[GEORGIA] -- [STEPHENS, William (1671-1753)]. A State of the Province of Georgia, Attested upon Oath in the Court of Savannah, November 10, 1740. London: W. Meadows, 1742.

8vo (189 x 119 mm). Half-title; woodcut device on title-page. 20th-century half red morocco gilt, stamp-signed by Zaehnsdorf (original sewing-holes present in gutter margin). Provenance: L. S. (stamp on first text leaf).

FIRST SEPARATE EDITION, "also issued from the same setting of type differently imposed, as an appendix to vol. 2 of the author’s Journal, 1742, and included in the reprint in the Colonial Records of Georgia” (Sabin). Stephens' work "was ordered printed by Egmont and put into the hands of members of Parliament as 'an antidote' to Tailfer's True and Historical Narrative...though issued as a reply to Tailfer, neither he nor his associates are mentioned" (Streeter Sale 1151). "With all the problems besetting the colony at this time, it became the task of William Stephens, colonial secretary, to fire volleys of responses to the questions raised by Tailfer and the other malcontents...Stephens was an important cog in the machinery of colonial government and his journals and reports to the Trustees form a revealing account of operations in Georgia" (Willingham Georgiana 4). De Renne I, p.109; see Howes S-945; Sabin 91315. For a copy of Tailfer's True and Historical Narrative, see lot 361.

Property from the Collection of Robert P. Hunter, Jr. and Barbara Hunter, Alpharetta, Georgia

[GEORGIA] -- [STEPHENS, William (1671-1753)]. A State of the Province of Georgia, Attested upon Oath in the Court of Savannah, November 10, 1740. London: W. Meadows, 1742.