Beschreibung:

NEW JERSEY, Proprietors of the Eastern Division]. A Bill in the Chancery of New-Jersey, at the suit of John Earl of Stair, and others, Proprietors of the Eastern-Division of New-Jersey against Benjamin Bond and some other persons of Elizabethtown, distinguished by the Name of Clinker Lot Right Men...Mr. Nevill's Speeches to the General Assembly, Concerning the Riots Committed in New-Jersey . New York: Printed by James Parker; and a few Copies are to be sold by him, and Benjamin Franklin in Philadelphia, 1747. 2 o (337 x 222 mm). 124, 39, 1pp. Two (of three) folding engraved maps. (Browning, lacking one map, small triangular cut in title, without loss.) Contemporary sheep (worn, covers detached); quarter green morocco gilt slipcase. Provenance : James Alexander (1691-1756), signature, notes in text; George Brinley (bookplate, his sale 1880, lot 3591); Ogden Goelet (his sale AAA/Anderson, 25 January 1935, lot 306). AN EXTENSIVE COLLECTION OF MATERIALS RELATING TO "ONE OF THE MOST FAMOUS CONTROVERSIES IN THE EARLY HISTORY OF NEW JERSEY" (Felcone) CONTAINING TWO VERY RARE EARLY NEW YORK MAPS BY LEWIS EVANS. A unique association copy: ATTORNEY JAMES ALEXANDER'S OWN ANNOTATED AND ENHANCED COPY of the Bill in Chancery he authored. The Scotland-born Alexander (1691-1756) was surveyor general of New Jersey and attorney general of New York and New Jersey, but is most famous for having been the principal attorneys for John Peter Zenger in his historic trial in New York in 1735 (see lot 42). Alexander was intimately involved in preparing the this complex legal case and arranged the important maps for publication. Here, Alexander has added a neat 4pp. index after the title (lower corners torn away); his careful notes appear on some 24 pages and include one full signature (p.39 of appendix); bound at the end are 36 ADDITIONAL PAGES OF LEGAL NOTES (in a clerk's hand but annotated in many places by Hamilton) plus nine contemporary New York newspapers reporting the dispute and an important 108-page Bradford imprint (see below). Sold as an association copy, not subject to return. Evans 6021; Felcone 21 (extensive notes). Engraved maps : The maps intended to accompany the text were adapted by Pennsylvania cartographer Lewis Evans (ca 1700-1756), corrected by James Alexander and finally engraved and printed by James Turner of Boston. According to Alexander's accounts (see Felcone) only 40 sets of maps were prepared; only some had hand-colored boundary lines. The two maps present here are as follows: 1) Based on Henry Popple's 1733 map of the Colonies, depicting Cape Hatteras north to Boston and west to the Delaware River, three hand-colored boundary lines, large decorative cartouche explaining Dutch-English place name equivalents, with Turner's imprint. 400 x 336 mm, edges frayed with small losses, tear at gutter . Cumming, Southeast , 266; Snyder, Mapping of New Jersey p.40; Wheat and Brun Maps and Charts , 294; Pritchard and Taliaferro, Degrees of Latitude no. 28 (without hand-colored lines). 2) Chorographical depiction of northern New Jersey, New York from Rockaway up the Hudson, plus westernmost Pennsylvania, noting Indian trails, early surveys and major roads, detailed boundary survey lines colored in red, green, and yellow. 440 x 336 mm, edges frayed with losses . 3) This map (not present here) shows surveys in East New Jersey, about Elizabethtown. [ Bound with: ] Votes and Proceedings of the General Assembly of the Province of New-Jersey , Philadelphia: William Bradford 1747. 2 o. 108 pages. Woodcut ornaments. Each leaf with lower and fore-margin extended to size. In excellent condition. Evans 6019 (citing only one other copy, at the Public Record Office). VERY RARE -- Nine issues of contemporary New-York newspapers covering the law-suit, dated from 17 Feb. 1745 to 14 Dec. 1747: includes The New York Evening Post (nos. 141, 145), The New York Post-Boy (no.161), and The New-York Gazette Revived in the Post-Boy (nos. 226, 239, 241