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 RADFORD :iRAYER ||oOK 
 
THE BRADFORD PRAYER BOOK 
 
 I 710. 
 
 SOME ACCOUNT 
 
 "Ik look of l^ommon :]ni^t\," 
 
 Printed A. D. 171 o, 
 
 BY 
 
 William Bradford^ 
 
 UNDER THE AUSPICES OF 
 
 TRINITY CHURCH. NEW YORK. 
 
 The first edition of that book ever printed on the American Contir 
 
 PRIVATELY PRINTED FOR 
 
 HORATIO GATES JONES. 
 1870. 
 
^7 
 
 
|fe f irat Imerican "loolt of |^oinmon Brager." 
 
 [From the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, July 15, 1870.] 
 
 HE LOVERS of early and rare Ameri- 
 can books, and especially such of them 
 as belong to the Protestant Episcopal 
 Church, have recently had a gratifica- 
 tion by the discovery of a copy of the 
 first edition of the\" Book of Common 
 Prayer" ever printed on this continent. 
 The fact that an edition of the volume had been 
 printed by William Bradford, the first printer of the 
 Middle States and an early vestryman of Trinity 
 Church, New York, somewhere between the years 
 1704 and 17 14 was noted by Mr. John William 
 Wallace in his admirable address before the Histori- 
 cal Society of New York, on the occasion of the 
 bicentenary celebration of Bradford's birth, in New 
 York, on the 20th of May, 1863, by Trinity Church 
 and the Historical Society just named. But the 
 evidence of the publication rested wholly on early 
 records of Trinity Church which Mr. Wallace had 
 
 Ml946il 
 
The First American 
 
 been allowed to inspect. No copy of the book could 
 then be found in New York, nor was there any evi- 
 dence that any had ever been seen, and Mr. Wallace, 
 in his printed address, stated that he was quite 
 unable to say whether or not "any copy of this 
 Editio princeps Americana of a book which now 
 covers the continent in numberless forms, has 
 survived its century and sixty years." In fact, 
 numerous persons doubted whether at that early 
 day the book had ever actually appeared. But 
 behold! in 1870 a copy turns up in Philadelphia! 
 Mr. John Jordan, Jr., an indefatigable and very 
 liberal member of the Historical Society of Penn- 
 sylvania, getting certain intimations, discovers in some 
 old library the precious volume, which, as names 
 in it show, belonged a hundred and fifty years ago 
 to some of the parishioners of Christ Church, in 
 this city. Of so curious a volume — one which 
 stands at the head of the immense line of issue of 
 "Prayer Books" which has since been proceeding 
 from the American press — every particular will 
 prove interesting to bibliographers and ecclesiolo- 
 gists of the Episcopal Church, and we have pro- 
 cured from Mr. Horatio Gates Jones, well known 
 for his interest in our early literature, a correspond- 
 ence between himself and Mr. Wallace, the 
 
Book of Common Prayer. 
 
 President of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 
 to which the Bradford Prayer Book now belongs. 
 The correspondence, we have no doubt, will prove 
 a valuable record. 
 
 The North American and United States 
 Gazette, speaking of this volume, justly says that 
 ''the early date at which this book was printed 
 — 1 710, and the fact that the English Book of 
 Common Prayer was never, so far as we know, 
 printed on this continent during the colonial term 
 afterward, speaks highly of Bradford's enterprise." 
 
 The correspondence referred to, is as follows: 
 
 Roxborough^ Philadelphia^ July 9, 1870. 
 Hon. John William Wallace, 
 
 President of the Historical Society of Pennsyl'vania. 
 
 Dear Sir: 
 
 Numerous inquiries have been made about "the 
 first Prayer Book" which Mr. Jordan recently gave 
 to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Some 
 notices of it have appeared in the New York papers, 
 where the book was sent for exhibition, but I do 
 not know how accurate they are. I see that you 
 presided at the last meeting of our Society, when 
 the donation of the book was made. I shall be 
 much obliged, if your leisure allows, if you would 
 write something that I can use as a record of 
 
The First American 
 
 that precious volume, bibliologically and typograph- 
 ically alike. 
 
 I well remember that when the Bradford Prayer 
 Book was spoken of by yourself in your address 
 at the splendid celebration in New York a few 
 years since, when Trinity Church erected a new 
 monument to William Bradford, the first printer 
 of the Middle States, many of the New York 
 bibliophiles argued that the absence of any such 
 volume from the library of the opulent "Bradford 
 Club " was a very strong evidence that no copy 
 could have ever been actually issued by Mr. Brad- 
 ford, although it was admitted that a publication 
 of the volume by him had been contemplated in 
 very early times. I dislike to disturb you in 
 your occupations, but a brief description of this 
 book will prove of great satisfaction to many 
 who are interested in the early literature of our 
 
 country. 
 
 I am yours most truly, 
 
 HORATIO GATES JONES. 
 
 728 Spruce St., Philadelphia, July 12, 1870. 
 My Dear Sir: ^ 
 
 The Prayer Book about which you inquire is a 
 copy of the identical Prayer Book of which the 
 
Book of Common Prayer. 
 
 origin is to be found in an early record of Trinity 
 Church, New York, as follows : 
 
 "August 23, 1704. 
 
 " Ordered that the Church Wardens to lend Mr. Bradford 
 
 £30 or £40 for six months, on security, without interest, 
 for purchasing paper to print Comon Prayer Books." 
 
 And for the return of which money the Rev. 
 John Sharpe, D.D., Chaplain of the Queen's forces 
 at the Fort, and, as such, an assistant minister of 
 Trinity Church, became Bradford's security. The 
 book is a small quarto, "Printed and sold by 
 William Bradford, in New York, in 17 10," an 
 exact reprint of the English *'Book of Common 
 Prayer (of 1661) and Administration of tne Sacra- 
 ments and other Rites and Ceremonies of the 
 Church, according to the use of the Church of 
 England ; together with the Psalter, or Psalms of 
 David. Pointed as they are to be sung or said in 
 churches." Facing the title page are the royal 
 arms of Great Britain, and following it, prefatory 
 to the body of the book, are twenty-three pages, 
 containing " Rules for the more devout behaviour 
 in the time of divine service in the Church of 
 England ; with some explanations of the Common 
 Prayer." The volume contains the (then) *^ New 
 
8 The First American 
 
 version of the Psalms of David, fitted to the 
 tunes used in churches, by N. Tate and N. 
 Brady." There is nothing special to note in the 
 matter of the book, which is the exact English 
 Book of Common Prayer, &c., of Charles II.'s 
 day. 
 
 'Typographically^ different parts of the volume have 
 different characteristics. The Prayer Book part 
 has obviously been printed at a different time 
 from the part having the " new version of the 
 Psalms." This is obvious from the fact that in 
 the Prayer Book part continuous subjects are in 
 letter of two different sizes; one part in small pica 
 and the rest in bourgeois. The Offertory appears 
 in this way, and so sometimes does the same 
 Psalm, all showing plainly enough that the founts 
 were small when this part was printed. The 
 whole of the *'new version of the Psalms," on the 
 other hand, is in one letter — small pica ; and small 
 pica, I should say, of a somewhat different face 
 from that used in the body of the book — more 
 round, showing that when this part was printed 
 the founts had been increased. The paging of this 
 part begins, too, anew, making seventy-nine pages 
 of its own ; and the paper of this part is different 
 from that in the Prayer Book part ; made out of 
 
Book of Common Prayer. 
 
 better rags, finer and more tough ; sized also, and, 
 I should say, of less weight. Whether or not 
 Bradford ever printed the Prayer Book with the 
 old metre Psalms I can not determine, but I think 
 it plain that he printed this ''new version" of the 
 Psalms, as Tate & Brady's was then called, after the 
 other part of the book was done, and in a volume 
 or tract by itself; doing this doubtless for the use 
 of persons who had old editions of the Prayer 
 Book alone, and in which nothing but the old 
 versions of the Psalms were contained. His Chris- 
 tianity, in this respect, was greater than his craft, 
 and it is not surprising that he lost money by his 
 benevolent course, although Trinity Church made 
 the loss lighter to him by generously condoning 
 his debt to them. The book looks at first, to a 
 person accustomed to the type of this day, as 
 though it was leaded. But by looking at words 
 where long letters, such as / and y ox I come near 
 each other on two lines, their ends are so near to 
 touching that you discover that what gives the im- 
 pression of the leading is due to the type having 
 been cast with a long shoulder. The composition 
 in the main is fair, though the division of the 
 words is sometimes peculiar — different at least from 
 what we make in this day, when we should space 
 
I o First American Book of Common Prayer. 
 
 out and drive the syllables into a new line. The 
 press-work is very creditable; the color, even; in 
 some parts first-rate, though there are occasional 
 light places. The calendar, in the beginning of 
 the book, has some of the peculiarities universal 
 in all ''rule and figure work" of that day. It is 
 made up with short rule; making, of course, such 
 work as now would be supposed to be made up 
 with "odds and ends" of rule. In some places 
 the rules lie low and are scarcely seen. In this 
 part of the volume, also, the type seems worn, 
 and the balls were apparently hard. The ink, at 
 least, is imperfectly distributed. The main part of 
 the book is much better. Altogether, considering 
 the early day when the work was done, it was 
 a great one ; and comparing it with publications, 
 long subsequent but still early, the Prayer Book 
 of 17 lo must be called very creditable to the 
 typographer's art in the colonies. 
 
 I am, with great regard. 
 
 Most respectfully yours, 
 
 JOHN WILLIAM WALLACE. 
 
 Horatio Gates Jones, Esq. 
 
M194611 
 
 
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