Tracts (Chiefly Rare and Curious Reprints), relating to Northamptonshire. With Illustrations. Northampton: Printed & Published by Taylor & Son; London: Reeves & Turner, 1876. [12524]
Green cloth, 8 1/2 x 5 3/4 inches, each of the 15 tracts are numbered separately, most have reproduced original title pages, the texts are clean. There is a 20 pp. publisher's catalogue at the end, with one book description clipped out. Good. Hardcover.
A collection of 15 tracts previously issued by Taylor & Son, here reprinted and bound. Includes the title pages. The collection is mainly from Puritan authors, but others are included (it is difficult to fit everything into a headline). The exact list of contents is the third photo.
Seven pertain to witches and witchcraft, and are from the 17th or early 18th centuries.
One is on the Gunpowder Treason, and includes History of the Gunpowder Plot, written by King James.
Two pertain to the fires in Northampton in 1675 and earlier.
One is on the Political History of the Family of Maunsell.
Another is "A True Relation of Colonel Cromwels [sic] Proceedings against the Cavaliers."
One is on the History of Sunday Schools.
The next is "A Testimony against Periwigs and Periwig-Making, and Playing on Instruments of Musick among Christians, or any other in the days of the Gospel," first printed 1667.
The last item is an Index to Places in Baker's History of Northamptonshire.
Northamptonshire was a Parliamentarian stronghold, inhabited primarily by Puritan Independents who supported Oliver Cromwell. One of the Maunsell family - whose history is reprinted here - John Maunsell, was a Lieutenant for Cromwell.
John Mulliner, the writer of the tract against perriwigs, or wig-wearing, was a Quaker. A barber and wig-maker, when he became a Quaker he publicly burned his wigs.
