RICHARD B. HOLMAN

William Burgis

IN early eighteenth-century Boston there were five men whose interrelated activities were important in the history of American printmaking.

There was Thomas Selby, respectable “perriwigg maker” and “tavernor.” He owned the Crown Coffee House at the head of Long Wharf (where 148 State Street now stands). He was senior warden of King’s Chapel.

There was William Price, British America’s first church organist, by trade a cabinetmaker whose successful shop stood diagonally across from the Town House. He sold picture frames, mirrors, prints, maps, and toys. He published Captain John Bonner’s famous map of Boston. He designed the steeple of Christ Church. He was instrumental in founding Trinity Parish.

There was Francis Johnston, a craftsman who could make a japanned box, engrave a copper plate, paint you a coat of arms, or build a church organ.

There was Thomas Dewing, who engraved and printed the Bonner map for Price. He announced upon reaching Boston in 1716 that he “Engraveth and Printeth Copper Plates, likewise Coats of Arms and cyphers in Silver Plate. He likewise cuts neatly in wood and printeth Calicoes &c.”1 He made several workmanlike marine charts for Cyprian Southack. Dewing may have brought over a press for printing large intaglio plates. If he did not, who had one? If he did, did he take it away with him? Did he go away? These are important questions. Some authorities say that Dewing died of yellow fever in 1723; some say he sailed for the West Indies. But supposition and guesses are not solid evidence.

Probably he did not die. The Dictionary of National Biography points out (and so does Mr. Sinclair Hitchings) that an English print, dated 1745, is signed by Dewing, which only goes to show that conclusion-jumping is dangerous and that the Atlantic was not the barrier we sometimes think.

Then there was William Burgis.

william burgis

The name of Burgis is not forgotten, even at this end of the twentieth century, though best known, of course, in the two towns he honored with his attentions, New York and Boston. He is thought to have arrived in New York from England about 1718. He left New York for Boston late in 1722. If he ever said why, the reason has been lost. He took up lodgings at the Crown Coffee House and presumably lived in some style. In legal papers he was variously called Draftsman, painter, Gentleman, and innholder, but not engraver. The innholder title was by virtue of his marrying the Widow Mehitable Selby and her inherited estate after the death of his landlord. There followed a period of frenzied and somewhat random litigation which need not concern us here. In 1731 he deserted Boston and his wife and went to New York. It seems that the estate had been spent. This is a short biography, but it is about all that Burgis left us, aside from the prints. One can say that it at least allows the historian room for maneuver.2

Our man appeared from nowhere, was visible for something like a dozen years, then went back to nowhere. In this dozen years he had some connection, as designer, publisher, “undertaker,” proprietor, even as engraver, with a number of copper plates, impressions from which are known to us if only in distressingly small numbers.

There are various questions we cannot answer. Why did he think he could make a living selling engravings in this undeveloped land? Did he sell prints successfully? If he did, where are the prints? If he did not, how did he manage to persist so long? If he had another string to his bow, what was it? Obviously it was something ephemeral or anonymous. The best we can do is to study the existing prints and hope that more prints and more information will be found.

As I see it, the prints number only ten, even including later states and some unlikely attributions. But there are undoubtedly undiscovered and unrecognized plates. And many must be completely lost. A strange point in all this is Burgis’ relationship to the prints. Though he is carelessly spoken of as an engraver, there exists only one print on which his name appears in that capacity.

With the exception of a map, all the prints are landscapes or topographical views.

Let us turn our attention to the prints.

the great new york view

When first in New York Burgis published by subscription a very large view of the town, more than six feet long, engraved in England by I. Harris, drawn presumably by himself. I. Harris has been identified as John Harris, who worked between 1686 and 1740 and is known for architectural and topographic views. The print was made on four sheets of paper from four plates. Stokes, in his Iconography of Manhattan Island, dates the publication between 1719 and 1721. A mutilated impression, lacking large parts of the inscription, has been for many years at the New-York Historical Society. In 1913 an impression in perfect condition appeared and was sold by Robert Fridenberg, reputedly for $20,000.3 This impression is still owned privately. Its owner tells me that within ten years a third impression was sold by Sotheby’s to an American dealer for a private buyer. This one, too, is said to be in near perfect condition.

28. Burgis’ South Prospect of New York, c. 1719–21

29. The South Prospect as revised and re-issued in London, 1746

In 1746 Thomas Bakewell of London issued a restrike of the great New York view, with additions and corrections on the plates. The dedication was made to Governor Clinton by Bakewell in place of the original to Governor Hunter by Burgis. The inference can be drawn that the plates of the New York view remained in Harris’ hands until his death in 1740.4 In 1759 a large fire at Bakewell’s address probably finished the plates. It is the only hint we have of the end of any of the coppers with which Burgis was concerned.

the great boston view

In 1725, in Boston, Burgis tried to repeat. A very large view of Boston from the southeast, that is to say from Castle Island, was published. It showed among other things twelve churches and fifteen shipyards and is said to contain the first American depiction of a schooner. It was in three parts; three sheets printed by three plates. The names of Burgis and Harris appear as draftsman and engraver, but the dedication is over the names of Thomas Selby and William Price, the landlord of the Crown and the thriving merchant. Burgis did not own the print!5 That we find Selby in the partnership suggests that even before sending the drawing to England Burgis may have been having trouble with his board bill.

An impression of this first issue of the great Boston view is in the British Museum. At intervals across its face were pasted engraved scraps of paper correcting it to 1736. I believe that these have been soaked off, revealing the print in its original form. A second impression may almost have reached us, or may still be safe and misplaced. Judge John Davis, an intelligent but trusting antiquary, is said to have given one to the City of Boston in 1830. It disappeared in some fashion at the time the new City Hall was built in the 1860’s. The one in the Stokes Collection in the New York Public Library, referred to by Professor Reps in his paper, somewhat answers the description of the Davis impression. The latter was described by City Clerk McCleary as “very old and quite dilapidated.”6

In 1743 a second state of the Boston view was printed. The amended plate was published by Price. Changes are numerous and interesting. Sixty references to key numbers in the picture compare to fifty in the first issue. A little view of Harvard College (from the west!) is on the western skyline, alongside the only known view of the third meetinghouse of the First Parish in Cambridge.7 Presumably Price dictated the changes. Possibly Johnston made them; possibly some Englishman. Opinions differ. No one knows where the plates had been stored. No one knows where they were printed. The only point we can rely on is that Harris, the original English engraver, died in 1740. The new issue is dedicated to Peter Faneuil, who had just given the city the first Faneuil Hall.

One can imagine that Burgis’ Boston career was not wholly delightful. Publication of his major local work by his landlord and William Price could not have been the way he planned it. Then, too, there seems to have been an earlier effort which also ended in Price’s hands.

the small boston view

The small Boston view (whether or not there really was one) presents an intricate problem. For this reason I am introducing it out of strict time sequence. The circumstances of the great New York and Boston views are needed for background.

In The New England Courant of October 8, 1722 (incidentally at a time when the editor’s little brother Benjamin was running the paper), there was an advertisement reading:

A View of the Great Town of Boston taken from a Standing on Noddles Island, and designed to be cut on copper will be carried on by Subscription as such expensive works usually are. Those Gentlemen that would encourage such a Design may see the View at Mr. Price’s Print and Map-Seller over against the Town House, where proposals are to be had and Subscriptions taken in.

No artist or engraver is named.

A month later, November 12, 1722, Burgis came out in the open, named himself as “undertaker” and suggested that speed was desirable. He promised that “Sufficient Security is given to conform to the Conditions of said Proposals or to return the Advance Money.” It was not a success.

Six months later Price had replaced Burgis as “undertaker.” In advertisements of May 13, 20, and 27, he pulled out all the stops:

A Prospect of the Great Town of Boston taken from Noddles Island and designed to be curiously cut on Copper Plate, will be carried on by Subscriptions as such expensive Works commonly are. Those Gentlemen that would encourage this Design may subscribe to the same at Mr. Thomas Selby’s at the Crown Coffee House where proposals may be seen. The price is set lower than at first and those that do subscribe to this Prospect now will have it cheaper than those who do not. Subscriptions are also taken by William Price, Print and Map-Seller, over against the Town House where the Prospect is to be seen: where likewise you may have all sorts of Prints and Maps lately come from London, sold very cheap frames or without. N. B. No money to be advanced by the Subscribers but paid on the delivery of the printed copies. Those gentlemen who have subscribed to the former proposals will have their demands answered accordingly. The undertaker William Price desires all gentlemen to be speedy in their subscriptions, in order for the speedy sending of the drawing for England, for unless subscriptions come in it will not be printed.

To this day no one has seen any such large view of Boston from the northeast as this suggests. Very soon subscriptions were invited for a view from the southeast, as noted above, which was actually published. It is hard to guess what may have gone wrong; one “standing” is not greatly superior to the other.

In the Essex Institute there hangs a unique impression of an anonymous engraving with the title A North East View of the Great Town of Boston. It is small, only about nine by twelve inches. It is taken from a “standing”—or “sitting” if the man in the tricorn hat is William Burgis—on Noddles Island. Whether this is the original Burgis project or a shrunken form of it is hard to know. It seems likely that it is one or the other.

The title is nicely engraved in what I call the silversmith’s manner. But by contrast the engraving of the scene is a bit naïve, more so than the work of John Harris. Was it then possibly made in America? The possibility certainly exists that Burgis’ original drawing fell into the hands of an American engraver.

Another very curious point can be seen by examining the good reproduction published by the Essex Institute. The title is on a separate copper plate dovetailed into the pictorial plate. This curious piece of business calls for much more discussion than we have time to give it today.

the great harvard view

In 1726 Burgis produced, so far as we know without outside financial help, his well-known A Prospect of the Colledges in Cambridge in New England. He dedicated it to Lieutenant-Governor Dummer. No name is on the plate as artist or engraver. Hamilton Vaughan Bail, in his Views of Harvard, says that the plate seems to have been engraved by Harris. The work suggests it.

The reappearance in the nineteenth century of an impression of the first state of A Prospect of the Colledges . . . has its dramatic elements. Dr. Fitch Edward Oliver, a Boston physician, was cabinet-keeper of the Massachusetts Historical Society when he described it for the February meeting of 1881. He said that an old engraving of Harvard had been given to the Society in 1795 by Colonel William Scollay. On it was an engraved dedication to Lieutenant-Governor Phipps by William Price. It was mounted on a wooden panel, warped, cracked, and badly discolored. So, in due course—about eighty-five years as I figure it—the print was removed from the panel, laid down on paper, and framed under glass. How and by whom would be interesting to know. The doctor speaks:

30. A Prospect of the Colledges in Cambridge by Burgis, 1726

On lifting it from the panel another engraving embracing the same view revealed itself, over which it had been laid, similar in character, but published at an earlier date. It is dedicated to Lieutenant-Governor Dummer, who went out of office in 1730, by William Burgis, and as it appears by the “Boston News Letter” of July 14, 1726, was first published on that day. No allusion is made to Burgis in the advertisement, but this is without doubt the print referred to.

My admiration for the doctor grows with these further words: “It measures a trifle less than the other in size, the difference being probably due to shrinkage occasioned by the more moist condition of the paper at the time of receiving the impression.” I have a strong suspicion that the doctor did the restoration work himself. It seems fortunate that he did. He seems to have known what he was about. This impression of the print, revealed by removing the later issue, is still unique. It is colored by hand in a very simple way.

31. A Prospect of the Colledges, second state, 1743

Harvard and more recently the Massachusetts Historical Society have published facsimiles.

There is a second state, as noted. By 1743, its date of publication, Price owned this plate, too. The sky in the upper right corner is filled with a catalogue of his wares.

The old brick church, A print not yet discovered

The New England Weekly Journal of June 5, 1727, announces “A Draught of the Meeting-House of the Old Church in Boston, with the New Spire & Gallery & are to be Sold by Mr. Price, over against the Town-House and at the Book-sellers shops in Boston.” This is the building familiar to us in Revere’s print of the Boston Massacre as bearing the inaccurate clock.

But even John H. Edmonds, whose efforts to restore William Burgis to historical life and reputation have exceeded all others, wrote in 1914 that he knew of no copy of the print. Nor has one turned up since, I think. He did say of it, though: “Assumed to be a Burgis production from association.”8

I wonder if he gave proper weight to our lack of proof that Burgis ever made a line engraving, and to Price’s interest in steeples. This one, of course, stood next door to Price’s home and shop. Now consider the following: Price designed the steeple for Christ Church; Thomas Johnston built the organ for Christ Church; Price was the first organist for Christ Church; Thomas Johnston was an engraver in line. It is all confusing and fascinating. But attribution by association is not at all certain.

And this is by no means the end of coincidences and associations in the Burgis circle. For instance, experts say that the pipework of the original King’s Chapel organ resembles that of Renatus Harris, a famous English organ builder active from the 1670’s until his death in 1724. The second King’s Chapel organ was built by a pupil of John Harris, son and successor of Renatus.9 According to the Dictionary of National Biography the organ-building John Harris flourished in 1737; the engraver John Harris lived from 1680 to 1740. So all told there are more organs, engravers, Harrises, and Boston churches than anyone can yet sort out with confidence. Perhaps, you will say, if we can find just one more piece the puzzle will be clear. One more piece has just appeared.

While readying this paper for publication I learned what I should have found earlier, that the print made in 1745 by Francis Dewing (who probably did not die in 1723 of yellow fever) was an engraving of the east front of the organ in Salisbury Cathedral. Another organ! But this is not all. The organ in Salisbury Cathedral was built by Renatus Harris!10 Dewing, Burgis, Harris, Boston, organ, Dewing (not to mention Johnston). What can be said?

the map of boston

About July 3, 1729 (News-Letter advertisements came out on July 3, 10, and 17), Burgis published his map of Boston, engraved for him by Thomas Johnston. On the plate both Burgis’ and Johnston’s names are misspelled. But there can be no doubt of the identities. By this time Burgis had married the landlord’s widow and the plate carries the legend “Sold at the Crown Coffee House.” The misspellings point simply to a different hand in engraving the inscription. If Johnston took his plate to a silversmith-friend who was practiced in the art of cutting letters it need not surprise us. The great question is not why names were misspelled but why was the map published at all, in direct competition with Price? Price had issued the Bonner map just seven years before. Burgis’ map was small and less convenient to use.

Edmonds mentions that at this moment Burgis’ license to sell strong drink and to operate the Crown Coffee House was under consideration by the selectmen.11 Let us, too, consider his license. On his map is a rather overpowering cartouche bearing a dedication to the governor. Such dedications were very much a Burgis habit. Perhaps he found them useful. Perhaps the timing was good, too. In this instance Burgis’ application for a license was dated July 4th, one day after the map was first advertised. Sadly, the application was disallowed. But this did not end matters. On July 23rd it was reconsidered and the decision was reversed. It is an interesting coincidence.

Burgis’ map is rare today; three or possibly four impressions might be found. The Boston Athenæum owns one in fine condition of which it has published an excellent collotype facsimile.

the boston light

The mezzotint of Boston Light is remarkable in several ways. First, as has often been said, it is the only print known bearing Burgis’ name as both artist and engraver. But in point of fact it is the only print bearing Burgis’ name as engraver. Then, too, it is a very early example of mezzotinting in America, second only to Peter Pelham’s portrait of Cotton Mather of 1727.12 It has been called the first maritime print made in America. It has often been somewhat unjustly described as crude or primitive. Actually, a good many German mezzotints of this period were no better, and it has a kind of breezy quality rare enough in any medium or time.

The question arises almost automatically whether Burgis and Pelham were acquainted. Of course they were. Documents are not needed. In a town of less than fifteen thousand people two men in the same line of very specialized activity, one newly arrived from London laden with attractive gossip and skills and the other if not homesick at least not averse to news from home—these two men were bound to meet. Does the next question even have to be asked? The answer to it is that Burgis tried mezzotint engraving because Pelham came to Boston. The relationship between them, whether tutelary or merely social, is hardly pertinent.

Until rather recently I had supposed that there was only one impression of the Burgis mezzotint of Boston Light in existence. For many years there was one in the office of the United States Lighthouse Service. This one is now in the possession of the Mariners’ Museum and has been for several years. But suddenly five or six years ago another impression was bought from a New York dealer by Ambassador Middendorf. Now I find to my humiliated surprise that in 1914 Mr. Edmonds knew of one or more in private hands, though he named no names.

32. View of the Light House by Burgis, 1729

the view of fort george

An unsuspected Burgis print surfaced in 1948, when Harry Shaw Newman announced the discovery of a mezzotint of Fort George in New York which closely resembled the Boston Light in size and style. Burgis’ name is on it, but only as dedicator. It has a little simple coloring, red and blue. This print has its own problems, since it closely resembles the right-hand end of the Carwitham view of New York, dated by I. N. Phelps Stokes between 1731 and 1736. I am aware of the suggestion made by Helen Comstock that the Carwitham views of Boston and New York are quite possibly based on drawings by William Burgis. At the present time I am not prepared to say what I think. The print discovered by Mr. Newman is now in the New-York Historical Society.

33. View of Fort George, c. 1729–31

There is also a Carwitham view of Philadelphia, but no one has yet tried to connect it to Burgis.

34. View of the New Dutch Church, 1731

the new dutch church

In the early 1860’s a well-to-do young New Yorker named William Loring Andrews stumbled upon three treasures during what he ever after “regarded as an exceptionally successful book-hunting tour.” On this trip, wherever he may have gone, he bought the second known impression of the Bradford map of New York and a scrapbook containing two unknown prints.13 One of the prints was a very neat view of what the publisher, who was William Burgis, called the New Dutch Church. Burgis dedicated it in the usual ornate style to the president of the Provincial Council, a gentleman with the admirable name of Rip Van Dam. This print is sound Burgis, at least as far as the drawing is concerned. The perspective is good. The coach and figures used to decorate the foreground are very reminiscent of those in A Prospect of the Colledges. It is a clean, neatly executed print. It has been dated 1731.

Though I have no more basis for it than a vague opinion, I feel the engraver was Thomas Johnston. (Psychic attributions are not uncommon in the painting galleries; perhaps the printseller ought to indulge himself from time to time.) In 1749, long after this, Thomas Johnston engraved a small view of Yale College after a drawing by his apprentice, John Greenwood. The resemblance to the style of work in the New Dutch Church is striking. Perhaps the psychic guess has some merit after all.

The print found by Andrews in the scrapbook is now firmly screwed to the wall in the American Wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. There is a duplicate in the New-York Historical Society. Curators in both institutions have invited my attention to virtues possessed by their particular impressions. Let me say that they are both very very good.

35. A View of Castle William

view of castle william

The other wonderful Andrews scrapbook acquisition was an anonymous engraving with the curious title A View of Castle William By Boston in New England, a line engraving which Andrews unhesitatingly credited to Burgis on the strength of the style of lettering in the title. It resembles that of the New Dutch Church. But this is far from conclusive. In the first place, the engraver of the title may not have been the engraver of the view; in the second, the resemblance is really not overwhelming. The view itself is rather convincing. It looks very much like Burgis. It is in the second line of the inscription that we may have an explanation of the Germanic “Castle William By Boston.” It reads: “This Castle was built by Colonell Romer A D 1704 by Order of the General Assembly.” Colonel Romer was the royal engineer in New England and a well-known person. His name was Wolfgang Wilhelm Römer, Romer with an umlaut. Apparently he should have been German enough to account for any sort of Germanic phraseology. But reading some of Romer’s documents in the Massachusetts Archives has been of no help. He wrote an English prose which would have done credit to Joseph Addison, except where he refers to some of Thomas Brattle’s ideas as “ridiculous.” In any case he seems to have been too English for our purposes.

The Castle William view may not be a Burgis product at all, though I must say it looks it. There are times when I wonder whether it might not be a European engraving instigated by Romer after his return home in 1707.

The Andrews impression still seems to be our only one. It is on the wall of the American Wing near the New Dutch Church.

Such is the small list of prints known or reasonably considered to be somehow the work of William Burgis. Let us hope and watch for others.

conclusion

To describe William Burgis as an early American engraver, as is frequently done, is to state only part of the fact. Burgis was partly an engraver; much more he was an instigator of prints. He made drawings for others to engrave and he published prints on occasion. No real proof exists that he made any line engravings.

But past all question we can say of him that he was involved in one capacity or another with more American prints before 1735 than any other person. And most remarkable of all may have been his entire concern with landscape and topography in an age of portraiture.

There can be no doubt that he was a man of talent; of culture too, in all probability.

My hypothetical Burgis is an Englishman who arrived in New York with some plans, some resources, and some previous acquaintance with British print publishing. After many months he was able to make a trial of the local market with his great view of New York. Then, for whatever reason, probably financial, he moved on to Boston, the larger and more English town. In Boston it is likely that he ran into something unexpected, the weakening but real Puritan aversion to decoration for its own sake plus the (alleged) Yankee willingness to be a bit sharp in business. As I imagine it, Burgis may not have been wholly happy here, but I think we may all be glad that he came.

checklist

Following are short descriptions of the prints which have been with some reason associated with the name of William Burgis. In the present state of our knowledge such a list can neither be considered complete nor accurate. It is presented here merely as a handy tool.

W. Burgis Delit et Excudt I. Harris fec.

A South Prospect of y^e Flourishing City of New York in the Province of New York in America

Line engraving 20.7 × 76.10 C. 1719–21 State: i

Distinguishing point of the first state: Dedication to Governor Robert Hunter.

Locations: (1) New-York Historical Society (mutilated; lacking most of title inscription). (2) A perfect impression sold by Robert Fridenberg to Edward W. C. Arnold in 1913; still in private hands. (3) Another fine impression which was bought in London “ten or twelve” years ago for a private owner (information from owner of the Fridenberg impression).

[Anonymous] I. Harris fec.

A South Prospect of y^e Flourishing City of New York in the Province of New York in America

Line engraving 20.12 × 77.6 March 25, 1746 State: ii

Distinguishing points: Burgis’ name has been removed; armorial matter changed and dedication made to Governor George Clinton; date in province seal changed from 1717 to 1747; internal changes in the view described in Stokes’s Iconography, 1, 273.

Locations: (1) New York Society Library. (2) The British Museum. (3) New-York Historical Society.

Note: Stokes points out that the first part of the publisher’s imprint, “London Printed and sold by Tho. Bakewell, Map and Print Seller against Birchin Lane in Cornhill,” is centered under the escutcheon and dedication and that the uncentered remainder, “where Merchants and others may be supplied with all sorts of Maps, Prints & Pictures at the lowest prices,” may well be a later addition and so point to this being State iii instead of State ii. As a matter of fact the whole publisher’s imprint is off center.

[William Burgis?] [Anonymous]

A North East View of the Great Town of Boston

Line engraving 8.9 × 12.7 C. 1723 Only state

Distinguishing point: Not dedicated to anybody!

Location: Only known impression in the Essex Institute, Salem, Massachusetts, the gift of Thomas Prince in 1850.

Note: Attributed to Burgis in Publications of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, xxv, 231–232.

W. Burgis Delin. I. Harris Sculp.

A South East View of y^e Great Town of Boston in New England in America

Line engraving 24.8 × 52.8 C. 1725 State i

Distinguishing point: Dedication by Thomas Selby and William Price to Governor Samuel Shute, who left for England January 1, 1722/3.

Locations: (1) The British Museum. (2) The Stokes Collection, New York Public Library.

Note: The print in the British Museum had additions and corrections pasted on, bringing the view to 1736. These were engraved, but by whom? The additions are:

51. Hollis Street Meeting. Built 1731. [The earliest view of the original church.]

52. Trinity Church founded 1734.

53. Lynde Street Meeting Built 1736.

10. South Street Meeting House, built 1669. [The new church of 1729 is shown without correcting the reference.]

20. The old meeting-house, built 1630. [Shows the new church, built 1712–13, and the new spire and gallery, 1727.]

The additions to the key, 51, 52, and 53, as above, are also on a slip pasted on. And added somehow to print or plate are the words: “Printed Coulred & Sold by William Price Print & Mapseller over against the Town House in Boston where may be had the Plan of the Town. . . .”

W. Burgis Delin. I. Harris Sculp.

A South East View of y^e Great Town of Boston in New England in America

Line engraving 24.8 × 52.8 1742–43 State ii

Distinguishing points: Dedication to Peter Faneuil by William Price; engraved additions and corrections; sixty references in the key; corrections rather crudely engraved and carelessly placed; Harvard College appears (wrong way around) on skyline.

Note: This issue, sometimes called the restrike and sometimes the second state, can better be called the second state, since on this occasion the plate was actually modified.

[Anonymous] [Anonymous]

A Prospect of the Colledges in Cambridge in New England

Line engraving (hand-colored) 18.10 × 23.15 July 14, 1726 State i

Distinguishing point: Dedication to Governor Dummer by William Burgis.

Location: Massachusetts Historical Society; unique impression.

Note: Hamilton Vaughan Bail in his Views of Harvard suggests that this, like the New York and Boston views, was probably engraved by John Harris in England. He suggests that the print, advertised as published “This Day, July 14, 1726,” actually was intended for publication in time for Commencement, which fell on July 6th that year.

[Anonymous] [Anonymous]

A Prospect of the Colledges in Cambridge in New England

Line engraving 18.10 × 23.15 1743 State ii

Distinguishing points: Dedication by William Price to Lieutenant-Governor Spencer Phipps. A long description of Mr. Price’s stock in trade in upper right corner.

[Anonymous] [Anonymous]

A Draught of the Meeting-House of the Old Church in Boston, with the New Spire & Gallery & are to be Sold by Mr. Price, over against the Town-House and at the Book-sellers shops in Boston

Line engraving (?) Size? June 5, 1727 Only state?

Note: Advertised in New England Weekly Journal for June 5, 1727, as “this day published.” No impression was known to Mr. Edmonds in 1914; so far as I know no copy known today. But notice the great view of Boston is known with an engraved correction paster showing the church, spire, and gallery. Did the engraver of one engrave the other? Are they from the same plate?

[Anonymous] Thos. Johnson

Plan of Boston in New England

Line engraving 10.4 × 14.4 1729 (“About July 3rd”) Only state

Locations: (1) Boston Athenæum. (2) American Wing, Metropolitan Museum of Art. (3) Library of Congress.

Note: Dedicated to Governor Burnet by “Will Burgiss.” The fact that Burgis’ name and Johnston’s name are both misspelled points to probability that title was not engraved by Johnston.

10.

W. Burgis del et fecit.

To the Merchants of Boston this View of the Light House . . .

Mezzotint 8.12 × 11.2 August 11, 1729 Only state

Locations: (1) Mariners’ Museum, Newport News, Virginia; (2) collection of J. William Middendorf.

Note: The first maritime print issued in America. Picture of the first lighthouse. The only print bearing Burgis’ name as engraver. Second mezzotint made in America.

11.

[Anonymous] [Anonymous]

To His Excellency IOHN MONTGOMERIE Esq. . . . This View of Fort George . . .

Mezzotint 10 × 12.3 C. 1729–31 Only state

Location: New-York Historical Society (only known impression).

Note: Date of print presumably after publication of Burgis’ map of Boston and before Montgomery’s death in July 1731.

12.

[Anonymous] [Anonymous]

To the Honourable RIP VAN DAM, Esq^r President of His Majesty’s Council for the PROVINCE OF NEW YORK This View of the New Dutch Church is most humbly dedicated by your Honour’s most Obedient Serv^t Wm Burgis.

Line engraving 13.12 × 9.12 1731 Only state

Location: American Wing, Metropolitan Museum of Art (only known impression).

Note: Church stood at corner of Nassau and Liberty (then Crown) Streets. Discovered and owned for many years by William Loring Andrews, who bought it in a scrapbook in the early 1860’s.

13.

[Anonymous] [Anonymous]

A View of Castle William By Boston in New England. This Castle was built by Colonell Romer A D 1704 by Order of the General Assembly.

Line engraving Size? Date unknown Only state

Location: American Wing, Metropolitan Museum of Art (only known impression).

Note: Colonel Romer, mentioned in the title, was Wolfgang Wilhelm Römer, an English military engineer, apparently of German extraction (hence possibly the Germanic “By Boston”). Discovered and owned for many years by William Loring Andrews, who found it in the same scrapbook mentioned under no. 12. He saw so much similarity in the title lettering of no. 12 that he made the attribution to Burgis. This is not too certain, if for no other reason that the similarity of lettering is not too impressive.

bibliography

In addition to those works to which specific references have been made (which are useful far beyond the narrow points referred to) there are other authors and titles whose ideas have become so intricately combined in this study as to render any attempt to unravel the threads both tedious and pointless. The major titles follow:

Andrews, William Loring, A Prospect of the Colledges in Cambridge in New England Engraved by William Burgis in 1726. New York, 1897.

Edmonds, John H., “The Burgis-Price View of Boston.” Publications of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, xi (1910), 245–262.

Green, Samuel Abbott, “The Earliest Print of Harvard College.” Harvard Graduates Magazine, v (1897), 325–326.

Stokes, I. N. Phelps, and Daniel G. Haskell, American Historical Prints, Early Views of American Cities, Etc., from the Phelps Stokes and other Collections. New York, 1932.

Waite, Emma Forbes, “William Price of Boston, Map-Maker, Merchant and Churchman.” Old-Time New England, xlvi, No. 2 (Fall 1955).

Winsor, Justin, The Memorial History of Boston. Vol. ii: The Provincial Period. Boston. 1881.

1 George Francis Dow, The Arts & Crafts in New England, 1704–1775 (Topsfield, Mass., 1927; reprinted: New York, 1967), p. 27.

2 James Clements Wheat and Christian F. Brun, Maps and Charts Published in America Before 1800: A Bibliography (New Haven, 1969), pp. 50–53.

3 The map by Capt. Cyprian Southack shows the English colonies in North America. The John Carter Brown copy is untitled; that in the Public Record Office has this title in manuscript: “A New Chart of the English Empire in North America by Captain Cyprian Southack.” Both show the following engraved signature: “Engraven and Printed by Fra Dewing Boston New England. 1717.” Lawrence C. Wroth and Marion W. Adams, American Woodcuts and Engravings, 1670–1800 (Providence, 1946), pp. 16–17; Wheat and Brun, p. 8. An earlier copper plate map may have been printed in America although the circumstances of its publication do not seem to have been firmly established. See Charles Harper Walsh, “The Earliest Copper Engraving Executed in the American Colonies,” Records of the Columbia Historical Society, xv (1912), 54–72. Dewing engraved another Southack map in 1720, “The Harbour and Island of Canso Part of the Boundaries of Nova Scotia” (Wheat and Brun, p. 13). That Dewing was thought to have been involved in a different aspect of his trade is mentioned by Winsor in his discussion of the Boston plan of 1722: “The engraver of this map is probably the same Francis Doing, who in 1718, as appears by the Council Records, was suspected of being concerned in counterfeiting the Province bills of credit. There is no evidence known to sustain the case.” Justin Winsor, Memorial History of Boston (Boston, 1882), ii, liii.

4 I. N. Phelps Stokes and Daniel C. Haskell, American Historical Prints: Early Views of American Cities (New York, 1932), p. 20.

5 One and perhaps two plans or views of Boston had been published prior to 1722. No copies have survived, and brief references in contemporary correspondence provide our only information. Wait Winthrop, writing to his brother on July 20, 1680, stated: “I haue sent you a map of the towne, with Charlestowne, taken by Mr. Foster the printer, from Nodles Island. Twas sent for Amsterdam, and y^r printed.” Six years later Judge Samuel Sewall wrote Edward Hull: “There is inclosed in the top, a Mapp of this Town which please to accept off” (Henry H. Edes, “The Burgis-Price View of Boston,” Colonial Society of Massachusetts, Transactions, 1906–1907, p. 245). The letters can be found in Winthrop Papers, iv, 421, and Sewall Letter Book, i, 32.

6 As quoted in Walter Muir Whitehill, Boston: A Topographical History (Cambridge, 1963), p. 7.

7 Nathaniel B. Shurtleff, A Topographical and Historical Description of Boston, 3rd ed. (Boston, 1891), pp. 159, 162.

8 William Wood, New Englands Prospect, as quoted in Shurtleff, p. 41.

9 As quoted in Shurtleff, p. 160.

10 As quoted in Shurtleff, p. 62. Bonner had drawn a view of Long Wharf in 1714 and obviously used this in compiling his plan of the city. Bonner’s manuscript drawing of the wharf is reproduced in Massachusetts Historical Society, Proceedings, 1863–1864 (Boston, 1864), facing p. 477.

11 The Boston Gazette for April 19–26, 1725, carried an advertisement by William Price for a view of Boston and “Also an exact Plan of the Town, shewing the Streets, Lanes, and Publick Buildings” Dow, pp. 16–17. The view was the Burgis view described below. The plan was undoubtedly Bonner’s as reissued by Price.

12 My description of the additions and erasures from one state of the Bonner plan to another follows the useful analysis provided in Wheat and Brun. Even their minute examination of various states fails to distinguish all differences. For example, they fail to note that vertical rules in the legend and shoreline hatching were added on State ii.

13 A copy in the Massachusetts Historical Society is the only known impression, but George Smith in 1835 published a facsimile of this when it belonged to William Taylor. The facsimile omits some material and mistakenly gives Bonner’s age as 60 rather than 80.

14 Dow, pp. 15–17. For some details about Price see Emma Forbes Waite, “William Price of Boston: Map-Maker, Merchant and Churchman,” Old-Time New England, xlvi (1956), 52–56.

15 Wheat and Brun, who apparently examined the original impression in the John Carter Brown Library, state unequivocally that “traces of the erasure of ‘T. JOHNSON SCULP’ still remain.”

16 An earlier plan by Carleton in 1796 measured only 8¼ by 14¼ inches. His 1797 plan was on a scale of one inch to 21 rods (about 350 feet) and was an impressive 37⅜ by 41 inches in size. Wheat and Brun, p. 246.

17 Edes, p. 246; Dow, pp. 15–16.

18 The view was announced in the Boston Gazette for April 19–26, 1725, as “A New and Correct Prospect of the Town of Boston, curiously Engraved on Copper, according to the Proposal some time ago printed in this paper.” A second advertisement appeared in the New-England Courant for July 24–31, 1725 (Dow, pp. 16–17).

19 The complete text of the engraved description can be found in Edes, pp. 248–249. Since Price’s advertisement for subscriptions in December 1723 stated that the drawing from which the engraving would be made was then on view at his shop, the year of depiction would seem to be clearly established. The date of c. 1722 assigned in the Stokes Collection catalogue is probably erroneous (Stokes and Haskell, p. 20).

20 Ibid., pp. 20–21. This imprint appears to have been engraved by another hand and may well have been added by Price in Boston after he received the plate from John Harris in London.

21 For the deduction by Justin Winsor, after his study of the 1743 state, that there must have been an earlier version, see Massachusetts Historical Society, Proceedings, xviii (1880–81), 68–69. Winsor evidently learned subsequently of the existence of the British Museum copy, wrote in 1884 to his fellow Bostonian C. C. Smith, asking him to examine it, and Smith reported his finding to the Massachusetts Historical Society, Proceedings, 2d ser., i (1884–85), 249–250.

22 Dow, p. 20.

23 The Burgis view of Harvard College was first advertised in the Boston News-Letter for July 7–14, 1726, as follows: “This Day is Published a Prospect of the Colleges in Cambridge in New England, curiously Engraven in Copper; and are to be sold at Mr. Price’s Print-seller, over against the Town-House, Mr. Randal Jappaner in Ann Street, by Mr. Stedman in Cambridge, and the Booksellers of Boston” (Dow, p. 18).

24 Clarence S. Brigham, Paul Revere’s Engravings (Worcester, 1954), pp. 60, 134.

25 Brigham, p. 59, gives the text of Revere’s advertisement along with a detailed discussion of the view and a full-size color facsimile of it.

26 Ibid., pp. 79–80.

27 A copy is in the Sinclair Hamilton Collection, Princeton University. The plan is briefly described in Peter J. Guthorn, American Maps and Map Makers of the Revolution (Monmouth Beach, N.J., 1966), pp. 36–37. The artist is unknown, but Guthorn gives the publisher as Robertsons and Trumbull.

28 Arthur Gilman, The Story of Boston (New York, 1889), pp. 281–289.

29 Winsor, ii, xxxii. Winsor in identifying property owners by reference to the Bonner plan states that in the 1720’s the lot on which the tree stood was owned by Garret Bourne.

30 Pelham was born in Boston on Mar. 14, 1748/9, the only son of Mary Singleton Copley Pelham by her second husband, Peter Pelham. Henry’s father died in 1751, and it was doubtless from his half brother, John Singleton Copley, eleven years his senior, that Henry learned to draw and paint. Copley’s portrait of Henry, probably not then more than ten, is known by the title, The Boy and the Squirrel. See Denison Rogers Slade, “Henry Pelham, the Half-Brother of John Singleton Copley,” Colonial Society of Massachusetts, Transactions, 1897, 1898 (Boston, 1902), pp. 194, 196.

31 James [?] Johnson to Henry Pelham, Letters & Papers of John Singleton Copley and Henry Pelham, Massachusetts Historical Society, Collections, lxxi (1914), 350.

32 Pelham to Copley, Aug. 19, 1775. Pelham then added that he had been advised by General Gage “that it would not be altogether proper to publish a plan of Charlestown in its present state, as it would furnish those without with a knowledge of the fortification [s] erected there and in a polite manner desired I would postpone the sending it at present” (ibid., p. 351).

33 Philip Lee Phillips, for many years chief of the Library of Congress Division of Maps, regarded this map as the most valuable single sheet acquisition during his long tenure in that position (conversation with his former assistant, Mrs. Clara E. Le Gear, Washington, 1968).

34 Pelham to Copley, Jan. 27, 1776, Letters & Papers of John Singleton Copley and Henry Pelham, pp. 367–368.

1 A Volume of Records Relating to the History of Boston, Twenty-Ninth Report (Boston, 1900), p. 273.

2 Dunlap, History of the Arts of Design in America, Bayley and Goodspeed, eds. (Boston, 1918), ii, 286.

3 John H. Edmonds, “The Burgis Views of New York and Boston,” Proceedings of the Bostonian Society (Boston, 1915), pp. 29–33.

4 J. Chaloner Smith, British Mezzotinto Portraits (London, 1884), p. liii.

5 Edmonds, pp. 33–37.

6 Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, xix, 104–106.

7 Hamilton Vaughan Bail, Views of Harvard, a Pictorial Record to 1860 (Cambridge, 1949), p. 41.

8 Edmonds, p. 49.

9 Barbara Owen, The Organs and Music of King’s Chapel (Boston, King’s Chapel, 1966), pp. 5 and 7.

10 Cecil Clutton and Austin Niland, The British Organ (London, B. T. Batsford, Ltd., 1963), pp. 217 and 219.

11 Edmonds, p. 49.

12 Edmonds, p. 50.

13 William Loring Andrews, The Bradford Map (New York, 1893), p. 21.

1 Johnston’s trade card is reproduced in Joseph Downs’s article on “American Japanned Furniture” in the Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, xxviii, No. 3 (March 1933), 44; in The Walpole Society Note Book (1935), opposite p. 33, with notes by Philip Leffingwell Spalding; and in George Francis Dow’s article on “Trade Cards,” Old-Time New England, xxvi (April, 1936), 115–137. A second installment of Dow’s article appeared in Old-Time New England, xxvii (July, 1936), 3–22. The card, as Spalding explains, was found on the back of the inside of a clock made by Benjamin Bagnall (1689–1773) of Boston. Spalding writes: “The case, which is of pine, undoubtedly was japanned at one time, but was refinished in the natural wood before it came into my possession.” Paradoxically, the only japanned piece of furniture for which there is clear evidence showing that Johnston provided the decorations is this clock, which no longer has its japanning! Downs attributed several pieces of japanned furniture to Johnston, but was never able to put together a clear and well-documented description of Johnston’s style. He was forced to reason entirely from the evidence of Johnston’s trade card. See his American Furniture, Queen Anne and Chippendale Periods, in the Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum (New York, 1952), item 187; also p. xiv and item 188.

2 The American Antiquarian Society owns a water color coat of arms made for the Mather family and in 1814 given to the society by Hannah Mather Crocker. Harold Bowditch attributed the picture to Thomas Johnston, and his opinion is preserved in a note on the back of the frame. Bowditch also attributed to Johnston a painting on canvas in oils of the Barton arms, thought to have been made as a funeral hatchment; it is owned by the Essex Institute. See “Early Water-Color Paintings of New England Coats of Arms” by Dr. Harold Bowditch, Publications of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, xxxv (Boston, 1951), Fig. 18 and pp. 200–201.

3 I am grateful to Mrs. Fales for her analysis of Johnston’s engraved heraldic and emblematic designs, presented in this volume and extremely helpful to me in compiling a new and more comprehensive listing of Johnston’s prints.

4 Alan Burroughs, John Greenwood in America 1745–1752 (Andover, Mass.: Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, 1943), p. 74; also pp. 12 and 80.

5 Copperplate printing continued to be a part of Rea’s business. In March 1770 he sent Henry Pelham a bill for “Printing 575 of your Prints @ 12 /Pr. Hund. 319:” This presumably was the first of the Boston Massacre prints, copied by Paul Revere and made familiar by him in the course of his energetic campaign to spread it abroad. See Brigham’s Paul Revere’s Engravings (Worcester, 1954), pp. 41–42.

6 Later, Nathaniel Hurd (1729–77) and Joseph Callender (1751–1821) were among the engravers who found additional business engraving compass cards.

7 Burroughs, John Greenwood in America, p. 12.

8 Burroughs, pp. 64 and 80; Harriette M. Forbes, Gravestones of Early New England (Boston, 1927), pp. 59–60. The stone, which survives in Copps Hill Buyring Ground, is reproduced by Forbes opposite p. 43. There is also discussion of the funeral decorations in Flexner’s American Painting: First Flowers of Our Wilderness (Boston, 1947), p. 242.

9 Mary Kent Davey Babcock printed the list of subscribers to the organ in her Christ Church, Salem Street, Boston (Boston, 1947), pp. 241–242. Esther Stevens Brazier analyzed the inventory of Davis’ estate in “The Early Boston Japanners,” Antiques, xliii, No. 5 (May 1943).

10 In the Boston Gazette of June 27, 1763, Lewis Deblois advertised for sale “an Organ, made by Mr. Thomas Johnston of this Town, formerly made Use of in Concert-Hall, and can be recommended.—An abatement of Ten Guineas will be made, (from the real Value of said Instrument) if bought and made Use of for any Congregation in this Town.”

The inventory of Johnston’s estate is indispensable to an understanding of his many-faceted business. It is printed in full at the end of this article.

11 The property listed in his inventory was valued at a total of £912:1:10, including “The Mansion House and Land & house up the Yard” which were valued at £666:13:4.

12 Lawrence Wroth in The Walpole Society Note Book (1950), p. 30. See also Wroth’s article, “The Thomas Johnston Maps of the Kennebeck Purchase,” In Tribute to Fred Anthoensen Master Printer, ed. Ruth A. Chaplin (Portland, Me., 1952). This detailed study was a breakthrough to much fuller understanding of Johnston’s skills and conduct of business.

13 James Thomas Flexner in American Painting: First Flowers of Our Wilderness (Boston, 1947), p. 311 (see entry for John Greenwood), says that Johnston was an “engraver, printer, designer of gravestones, painter of houses, fire buckets, ships, and almost certainly portraits.” The houses, fire buckets, and ships are mentioned in the Rea and Johnston account books dating from after Thomas Johnston’s death; Flexner was reasoning back from that evidence. (Today we know about Johnston’s house-painting from the bill of 1764 to Samuel P. Savage printed in this article.) On the subject of possible portraits by Johnston, Flexner cites (p. 284) an entry in the inventory of Johnston’s estate listing portraits of Dr. Mayhew and Mr. Gee and says that these were “probably painted by himself.” There is at least an equal chance, however, that they were painted by someone else; a portrait of Joshua Gee, for instance, was painted by John Smibert (The Notebook of John Smibert [Boston: Massachusetts Historical Society, 1969], p. 91). Lila Parrish Lyman in her excellent article on William Johnston (1732–72) in the New-York Historical Society Quarterly, xxxix (January 1955), 63, calls Thomas Johnston “a portrait and heraldic painter, japanner and engraver.” Sidney Gunn, who is one of the authorities she cites, had written in his sketch of Johnston, published in the Dictionary of American Biography in 1933, “There is a portrait attributed to him in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and another is owned by the Massachusetts Historical Society.” Today the portrait in the Boston Museum cannot be identified, while the well-modelled and convincing pastel portrait of Dudley Atkins at the Massachusetts Historical Society represents a mastery of portraiture in a difficult medium which would be surprising for someone who, if he did paint portraits, tried his hand at it only occasionally. A more tempting reference to Johnston as a portrait painter is provided by Jules Prown in his comments on John Singleton Copley’s portrait of John Codman, the eldest of three John Codmans whom Copley painted. According to Prown, this portrait “is said to be a copy after a painting by Thomas Johnston, taken to England from Boston by the sitter’s son, . . .” (John Singleton Copley in England 1774–1815 [Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1966], p. 377).

14 All three of the Copley portraits can be seen in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.

1 Anne Allison, “Peter Pelham, Engraver in Mezzotinto,” Antiques, lii (Dec. 1947), 441–443. See also Frederick W. Coburn, “More Notes on Peter Pelham,” Art in America, xx (June–Aug. 1932), 143–154.

2 John Chaloner Smith, British Mezzotint Portraits, 4 vols. (London, 1884), iii, 964–978.

3 Boston Gazette, Feb. 19–26, Feb. 26–Mar. 4, 1728.

4 “Boston, March the 19th. 1727/8.

“Received of the Rev’d. Mr. Benjn Coleman the Sum of 3 shillings being the first Payment of the Subscription for a Print in Metzo:^o of the Late Rev. Dr. COTTON MATHER, by which the Bearer is Entitled to the said Print Paying 2 shillings at the Delivery of the same. By me Peter Pelham.” Reproduced in facsimile in Guernsey Jones (ed.), Letters and Papers of John Singleton Copley and Henry Pelham, Massachusetts Historical Society Collections, Vol. lxxi (Boston, 1914), p. 5; hereafter cited as Copley-Pelham Letters.

5 Boston Gazette, May 20–27, June 10–17, 1728.

6 Copley-Pelham Letters, p. 32.

7 Boston Gazette, Aug. 18–25, 1729.

8 Quoted in Henry Wilder Foote, Annals of King’s Chapel, 3 vols. (Boston, 1882), 1, 397.

9 Boston News-Letter, Dec. 23, 1731.

10 John Tasker Howard, The Music of George Washington’s Time (Washington, 1931), p. 9.

11 Boston Gazette, Nov. 13–20, 1732. The game was continued in the following issue of the Gazette, Nov. 27–Dec 4, when an unnamed writer replied indignantly to the former notice, stating that he “could not help being very much pleas’d at the Sight of such a Number of agreeable Ladies as appear’d at Mr. Pelham’s; where every Body seem’d to be well Satisfy’d, and a Chearful & Innocent Conversation was carried on, with open & honest Faces, and all Mankind must allow, that such a Society well Regulated, is the best School for a true and polite behaviour.”

12 William K. Bottorff, “Peter Pelham, Late of Boston,” The New-England Galaxy, Winter 1970, p. 37.

13 Boston Gazette, Jan. 1–8, 1733.

14 Boston Gazette, Apr. 5, 1734, quoted in George Francis Dow, The Arts& Crafts in New England 1704–1773 (Topsfield, Mass., 1927), p. 11.

15 Sir David Evans, John Kerslake, and Andrew Oliver (eds.), The Notebook of John Smibert (Boston, 1969), pp. 87–91.

16 Ebenezer Turell, The Life and Character of the Reverend Benjamin Colman (Boston, 1749), p. 23.

17 James T. Flexner, First Flowers of Our Wilderness (Boston, 1947), p. 195.

18 Original parish records of Trinity Church, Newport, vol. entitled “List of Baptized Persons”; in the possession of Trinity Church, Newport.

19 Carl Bridenbaugh, Cities in the Wilderness, 2d ed. (New York, 1955), p. 441.

20 Bridenbaugh, p. 355.

21 Records of Boston Selectmen.

22 Boston Gazette, Jan. 16–23, Feb. 6, 1738.

23 Boston Gazette, May 1–8, 1738.

24 For Pelham’s Masonic connections see Melvin M. Johnson, The Beginnings of Freemasonry in America (New York, 1924), and Harvey N. Shepard, History of St. Johns Lodge (Boston, 1917).

25 Boston Gazette, Sept. 25, Oct. 23, 1741.

26 The Diary of William Bentley, D.D., reprint (Gloucester, 1962), 1, 270, July 2, 1791.

27 Sibleys Harvard Graduates, viii, 48.

28 Copley-Pelham Letters, p. 3.

29 Copley-Pelham Letters, p. 14.

30 Original minutes of the vestry of Trinity Church, unpublished, in the possession of Trinity Church, Boston.

31 The News-Letter, May 10, 1744.

32 Boston Gazette, Aug. 27, 1751.

33 Boston Gazette, Sept. 16, 1746.

34 Boston Evening Post, July 7, 1747, quoted in Dow, p. 35.

35 Boston Evening Post, Dec. 11, 1749.

36 Boston Gazette, July 12, 1748.

37 Boston Gazette, Sept. 20, 1748.

38 Boston Gazette, Mar. 21, 1749.

39 Copley-Pelham Letters, p. 18.

40 Alan Burroughs, John Greenwood in America (Andover, Mass., 1943), p. 79.

41 The News-Letter, May 24, 1750.

42 Copley-Pelham Letters, p. 19.

43 Boston Gazette, Mar. 12, 1751.

44 Boston Gazette, Sept. 17, 1751.

45 Burroughs, Greenwood, pp. 18 and 69; The News-Letter, July 18, 1751.

46 Boston Gazette, Aug. 4, 1752.

47 Jules David Prown, John Singleton Copley (Cambridge, Mass., 1966), 1, 162.

48 Smith, iii, 966.

1 Sydney P. Noe, The Pine Tree Coinage of Massachusetts (New York, 1952), pp. 21–22.

2 Hermann Frederick Clarke, John Coney, Silversmith, 1655–1722 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1932), pp. 9–10, pi. xxxi. Andrew McFarland Davis, “The Massachusetts Bay Currency, 1690–1750, The Plates,” Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society, xii (October 1898), 410–424.

3 Hermann Frederick Clarke and Henry Wilder Foote, Jeremiah Dummer, Colonial Craftsman & Merchant, 1645–1718 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1935), p. 27, pl. xxii.

4 Massachusetts Archives, Vol. 101, No. 525.

5 During the summer following the print conference, Sinclair Hitchings discovered at the New Hampshire Historical Society proof that John Coney was paid for engraving the plates for New Hampshire bills in 1722. The manuscript treasurer’s accounts for New Hampshire record:

“By Sundry paym^ṭs since May y^e 18^th 1722

M^ṛ Allen print^g. y^e Bills p^d £18..10

M^ṛ Cunny doing the plates p^d £15..10”

6 Matt B. Jones, in “The Early Massachusetts-Bay Seals,” Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society, ns 44 (April to October 1934), 13–44, believed that the Cambridge seal had been cut in England. Recent scholars suggest that it may also have been cut by John Foster but proof is lacking and the question raised by Jones as to why the 1675 cut should be inferior to the 1672 cut if both were the work of Foster remains unanswered. Richard B. Holman, “Seventeenth-Century American Prints,” Prints in and of America to 1830 (The University Press of Virginia, 1970), pp. 33–35.

7 Richard Le Baron Bowen, Massachusetts Records (privately printed, Rehobeth, Mass., 1957), pp. 48–52.

8 Louis F. Middlebrook, Seals of Maritime New England (Salem, Mass: The Essex Institute, 1926), pp. 8–10.

9 Hollis French, Jacob Hurd and His Sons (The Walpole Society: Cambridge, Mass., 1939), p. 70.

10 The Papers of Benjamin Franklin (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1965), iii, 144–146.

11 The Papers of Benjamin Franklin (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1965), iv, 205–206.

12 Samuel Eliot Morison, “Harvard Seals and Arms,” The Harvard Graduates’ Magazine, Sept. 1933, pp. 1–15, and letter to the author from Harley P. Holden, Assistant Curator, Harvard University Archives, April 16, 1971.

13 Addenda to French’s Jacob Hurd and His Sons (1941 ed.), pp. 7–8.

14 Ibid.

15 French, pp. 67–69.

16 Middlebrook, p. 40. Dewing was suspected in 1718 of being concerned with counterfeiting the province bills of credit according to Justin Winsor’s Memorial History of Boston, ii, liii.

17 The first American bookplate apparently was the bordered name plate used by Thomas Smith of Boston and dated 1707 (Sinclair Hamilton, Early American Book Illustrators and Wood Engravers 1670–1870 [Princeton, N.J., 1958], p. xxv). Other early armorial bookplates used by Americans were engraved in England.

18 Suffolk County Court House, #14045. Harold Bowditch suggested that this book may have been the 1724 edition of Guillim subsequently owned by the heraldic painter John Coles of Boston (“Early Water-Color Paintings of New England Coats of Arms,” Publications of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, xxxv (December 1944), 178).

19 Mary Means, “Early American Trade Cards,” (Master’s thesis, University of Delaware, 1958).

20 The History of Printing in America by Isaiah Thomas, edited by Marcus A. McCorison from the second edition (Barre, Mass.: Imprint Society, 1970), p. 256. I am indebted to Sinclair Hitchings for calling this and other related materials to my attention.

21 Papers of Benjamin Franklin, iii, 145.

22 Bowditch, “Early Water-Color Paintings,” pp. 179–181. Although Bowditch believed there were two different James Turners, one from Boston and one from Marblehead, it now appears that James Turner whose bill to the estate of William Lynde was inscribed Marblehead, 1752, is the same James Turner who also worked in Boston, and later moved to Philadelphia.

23 In Massachusetts the encircling snake was used as a design on the gravestone of Mrs. Susannah Jayne of Marblehead in 1776 and on Massachusetts bills and lotteries in 1777–79. In Philadelphia in 1775 the snake was used to enclose a patriotic emblem advertising an American edition of Swan’s Designs in Architecture to be published by Robert Bell and John Norman.

24 The bill of Paul Revere for engraving the seal of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, dated Aug. 5, 1775, is preserved at the Massachusetts State House.

1 The only study of this specific subject known to me is my “Prints and Scientific Illustration in America,” in Prints in and of America to 1850 (Winterthur, Del., & Charlottesville: The University Press of Virginia, 1970), pp. 161–191. This study is concerned mainly with early nineteenth-century illustration.

2 Sinclair Hamilton, Early American Book Illustrators and Wood Engravers 1670–1870 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1958).

3 Barbara Gelman, The Wood Engravings of Winslow Homer (New York: Crown, 1969). On the general subject of early American book illustration see Georgia C. Haugh, “The Beginnings of American Book Illustration,” in Francis J. Brewer (ed.), Book Illustration (Berlin: Gebr. Mann Verlag, 1963), pp. 34–44.

4 The best single study is Raymond Phineas Stearns, Science in the British Colonies of America (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1970).

5 William Smellie, An Abridgement of the Practice of Midwifery (Boston: J. Norman, 1786).

6 Richard B. Holman, “Seventeenth Century American Prints,” in Prints in and of America to 1850, pp. 23–52.

7 I have not been able to determine exactly when the first copperplate intaglio print for scientific purposes was employed, but it was certainly within the time span of this paper.

8 Unpublished research notes of Sinclair Hitchings, in a letter to the author dated March 19, 1971.

9 A long note on this book is given in The Colonial Scene (Worcester: American Antiquarian Society, 1950), pp. 32–33.

10 As indicated especially by the elegant upswept tail of the bull, a stylized convention which probably has its origin in “high art.”

11 W. M. Ivins, Jr., Prints and Visual Communication (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1968), Chap. 2.

12 As illustrated in Pl. 15 of G. E. Fussell, The Old English Farming Books From Fitzherbert to Tull 1523 to 1730 (London: Crosby Lockwood, 1947).

13 See note 9.

14 Joseph Ewan (ed.), William Bartram Botanical and Zoological Drawings 1756–1788 (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1968), p. 4.

15 Stearns, p. 144.

16 Manasseh Cutler, “An Account of Some of the Vegetable Productions Naturally Growing in this part of America Botanically Arranged,” Memoirs of the American Academy, 1 (1785).

17 Ewan, p. 4.

18 Bruce R. Voeller and Paul F. Cranefield, Three Centuries of Botany in North America, an Exhibit (New York: The Rockefeller University, 1967), p. 8.

19 Joseph and Nesta Ewan, John Banister and his Natural History of Virginia 1678–1692 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1970).

20 Joseph Ewan, “First Fern Records from Virginia: John Banister’s Account of 1679–1692,” American Fern Journal, 53 (Oct.–Dec. 1963), 138.

21 Ewan, John Banister, pp. 74–75.

22 Ibid., p. 51.

23 Ibid., p. 83.

24 George F. Frick and R. P. Stearns, Mark Catesby: The Colonial Audubon (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1961).

25 Elsa G. Allen, The History of American Ornithology before Audubon (New York: Russell & Russell, 1969), pp. 463–477.

26 Voeller and Cranefield, p. 10.

27 See note 14.

1 I have seen photographs of the Schenck prints, through the courtesy of Mrs. Carl Dolmetsch, assistant curator of prints at Colonial Williamsburg, where examples are to be found.

2 Since this paper was read in Boston, I have learned of William G. Sturtevant’s paper, “Lafitau’s Hoes,” in American Antiquity, vol. 33, no. 1 (Jan. 1968). Sturtevant demonstrates that Lafitau’s plate of Huron agricultural practices, in the 1724 edition, borrows shamelessly from a De Bry plate of 1591, showing Timucua agricultural practices in the vicinity of St. Augustine, Florida. Here, then, is further evidence of both the longevity of the De Bry tradition and the tendency of one printmaker to borrow from another.