[WADSWORTH, Jeremiah, his copy (1743-1804)]. ATKINSON, James. Epitome of the Art of Navigation; or, A Short, Easy, and Methodical Way to Become a Compleat Navigator… London: for W. and J. Mount, T. Page and Son, 1759.
8vo (191 x 143 mm). Half-title, 10 folding plates including a volvelle. Full contemporary calf, rebacked preserving original spine (renewed lettering piece, spine worn, some rubbing to extremities, endpapers brown at edges and with some chipping). Provenance: see Wadsworth’s note below; C.L.F. Robinson of Newport, Rhode Island (armorial bookplate).
Early edition, JEREMIAH WADSWORTH’S COPY with his inscription, dated Sept. 1756 on front fly leaf and his signature on half-title. Wadsworth was Commissary General of the Continental Army (1778-79) and commissary of the French troops in America; member of the Connecticut State Constitutional Ratification Convention (1788), of U.S. House of Representatives (1789-95) and of Connecticut Executive Council (1795-1801). In 1797, George Washington appointed him to be Treaty Commissioner at the Treaty of Big Tree between the U.S. and the Seneca nation. At the age of eighteen, he embarked as a common sailor aboard one of his uncle’s vessels and followed the sea for about ten years, eventually rising to the rank of captain. The above volume was acquired during this period in his life.