Beschreibung:

Trail, Rev. William, of Borthwick FOUR AUTOGRAPH MANUSCRIPT VOLUMES, CHIEFLY MISCELLANIES AND COMMONPLACE BOOKS: i) Manuscript miscellany of prose and verse, mostly on religious and political subjects, PARTIALLY WRITTEN IN MARYLAND AND INCLUDING LETTERS DISCUSSING CAROLINA, with an alphabetical index at the front, most items with a note in the margin recording when copied and often the source (some items noted as “Copyed out of the print”); the first section mostly comprising prose tracts on subjects including the Hungarian renunciation of Protestantism, the “Character of a Tory”, the translation of the Bible into English, and “why many of the Protestant Dissenters scruple to take the Bonds of the good Behaviour”; followed by a number of tracts concerning Trail’s controversial ministry in Lifford, Ireland (e.g. “The Examination of Wm Trail before a Committee of the Lords of his Majesty’s most honorable Privy Council in the Kingdom of Ireland at Dublin ... June 22 1681”); copies of letters describing the new settlement of Charleston, South Carolina, notably one each by the early settlers Paul Grimball and Joseph Morton (both dated 1682) describing the land, its fertility, potential for trade, and Native Americans (“...The Indians will travell 2 or 300 miles to deal with English: their commodities are Beaver-skins, fox skins, Racoun skins, & Beares skins, with Beares-grease, & severall sorts of furres...”) but others giving a less rosy picture of life in the colony (“...all that generation that goes there, may expect nothing but poverty & ruine...”); texts written during Trail’s sojourn in Maryland, including “A Law of Maryland concerning Religion” (“Copied of the print April 1 1685”), “Reasons wherefore a consent to abolish the penal statutes against popery cannot be given by any who owne the present Government in Church and State (in Scotland)”, a copy of the ballad “Two Tom’s one Nat | In Council sat” with an introductory note (“...There comes Newes to America in Sept 1688 that the Queen of England was brought to bed of a son (the Prince of Wales) upon June 10 1688 & hereupon a day of Thanksgiving is injoyned to be publickely kept &c. Yet many doubt of thie truth of the story, & some of these Unbeleevers made the following lines upon this business sarcastically & satyrically...”), “A Dialogue betwixt 2 Horses” usually attributed to Andrew Marvell (“We read in profane & sacred records”), responses to the Glorious Revolution, “John Heart’s discourse on the manner & rite of swearing”; early 18th century additions in different hands, mostly comprising verse political satires, including “The Recantation of a Penitent Proteus” (“Attend good people, lay by your scoffs and scorns”) by Robert Wild (written 1663), “Scotlands Epitaph” in Latin and English (“Here Scotland lyes, clad with a mournfull shade”, dated 26 November 1706), “On the Cross upon the Cupulo of St Pauls” (“Of all the Idols of Renown”), and other verses on the Act of Union, the 1714 Jacobite Rebellion, also with a copy of Robert Trail’s letter to his children (1665); the first 221 pages in a single hand, thereafter with some entries in other hands, contemporary pagination, ruled, 285 pages, plus blanks, 1681-c.1714, 4to (193 x 150mm), contemporary vellum with numbered paper label on upper cover, covers discoloured and worn with loss, upper hinge splitting ii) Miscellany and memoranda book including student notes on Aristotle’s Logic, the lives of religious reformers including “Of Worthy men in the Church of Scotland”, extensive spiritual and ethical advice (such as "Directions for walking with God by R. Bolton”), notes on preaching, Latin hymns, some poems in English including “Lady Anne Clanbrazills [i.e. Anne (née Carey) Countess of Clanbrassil] Contemplation upon her Garden” (“Since Rhetoricians allow to feigne...”), "each man three devils hath, self born afflictions” (‘Necessary Observations’ by Thomas Randolph), and poems by, extracts from printed sources includin