16 pp. (8vo) 15.8x9.4 cm (6¼x3¾"), early 19th century plain wrappers with ms. inscription, hand-stitched along spine.
Apparently the second printing of this pacifistic poem by the Quaker grandfather of Benjamin Franklin. There are rumored editions of 1676 and 1677, but these seem not to exist, derived probably from a fragment of a copy of the 1725 edition at the American Antiquarian Society. The 1725 edition is presumably the first, with only one copy located, at the AAS. This 1763 printing is apparently the second edition, of which only two copies are listed at OCLC/WorldCat, at the New York Public Library, and Clams, Inc., in Massachusetts. The poem is political as well as pacifist, with an appendix at the end protesting taxation by the British crown of Quakers for the support of a Presbyterian. The lower corner of the title page of this copy is torn off, affecting the last two digits of the date on the title page. The appendix is dated July 3, 1724. The present copy matches exactly the typography of the photographic facsimile of the 1763 edition in Everett W. Crosby's Nantucket in Print (Nantucket, 1946), pp. 19-3. The poem itself is dated at the end, April 23, 1676. This copy with in inscription on the front wrapper, "Obed Macy his book given him by Judith Macy, 10th. 7mo, 1819." At the top of page 2, above the beginning of the poem, is written "Obed Macy Book 1819." Another inscription, on the front flyleaf, reads "Printed according to Franklin Folger in 1676." The Obed Macy who once owned the book is very likely the Nantucket native who wrote "The History of Nantucket", published in 1835.
Condition:
Some darkening to the paper, which is fragile, a few short tears to the title page in addition to the missing corner, still a very rare, and very desirable, early American imprint.