Penn, William | The second major Penn tract promoting Pennsylvania

Penn, William

A Letter from William Penn Proprietary and Governour of Pennsylvania … to the Committee of the Free Society of Traders of that Province Residing in London. London: Andrew Sowle, 1683

Small folio (280 x 166 mm). 10 pp.; some browning and staining, title paper-backed at an early date closing tears and small holes, outer edges of each text leaf remargined with losses supplied, lacking the terminal leaf containing the Directions of Reference, folding plan by Thomas Holme supplied in facsimile. Tan calf with title stamped in gilt on the spine, by Sangorski & Sutcliffe; some scratches to calf. 

One of the earliest and most significant descriptions of Pennsylvania, written by William Penn.

Penn writes: "The city of Philadelphia, now extends in length, from river to river, two miles, and in breadth near a mile...and as its now placed and modelled between two navigable rivers upon a neck of land, and that ships may ride in good anchorage, in six or eight fathom water in both rivers, close to the city, and the land of the city, dry and wholesome; such a scituation is scarce to be parallel'd ... The city (as the Model [i.e., Holme's plan] shows) consists of a large Front-street to each river, and a High street near the middle from Front to Front, of one hundred foot broad, and a Broad street in the middle of the city, from side to side, of the like breadth. In the centre of the city is a square of ten acres; at each angle are to be houses for publick affairs, as a Meeting-House, Assembly or State-House, Market-House, School-House, and several other buildings for public concerns. There are also in each quarter of the city a square of eight acres, to be for the like uses, as the Moore-fields in London; and eight streets, besides the High Street, that run from Front to Front, and twenty streets, besides the Broad street, that run cross the city, from side to side; all these streets are of fifty foot breadth."

All editions of Penn's Letter are rare, and copies with the Holme map present exceedingly so. Four versions were published by Penn in 1683, with variant text to the title and varying collations. The present copy corresponds to Bronner & Fraser's second edition, third issue. No complete copy of this work has appeared at auction since the 1967 Streeter sale.

PROVENANCE

Jay Snider (bookplate)

REFERENCE

Celebration of My Country 12; European American 683/156; Bronner & Frazer 67d; Church 686; Dunn, "William Pen and the Selling of Pennsylvania," in Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 127, No.5, 322-29; JCB II: 1271; Sabin 59712; Streeter Sale 944; Wing P1321; Winsor III:498