I (A. B.) being by Gods providence an Inhabitant, and Freeman,
within the Jurisdiction of this Commonwealth; do freely acknowledge
my self to be subject to the Government thereof: And therefore do
here swear by the great and dreadful Name of the Ever-living God,
that _I_ will be true and faithfull to the same, and will
accordingly yield assistance & support thereunto, with my person and
estate, as in equity _I_ am bound; and will also truly endeavour to
maintain and preserve all the liberties and priviledges thereof,
submitting my self to the wholesome Lawes & Orders made and
established by the same. And further that _I_ will not plot or
practice any evill against it, or consent to any that shall so do;
but will timely discover and reveal the same to lawfull Authority
now here established, for the speedy preventing thereof. Moreover,
_I_ doe solemnly bind my self in the sight of God, that when _I_
shal be called to give my voyce touching any such matter of this
State, in which Freemen are to deal, _I_ will give my vote and
suffrage as _I_ shall judge in mine own conscience may best conduce
and tend to the publike weal of the body, without respect of
persons, or favour of any man. So help me God in the Lord Jesus
Christ. [1634.] From the copy given in John Childe’s “New-Englands
Jonas cast up at London.” (London, 1647), which the preface states
was printed in Massachusetts-Bay, by itself.
To this form of The Oath of a Free man attaches the great additional
interest of being the first work printed in the United States of
America.
Under date of Mo. 1. (March, 1638/9) John Winthrop’s Journal states: “A
printing house was begun at Cambridge by one Daye, at the charge of Mr.
Glover, who died on sea hitherward. The first thing which was printed
was the freemen’s oath; the next was an almanac made for New England by
Mr. William Peirce, mariner; the next was the Psalms newly turned into
metre.”
For nearly three hundred years no copy of this printed paper has been
known to be extant. The ceaseless search for a copy in this country by
antiquarians, bibliographers and historians would long ago have been
successful, if even a single copy had been preserved in either the
institutions of the State, or Nation, or in individual or family
possession.
It would be difficult to exaggerate the patriotic feeling of our people,
if it were known that a copy of this interesting and valuable state
paper, the first fruit of the printing-press in this country, whose
ringing sentences of freedom preceded by nearly a century and a half the
Declaration of Independence, had been discovered at this late day.
Fully a quarter of a century ago, while engaged in making a search for
early printed American publications in the Catalogue of printed books in
the British Museum—a great and monumental work, worthy in its scholarly
completeness of the Government which fostered its publication, and of
inestimable importance and benefit to scholars in every land—the
following entry under the heading “Freeman” seemed to me to warrant more
than passing observation and curiosity which the intervening years have
failed to satisfy:
—The Oath of a Freeman. B. L.
[_London_, 1645?] _s. sh._ 12º. 11,626. aa. (1, 2.)
An analysis of this entry seems to show points of resemblance following
closely the known facts regarding the first work printed in this
country.
The title is the one given by John Childe presumably from the earliest
printed copy in his possession. The abbreviated title, freemen’s oath,
as given by John Winthrop, first appearing in the Code of 1648, which
seems to justify the belief that Winthrop wrote his Journal some years
after the press was established.
The letters B. L. indicate that the printed text is in black-letter.
While there is no evidence of the number and kinds of fonts of type
purchased for the first press by Joseph Glover, there is an itemized
statement of the number and names of the fonts of type for the second
press sent over later by the Society for Propagating the Gospel among
the Indians in New England, for printing the Bible in the Indian
language, and among them is a small font of “blacks,” i.e. black-letter,
which would indicate that a small font of that letter was generally
considered a part of the equipment of a printing-office of the period.
Even if this was not so, on the good authority of Isaiah Thomas, the
type used in printing the Bay Psalm Book, of 1640, was “small bodied
English,” a type commonly used for works in quarto and folio, which
approximates in size to black-letter, but without the ceriphs, or fine
projecting points of that letter. It is not unreasonable to suppose that
a cataloguer might, hastily, consider the thickly inked, heavy
press-work we find in the Bay Psalm Book, under the same conditions in a
somewhat crudely printed sheet, to be black-letter printing.
The brackets enclosing the imprint indicate that the place and date
given do not appear on the printed sheet, but are the personal judgment
of the cataloguer regarding them. Having already determined the printing
to be in black-letter English, it naturally follows in his judgment that
the place of printing is London. His guess of the year, 1645, which he
queries, is a close one; but is open to the criticism that an Oath of a
Freeman could never have been printed or exacted in England during the
reign of Charles the First. Ten years later, under Cromwellian rule, it
might have been done. But the only place on earth it could have been
printed and exacted without imprisonment, in 1645, was in the freemen’s
Colony of Massachusetts-Bay.
In this connection it may be well to observe, as a further illustration
that Governor Winthrop wrote his Journal years later than the events he
records, that his date of 1638/9, should be one year later, for the date
of the half-sheet almanac by William Peirce, mariner. Following
Winthrop, if the almanac was calculated for the year beginning in March,
1639, it would suppose its printing sometime before the 25th of March,
or in the Julian year 1638. This would leave nearly a whole year during
which no other printing was done. If the almanac was calculated for the
year beginning in March, 1640—the year the Bay Psalm Book is dated—then
it would suppose the Oath, and the Almanac, printed in the eleventh or
twelfth months of the Julian year 1639, which is more probable. Isaiah
Thomas, writing in 1810, leaves this question in doubt by not stating
whether his January, 1639, refers to the Julian, or the Gregorian
Calendar.
To continue our analysis: The format, and size, agrees with the known
facts that the Oath was printed “on the face of a half sheet of small
paper.” The shelf-mark indicates the permanent place on the shelves of
the Library.
The singular appearance of the only known copy of this important and
interesting document in the Colonial history of New England, nearly
three hundred years after its printing, so far from its place of
publication, calls for explanation, which is apparently furnished in a
work published in London, in April, 1647, entitled: “New-Englands Jonas
cast up at London.” On the title-page it purports to be written by Major
John Childe, a brother of Doctor Robert Childe, of Hingham, who was
detained by order of the General Court of Massachusetts-Bay; but
according to William Hubbard, in his History, and affirmed by John
Winthrop, in his Journal, the real author of everything, except the
Preface, was William Vassall.
[Illustration:
FAC-SIMILE OF ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT
in the Handwriting of Thomas Dudley,
in the Public Library of the City of Boston