[The Rev. Nathaniel Ward was the author of this work. He was born at
Haverhill in Essex, of which place his father was a clergyman; and
after studying at Cambridge, became minister of Standon in Herts; but
was cited before the bishop, Dec. 12, 1631, to answer for his
nonconformity. Being forbidden to preach, he embarked for America in
April, 1634, and settled as pastor of the church at Ipswich, or
Aggawam. He returned to England in 1646, and on June 30, 1647, preached
before the House of Commons, and the same year published _The Simple
Cobler_. He was afterwards settled at Shenfield, near Brentwood, where
he died in 1653, in his eighty-third year. Fuller, in his _Worthies_,
co. Suffolk, speaking of him, says, that he, "following the counsel of
the poet,
'Ridentem dicere verum,
Quis vetat?'
'What doth forbid that one may smile,
And also tell the truth the while?'
hath in a jesting way, in some of his books, delivered much smart truth
of the present times." Dr. Mather, in his _Magnalia_, remarks of him,
that "he was the author of many composures full of wit and sense; among
which that entitled _The Simple Cobler_ (which demonstrated him to be a
subtil statesman) was most considered." This work passed through
several editions in England in 1647. It was reprinted in Boston in
1713. The best edition, containing the author's subsequent additions,
is that edited by David Pulsifer, Boston, 1843.]
_Back._--What is the meaning and derivation of "Back," as applied to
several localities in Bristol, as, for instance, The Back, Welsh Back,
Temple Back, St. Augustine's Back, St. James' Back, Redcliffe Back? Many of
them are not on the river, or I should have imagined it a corruption of the
word bank.