Isaiah Thomas's Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode-Island, New-Hampshire and Vermont Almanack

[Captain James COOK & the Declaration of Independence]. - Isaiah THOMAS (1749-1831, publisher), & Isaiah THOMAS, jun. (printer & publisher)

Isaiah Thomas's Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode-Island, New-Hampshire and Vermont Almanack, With an Ephemeris, for the Year of Our Lord 1803. Worcester, Mass.: printed  … by Isaiah Thomas, jun. Sold by him at his Printing Offfice, and by I. Thomas, in Worcester, [etc.], [1802]. First edition. Twelvemo, bound 4s and 2s  ([A]4-B2-C4-D2-E4-F2-G4-H2], 48 pages. Uncut (measures approximately 7 ¾ x 5in; 197 x 127mm). Various woodcut vignette illustrations, some marginal notes in a single contemporary hand . (Toned, clean 3-inch tear to leaf B1 [see images]).

Vernacular binding: stab sewn into brown paper wrappers, with suspension loop to backstrip (backstrip damaged, tears to lower cover with a little loss).

Provenance: the Ely family (early inscriptions, the names of various members on the lower wrapper: Francis, Lewis, and Doric)

An appropriate connection: Isaiah Thomas, on 24 July 1776, was “the first person in Massachusetts to read the Declaration of Independence”, and here his son reprints the text in full.

In addition to the expected ‘Ephemeris’ and pages of useful facts, this issue also includes three pages re-printing the ‘Declaration of Independence’ with a preamble ‘It is now nearly twentyseven years since the People of the United States cast of the yoke of Greatbritain, and declared themselves Independent.  – Thousands have never seen this Important Declaration by the Congress of 1776; it ought to be in the possession of every friend to [t]hi[s] country – and at the request of many it is now recorded in this Almanack’.

There are also extracts for farmers, notes for travellers, on the government of , ‘Anecdotes’ and ‘Poetry’ including  ‘The Sailor’s Opinion of the World’s being Round’: “A Son of Neptune, who was hurl’d / From England's coast around the world /  with Cook, the circumnavigator, / To make discov’ries ‘mongst the water…” [!]

“During the Revolutionary War Thomas suffered for his ‘radical’ beliefs. There “was one bright day for Isaiah Thomas: July 24, 1776, when he became the first person in Massachusetts to read the Declaration of Independence. The stage from Philadelphia stopped in Worcester on its way to Boston with the news. Thomas stood on the steps of the South Church and read the declaration to the entire population of Worcester and adjoining towns.” (https://www.newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/isaiah-thomas-reads-declaration-independence/). Nichols p.81