, with American Book Prices Current citing only this copy and one other appearing at auction in the last thirty years. This copy is Bronner & Fraser's second state of the first edition, with the "Fifty Acres shall be allowed" reading at the bottom of p. 5. Alden & Landis 681/113; Bronner & Fraser 58b; Church 671; Dunn, "William Penn and the Selling of Pennsylvania" in Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, vol. 127, no. 5; JCB II, 1225; Sabin 59733; Streeter, Americana Beginnings 22; Winsor III:495.

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