Beschreibung:

Chamberlayne, John. Magnae Britannia Notitia: Or, The Present State Of Great Britain. London: Printed for Timothy Goodwin, Matthew Wotton, Benjamin Tooke, Daniel Midwinter, and Jacob Tonson, 1710. 12mo, leather, appears to be old rebinding, 5 spine bands: (xii - including frontis portrait of and dedication to Queen Anne), 708pp plus 18 pp index, 1 p. errata and 1p. ads. Back of frontis with "Thomas Paine" and "Charle[s?] Paine, 1843." Top margin of title page "Robert Treat Paine Liber 1746-7." Note on back of tp, "Hig waller (?Wattter) about 3 o clock att (illeg.) 9 a. ?plan att 4 in morninge low watter att 10 / ploud? till s'???" Robert Treat Paine (1731 - 1814) was a Massachusetts native, lawyer, politician and signer of the Declaration of Independence. He made his mark as a lawyer by prosecuting, with Samuel Quincy, the case of Captain Thomas Preston who ordered his British soldiers to fire on the crowd in Boston in March 1770, resulting in the Boston Massacre. As a politician he served in the Provincial Congress (1774-1775) and the Continental Congress (1774-1778), signing the Declaration of Independence for Massachusetts. Between sessions of the latter, he was speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives and a member of the committee that drafted the state constitution. He became the first Attorney General, serving from 1777 to 1790, and prosecuted the trials following Shay's Rebellion. In 1790 he moved to the state supreme court until his retirement in 1804. Whether the Robert Paine who also signed this book was his first son by that name (1770-1798) or a later one is not clear. There were several Roberts, and Thomas Paine, Robert Treat Paine's second son (third child), changed his name legally to Robert Treat Paine, Jr. in 1801. Charles Paine is probably not his son, since that Charles Paine died in 1810, but there were several of those, also. Charles Jackson Paine was a Civil War Brigadier General, although he would have only been 10 in 1843. John Chamberlayne (1668-1723) was a younger son of Edward Chamberlayne (1616-1703) became a writer among other occupations (gentleman of the Privy Chamber, secretary, etc.). Edward published "the Present State of England," anonymously at first in 1669, then with his name for 20 more editions (to 1702). John continued publishing the volume after his father's death in 1703, and published five editions. Fourteen more editions were published after John's death. Chamberlayne's most popular works was his first: The Manner of making Coffee, Tea and Chocolate as it is used in most parts of Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, with their Vertues. (1685) Condition: It appears that the boards were recovered with leather, probably early 19th century. Leather of spine darker, dry, cracked. Manuscript paper label applied to spine. Scattered moderate foxing. Text block fine.