John Hancock’s signed and owned copy of Edward Wigglesworth. An Enquiry into the Truth of the Imputation of the Guilt of Adams' First Sin to His Posterity

ohn Hancock (1737-1793) American Revolutionary politician, Founding  father and first signer of the Declaration of Independence, President of the Continental Congress and two-time Governor of Massachusetts. Very rare signed book Boston: Printed by J. Draper, for D. Henchman over against the Brick-Meeting-House in Cornhil [sic], 1738. Small octavo (19cm.); bound in recent stitched parchment, manuscript spine titling, retaining half title and rear free endpaper; [8],90pp. ([A]-M4 N2 (N2 blank)); woodcut initials, head- and tail-pieces throughout.

Half title leaf a bit soiled and trimmed affecting ownership date (see below), 20th century ownership rubberstamp inside upper cover, else a Near Fine copy in plain but serviceable recent binding. From the title page: "Being the Substance of several private Lectures in Harvard College, on the third Article in the sixth Chapter of the Westminster Confession of Faith." Half title page reads "Dr. Wigglesworth's Lectures on the Imputation of Adam's first Sin to his Posterity."

Provenance: Slightly later ownership signature to half title, "John Hancock's," dated "17[??]," the latter part of the date (possibly beginning with a "5") having been trimmed away. Additionally, there may very well be a Hancock-doodled "D" in the same ink above the first line of the half title text. Though the present work was published a year after Hancock's birth, we surmise that this work most likely first belonged to John Hancock, Sr., who, like his son, had attended Harvard College sometime in the 1720s or '30s. Edward Wigglesworth (1693-1765) was named the first Hollis Professor of Divinity at that school in 1721 and may very well have lectured to the older Hancock. When Hancock Sr. died in 1744 this work would have then come into possession of his son, who appears to have signed his name sometime in the 1750s when he himself was a young student at Harvard, underlining his name with three simple dashes, his famous flourish as yet inchoate.

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