Weston, Plowden Charles Jennett, editor:

$1,250 · Offered by William Reese Company

DOCUMENTS CONNECTED WITH THE HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA. An interesting collection of writings pertaining to South Carolina's earliest exploration and history. Plowden Weston, noting the failure of the South Carolina Historical Society to publish a tract from Sir John Hawkins' Third Voyages as it "slumbers unedited in the British Museum," took the liberty of publishing it himself in an edition of 121 copies (this is apparently one of 100 on foolscap quarto paper), along with previously unpublished tracts including "Letters from Richard Cumberland Esq. to Robert Pinckney, Esp.," Gov. James Glen's "Answers to the Lords of Trade," and a portion of De Brahm's Philosophico-Historico-Hydrogeography.... Weston also includes "Letters of Captain Thomas Young...," admitting that although it bore no relation to the state's history, "I have printed it, since it is (as far as I can discover) as yet unpublished." Born in Warwickshire, England, Weston went to South Carolina in 1757 and quickly established himself in the Charleston trade, accumulating a large fortune enabling him to purchase the Laurel Hill Plantation in 1775.A fascinating contribution to the literary and historical records of South Carolina, a state that would, only four years after publication, be the first to secede from the Union.

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