Byles Mather Manuscript of “To the Reverend Dr. Watts on His Divine Poems”
Date Published: 1806
Binding: No binding
Byles Mather was a loyalist clergyman in Boston. Byles graduated at Harvard University in 1725, received his A.M. degree there in 1728 and in 1733 he became pastor of the Hollis Street Church (Congregational), Boston. He was one of the Boston literary intellectuals who examined Phillis Wheatley to determine if she wrote her poems.
• Ms. of “To the Reverend Dr. Watts on His Divine Poems”, 1 leaf, laid paper (several splits but holding), dated December 20th, 1806, Rochester, E.H.C. The original poem was written on 15 March 1725, and published as "Verses prefix'd to the late Boston Edition of Dr. Watts's Hymns", General Magazine [Philadelphia] 1 (March 1741). It also appeared in Byles’s Poems on several occasions (1744) and American editions of Watts’s Horae Lyricae (Boston, 1748; and later eds.). It is possible that this ms. is in Byles’s hand, although that is unlikely in view of the later dating by E.H.C.
A copy of By/es poem (originally dated "New England, Boston, March 15, 1727" but not published until 1750) in manuscript dated Dec. 20th, 1806, Rochester, and signed E.H. C.
On consignment with LDRB
Fair. Item #8936
$200.00 USD
$275.77 CAD