(BUNKER'S HILL) ⁠— ELISHA RICH A Poem Upon the Bloody Engagement That Was Fought on Bunker's-Hill, at Charlestown, (in New-England.) On the 17th of June, 1775. Together With Some Remarks on the Cruelty and Barbarity of the British Troops.... [Newburyport, MA: Printed by E. Lunt and H.W. Tinges, 1775]

Property from the Eric C. Caren Collection

(BUNKER'S HILL) ⁠— ELISHA RICH

A Poem Upon the Bloody Engagement That Was Fought on Bunker's-Hill, at Charlestown, (in New-England.) On the 17th of June, 1775. Together With Some Remarks on the Cruelty and Barbarity of the British Troops.... [Newburyport, MA: Printed by E. Lunt and H.W. Tinges, 1775]

Printed broadside (14 x 9 in.; 352 x 225 mm), text in two columns with decorative border between the columns; some very neat repair at central fold. The consignor has independently obtained a letter of authenticity from PSA that will accompany the lot.

A rare Bunker Hill Broadside

The present broadside offers a contemporary response to one of the earliest events of the Revolutionary War, with the poem beginning “Americans pray lend an ear, / And you a solemn tale shall hear.” The verse then relates the circumstances of the Battle, interpreting the suffering thereby visited upon New England as a consequence of sin, yet the lines nevertheless urge the colonists to win their freedom.

Reverend Elisha Rich, who was a resident of Chelmsford, Massachusetts, when these lines were composed, authored four broadside poems on Revolutionary War subjects, as well as three pamphlets. All were printed by Nathaniel Coverly, six of the seven while he was living and working in Chelmsford. The present broadside, printed without the woodcuts of the battle and Warren's coffin that did appear on the Chelmsford printings (at least two printings are known, one with the coffin and one without), is the only non-Chelmsford edition of which evidence has been found. Though the broadside is lacking an imprint, the distinctive ornaments used in the border dividing the columns of text are identified by Reilly as in use by Ezra Lunt and Henry Walter Tinges, printers active in Newburyport from 1774 to 1775. While two of the three ornaments were also used by Isaiah Thomas, it would seem that only Lunt and Tinges used all three. Furthermore, the ownership inscription on the verso ("Joseph Philbrick his verses") adds further weight to this supposition. Philbrick was an inhabitant of Hampton, New Hampshire, which is situated just north of Newburyport. 

An unrecorded printing

REFERENCE:

Reilly, A Dictionary of Colonial American Printers' Ornaments & Illustrations 126, 176, and 180

PROVENANCE:

Joseph Philbrick (contemporary ink inscription to verso)