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 1763 Annual Register

Offered here are two volumes of the 1763 Annual Register the highlight of which are the four fold out maps in the back of the book. All four maps are dated 1763 and three were executed by Thomas Kitchin, a prominent English cartographer of the period, and Hydrographer to the King of England. The most valuable map is the "New Map of the British Dominions in North America" which is shown above that sold recently for $600 at a map auction. The auction description hyperlinked at the end of the last sentence describes it well:

 A high resolution scan of this map can be seen here. Below is  a picture of the the map title with date and name of engraver.

The other three maps in the 1763 volume which are shown below are of 1) India ("The Empire of the Great Mogol"), 2) the Kingdom of Prussia (Germany, Romania, Austria, Poland, etc.), and 3) the coastal areas of Europe ("Correct Chart of the Seat of War on the Coasts of France, Spain, Portugal and Italy...").

The occasion for the maps, the end of the first world war, the Seven Years War, also results in some important end of war documents being included in this volume. Among the documents in the volume is the King's proclamation concerning the colonies in North America, including the division of the newly acquired Florida into East Florida and West Florida and rewarding those who served in the war with land in North America and Grenada, as shown below. Among the more controversial provisions of this decree was the requirement that American Indians be reserved "any lands beyond the heads or sources of any of the rivers which fall into the Atlantic Ocean from the west of north-west" and that "we do hereby strictly forbid...any purchases or settlements whatever, or taking possession of any of the land above reserved." This put a considerable damper on expansion of the American colonies and was one of the many causes of the discontents that led to the American Revolution.

The books Edmund Burke reviews in this volume are those that would naturally interest him, Antiquities of Athens, The History of Ireland and the Debates of the House of Commons, from 1667 to 1694. I found the most interesting work reviewed the  Letters of the Right Honorable Lady Mary Wortley Montagu; Written, during her Travels in Europe, Asia and Africa, To Persons of Distinction.   Burke gives a long review which includes extended excerpts from the book. The entire work with an introductory biography can be found by clicking on the hyperlinked title above. Among the interesting fact stated in the biography are these:

"Wortley admired his wife's intellect and offered her services as a critic to Addison on his tragedy, Cato...Her essay praises Addison's characterization but savages his plot, and makes many pointed suggestions. He actually followed most of them, but asked that her essay never see the light of day. It was not published until this century."

Joseph Addison's play Cato was a favorite of George Washington and he made the lead character of the play his role model of Republican virtues.

In 1716 Wortley Montagu was appointed ambassador to Turkey. ... Constantinople was full of wonders which Lady Mary, unlike so many European wives, set out to explore and understand. She mastered the language, investigated mosques, and visited with the women of the harem, whom she came to admire. She discovered that the Turks inoculated for smallpox, and determined to bring the practice to England.

Lady Mary's daughter had meanwhile married Lord Bute, who became George III's right hand man.

Later in Burke's career in 1770 in his political pamphlet "Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents"  he used the influence of Lord Bute and the King's friends ("the double Cabinet") on executive and legislative affairs to argue for reforms and the benefits of political parties, particularly the Rockingham party.

When Lady Mary was about to return for the last time to England, she asked Rev. Sowden to keep for publication her Embassy Letters. When her family heard of this manuscript they offered five hundred pounds for it, and got it, but to their horror another copy had been made, and the work was published. It was an overnight sensation, and went into multiple editions. Dr. Samuel Johnson loved the letters, and Edward Gibbon said of them, "What fire, what ease, what knowledge of Europe and Asia." Lady Mary had triumphed over the strictures of a society in which publishing one's work was unseemly for a woman, especially one of high rank, and over the objections and stratagems of a family that subscribed to these strictures. She had secured perhaps the only thing she really ever wanted: lasting, and deserved, literary fame.

Lady Mary Montagu was a remarkable women for her times and any time!

The 1763 volume is also available in a first edition as a part of both the 1758 through 1791 set (with maps) and in a later edition in the 1758 through 1773 set (without maps).

Price: SOLD

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