The Discipline of the Society of Friends, of Ohio Yearly Meeting; Printed by Direction of the Meeting, Held at Mountpleasant, in the Year 1819.
Mountpleasant, Ohio: Printed by Elisha Bates, [1819]. First edition. 12mo, original calf, gilt rules, 102 pages. Calf a bit chipped, boards a bit rubbed and slightly bowed; some foxing throughout; a good, sound copy of an early Mount Pleasant imprint. Item #19668
Published the year the printer and recorded minister Elisha Bates became clerk of the Ohio Yearly Meeting, which had first been set off as a separate Yearly Meeting in 1812, this the first published edition of the Discipline of the Ohio Friends. Includes the expected admonitions against war, against tavern keeping, the schedule of meetings for sufferings, etc., as well as the Queries for the member meetings—including “Are Friends careful to bear a testimony against slavery? Do they provide, in a suitable manner, for those under their direction, who have had their freedom secured; and are they instructed in useful learning.” Variations in typography, typefaces, and leading throughout the book suggest both a frontier press and the sense of a living document. Bates ended up on the Orthodox side of the Hicksite separations, eventually sliding into the Gurneyite camp and facing disownment from his own meeting. This copy with the ink inscription on the front free endpaper, “This Book belongs to the Clerk of Newgarden quarterly meeting of Women friends 1824.” (New Garden Quarterly Meeting seems to have been laid down by the Ohio Yearly Meeting in 1836.) Early ownership signature from Selma, Ohio on the verso of a front blank. American Imprints 48052; Morgan 40.
Price: $250.00