A Spiritual Diary and Soliloquies. RUTTY (John).

DAVID PRIESTMAN'S COPY

By John Rutty, M.D. Late of Dublin.

First Edition. Two volumes. 12mo. [174 x 107 x 53 mm]. xxvi, [ii], 399 pp; [1]f, 324pp. Bound in contemporary sheep, smooth spines divided into six panels by two gilt fillets, numbered in the third, later endleaves. (Rebacked preserving most of the original spines, one corner repaired, a few abrasions on the covers).
London: printed and sold by James Phillips, George Yard, Lombard Street, 1776.

A few minor marks and a little soiling but a very good copy. Ink inscription on front flyleaf in vol.1: "David Priestman's Book 6mo[nth] 1778. Both volumes cost 6s". David Priestman was born in Thornton Le Dale in 1749 and died in Malton in 1831. He married Elizabeth Taylor and they had ten children. Their son Jonathan Priestman married Rachel Bragg, and in turn their daughter Elizabeth married the Liberal MP and reformer John Bright. In the next generation their daughter Helen married William Stephens Clark, maintaining the Quaker connection and bringing these volumes into the Clark family library.

A candid account of the spiritual trials endured by John Rutty (1697-1775), a respected practicing physician, naturalist and prominent member of the Society of Friends in Dublin. He chastised himself for perceived flaws of character, including too great a love for the studies of materia medica and meteorology, irritability, and excessive enjoyment of food. Sadly this led to mockery and satirical lambasting, led by Samuel Johnson. A second edition was published in 1796.

Stock no. ebc7810