[NEW SOUTH WALES, POETRY] Twenty-One Letters Written to a Near Relative at School

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Jun 3, 2023

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• Lot Description

  Probably the very first piece of poetry written about New South Wales, and unrecorded in Australian collections.

  Rev. John Newton

  Twenty-One Letters Written to a Near Relative at School

  London: J. Johnson et al., 1809.
  First Edition.
  17.5cm x 10cm. viii, 107, [1], [1], v, 51 pages, 2 volumes bound in 1, engraved frontispiece portrait. Full leather, gilt lettering, marbled edges and endpapers.

  This work includes the hymn To the Rev. Mr. Johnson going to Botany Bay; as is common for books of the time, the names of many of the subjects of the letters and poems are concealed by the use of asterisks, the interesting aspect of this copy being that the correct identities have been annotated in manuscript by Mary Stokes (friend of Rev. Samuel Marsden, Rev. Johnson's assistant) and with her gift inscription, "Priscilla Martha Victoria Vickers, given to her moth by early friend Mrs Stokes"; a very good association copy. [Bound with] The articles of the Church of England, with this copy bearing the scripture proofs. London : L. B. Seeley, 1811. pp v, 51.

  John Newton made his first sea voyage in the company of his father at the age of eleven. In fact, a considerable part of his early life was spent at sea; this included time spent on ships working in the West African slave trade. In 1748, after nearly perishing during a storm on a return voyage to England, Newton had a religious epiphany. From this point, he found himself increasingly unable to reconcile slavery with the teachings of Christianity. In 1754 he abandoned the slave trade altogether, devoting himself to Bible study. He was ordained as a clergyman in the Church Of England in 1764. Later in life Newton wrote prolifically, both as an abolitionist and a hymnist. He penned the hymn Faith's Review and Expectation, which is more commonly known by its famous opening words, Amazing Grace.

  In 1786 Newton was one of a number of clergymen in the Eclectic Society who proposed the idea of sending a chaplain to accompany the convicts on the First Fleet. It was through Newton's personal acquaintance with both Rev. Richard Johnson and William Wilberforce that Johnson was offered this position, on Newton's recommendation to Wilberforce. Newton wrote a hymn for Johnson prior to the Fleet's departure, The Lord, who sends thee hence, which is printed on page 107 of the present volume. Its second verse begins: "Go bear the Saviour's Name to lands unknown". Johnson became a figure of critical importance in the establishment of the colony at Botany Bay. He served as chaplain to the New South Wales Corps, and for its first six years carried out all the clerical duties of the colony. He was also a staunch friend and supporter of the Aborigines, adopting an Aboriginal girl into his own family and on one occasion offering himself as a hostage in order to allow Bennelong to visit the governor.

  Johnson's assistant was Rev. Samuel Marsden, who arrived at Port Jackson in 1794. Like Johnson, Marsden was to become one of the most significant of the early colonists, not only through the execution of his religious duties but also because of his activities as a sheep farmer and wool exporter. The volume we offer here has a direct connection with Samuel Marsden, as it was presented to its first owner, the mother of Priscilla Vickers, by Mary Stokes, the wife of Marsden's close friend, John Stokes; a collection of the letters sent from Sydney by Samuel Marsden to both John and Mary Stokes in London, spanning the years 1794-1824, is held in the Mitchell Library.

  The Stokes family evidently also belonged to Rev. John Newton's inner circle: as the annotations of Mary Stokes in the present volume reveal, two of Newton's poems are actually about young members of the Stokes family (see pages 87 and 100).

  Rare. There is no copy of Newton's Twenty-one letters written to a near relative at school recorded in Australian collections. As it contains what is probably the very first piece of poetry written about New South Wales, it can justly be considered a publication of some significance, although it was unknown to Ferguson. A version of Newton's poem, sent to the Herald by a reader from West Maitland in 1888 (New South Wales' centenary year), is included in a group of manuscripts and ephemera held in the Mitchell Library (Letters from the Rev. Richard Johnson to Henry Fricker, 30 May 1787-10 Aug. 1797, with associated items, ca. 1888. Safe 1/121).

  Rebacked. Minor wear to leather. Near Fine Condition.

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