William Gordon

A first edition of The History of the Rise, Progress, and Establishment of the Independence of the United States of America: including an account of the late war; and of the thirteen colonies from their origin to that period.

• Sold as a set of 4 volumes.
• William Gordon (American).
• London: Printed for the Author, 1788.
• Octavo.
• [26],504;[8],584;[8],499;[6],445,[35] pages.
• 9 folding maps.
• Modern morocco backed period marbled paper covered boards.

"First full-scale history of this war by an American; to its preparation Jefferson contributed some aid" (Howes). "Gordon is deservedly reckoned as the most impartial and reliable of the numerous historians of the American Revolution" (Sabin). Gordon was a dissenting minister in England, who like many of his class sympathized with the contention of the Thirteen Colonies. Going to America during the disturbances and becoming pastor of the church at Jamaica Plain, now a district of Boston, he was throughout the Revolution a spectator close at hand of many important events, and the associate of many of the chief patriots.

The maps illustrate the eastern United States, Boston, New York, New Jersey, New Hampshire and Vermont, the Carolinas and part of Georgia, Charlestown with Sir Peter Parker's attack on Fort Moultrie, part of Virginia, and "York Town and Gloucester Point, as besieged by the allied army."

Creswell Pigot (armorial bookplate, signatures); General Theological Seminary (perforated stamps, bookplates).

Howes G256, "aa"; Sabin 28011; Larned 1341; Gephart 996; Reese Revolutionary 86.