[NAVAL CHAPLAINCY]

The Case of the Chaplains of Her Majesty's Navy, to the Number of about Eighty, Most Humbly Submitted to the Honourable House of Commons [caption title]

[London? 1714]. Broadsheet. [1]p. plus printed docket title on verso. Ornamental borders in upper and lower margins. Disbound. Small folio. Early folds and early stab holes in left margin.

A rare, early petition to Parliament on behalf of chaplains who had served with the British navy during the War of the Spanish Succession. Many of these chaplains returned to Britain without employment and here request similar public support as had recently been accorded to "the Poorer Clergy." The document, printed in the final year of Queen Anne's reign, is among the earliest examples of lobbying literature, which first began proliferating during the major changes in British government in the mid-1710s. ESTC records three copies, at the British Library, Oxford, and the National Library of Wales.

Hanson 2111.

Item #21167

Price: $325.00