Harris, Benjamin; Watts, Isaac; Rogers, John; Cotton, John; the Westminster Divines. The New-England Primer, Improved : for the more easy attaining of the True Reading of English. To which is added the Assembly of Divines' Catechism. Hartford, Conn.: Printed and Sold by Ira Webster, 1843. [11980]
Leather spine with plain blue paper over wooden boards, boards and paper chipped at the edges with some loss. 11.5 x 8.5 cm, (4 1/2 x 3 3/8 inches). Many wood cuts, including a portrait of John Hancock. 84 unnumbered pages printed on blue paper. 1843 gift inscription on the ffep. Fair. Hardcover.
A facsimile reprint of the 1777 edition printed by Edward Draper of Boston, with a few later preliminary pages. Includes John Cotton's Catechism.
"A society of ladies was formed in Boston, in the time of Mr. Whitefield, for improvement in personal piety ... The Society met weekly for prayer, 'reading some sound and serious book,' singing, and other exercises adapted to 'spiritual edification.' ... This edition of the New England primer, is a reprint and fac-simile of one of those owned and used by that society."--Advertisement, p. [3]
"The books from which the colonial children in America learned to spell were very different from spellers of today. In fact, when the earliest American schools were opened in Massachusetts and Connecticut, there were no regular spelling books. Apparently, whatever words the children learned to spell in school were from the New England Primer...Benjamin Harris, an English printer, who had experience dealing with primers in England, came early to America...Being an ardent non-conformist in religion he had printed a number of tracts which were offensive to the English government; consequently, he was arrested, tried, and put in a pillory, and required to serve to years in jail. Later he came to Boston [in 1686]...Soon thereafter he prepared The New England Primer, modelled after some of the British primers...The New England Primer certainly was the most widely used textbook in the colonial period, and even had a considerable usage after 1800...[After the alphabet] the content was nearly all religious in nature, such as questions on Bible facts, Bible verses alphabetically arranged, several prayers, The Creed, Bible name, and the Shorter Catechism of 107 questions and answers. Some of the older editions also contained 'Spiritual Milk for American Babes,' by John Cotton. Many also included a wood cut of the burning of 'John Roger, minister of the gospel in London, (who) was the first martyr in Queen Mary's reign." - Nietz, Old Textbooks (1961), pp. 10, 47, 50, 51.
"The Bible, the New England Primer, and an almanac constituted the library of many colonial homes." - ibid, p. 248. (11980) $45.00
