[WHITEFIELD, George] [NEWSPAPER BROADSHEET]

SUPPLEMENT TO THE BOSTON-GAZETTE, &c. of (No. 815.) / Monday, November 19, 1770 [two-line head]

(Boston: Printed by Edes & Gill, 1770). Broadsheet supplement to the Boston-Gazette, 15 x 9 5/8 inches, printed both sides in three columns, imprint at bottom of the final column of text, the verse filling the first column and almost all of the second, the balance of the supplement taken up with interesting ads. Prints an anonymous elegy of 138 lines to the Rev. George Whitfield who had died on September 30 in Newburyport, Massachusetts, where he was buried; the verses were first published in New York in Hugh Gaine’s New York Gazette, on Oct. 19 and are preceded by a long paragraph of text describing Whitefield’s accomplishments and character sent to Gaine by the author of the verses, asking that they be published. First lines: “When in this country’s cause a warrior bleeds, / The grateful muse records his mighty deeds.” Final lines: “No single death in Britain’s spacious realm, / With equal grief could Zion overwhelm.” Whitefield (1714-1770) made seven trips to America, 1738-1770, usually spending two or three years there, preaching in the colonies; said to be the first to preach to slaves, he was memorialized in a famous poem by Phillis Wheatley. Moderately browned, folded (tape repaired at head of vertical fold), some rubbing to several lines of text. Item #65841

Price: $1,500.00