The New-York Pocket Almanack | A very uncommon French-and-Indian-War-era almanac printed by Hugh Gaine

The New-York Pocket Almanack

The New-York Pocket Almanack, for the Year 1758. Calculated for the Use of the Province of New-York, and the neighbouring Provinces. By Poor Tom, Philomath. New-York: Printed and Sold by H[ugh]. Gaine, at the Bible & Crown in Hanover-Square, [1757]

12mo (114 x 65 mm). 18 printed leaves, interleaved with numerous blank leaves for annotations, below the imprint on the title-page is a table of "Signs, Planets, and Aspects"; trimmed close, shaving some border rules at bottom. Brown speckled wrappers; extremities worn with loss.

A very rare almanac issued by one of the most important New York printers of the second half of the eighteenth century: ESTC locates only a copy at the American Antiquarian Society, and we have been unable to trace any copies in the auction records. Though attributed by Evans to Theophilus Grew, the almanac was actually calculated by John Nathan Hutchins. The calculations and the astronomical notes on the calendar pages duplicate those in his Hutchin’s Almanack or Ephemeris for 1758, also published by Gaine. 

This copy contains information about the French and Indian War both printed ("A List of his Britannick Majesty's Land-Forces, now in North-America") and manuscript (a summary of the taking of Louisbourg by the British; a list of British frigates arrayed against Louisbourg).

REFERENCE

Drake 5711; ESTC W33965; Evans 7907