{"id":986,"date":"2025-11-19T19:39:34","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T00:39:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/?p=986"},"modified":"2025-11-19T19:39:37","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T00:39:37","slug":"twenty-sermons-1774","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/twenty-sermons-1774\/","title":{"rendered":"Twenty Sermons (1774)"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"metaslider-id-973\" style=\"width: 100%;\" class=\"ml-slider-3-100-0 metaslider metaslider-flex metaslider-973 ml-slider ms-theme-default-base has-dots-nav\" role=\"region\" aria-label=\"Twenty Sermons\" data-height=\"700\" data-width=\"700\">\n    <div id=\"metaslider_container_973\">\n        <div id=\"metaslider_973\">\n            <ul aria-live='polite' class='slides'>\n                <li style=\"display: block; width: 100%;\" class=\"slide-980 ms-image \" aria-roledescription=\"slide\" data-date=\"2025-11-19 19:30:42\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2054\" height=\"1838\" src=\"https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/IMG_8284.jpeg\" class=\"slider-973 slide-980 msDefaultImage\" alt=\"\" rel=\"\" title=\"IMG_8284\" style=\"margin-top: 5.2580331061344%\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/IMG_8284.jpeg 2054w, https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/IMG_8284-300x268.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/IMG_8284-1024x916.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/IMG_8284-768x687.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/IMG_8284-1536x1374.jpeg 1536w, https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/IMG_8284-2048x1833.jpeg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2054px) 100vw, 2054px\" \/><\/li>\n                <li style=\"display: none; 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width: 100%;\" class=\"slide-984 ms-image \" aria-roledescription=\"slide\" data-date=\"2025-11-19 19:30:43\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1695\" height=\"2560\" src=\"https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/IMG_8288-scaled.jpeg\" class=\"slider-973 slide-984 msDefaultImage\" alt=\"\" rel=\"\" title=\"IMG_8288\" style=\"margin: 0 auto; width: 66.2109375%\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/IMG_8288-scaled.jpeg 1695w, https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/IMG_8288-199x300.jpeg 199w, https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/IMG_8288-678x1024.jpeg 678w, https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/IMG_8288-768x1160.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/IMG_8288-1017x1536.jpeg 1017w, https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/IMG_8288-1356x2048.jpeg 1356w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1695px) 100vw, 1695px\" \/><\/li>\n                <li style=\"display: none; width: 100%;\" class=\"slide-985 ms-image \" aria-roledescription=\"slide\" data-date=\"2025-11-19 19:30:43\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1990\" height=\"2560\" src=\"https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/IMG_8293-scaled.jpeg\" class=\"slider-973 slide-985 msDefaultImage\" alt=\"\" rel=\"\" title=\"IMG_8293\" style=\"margin: 0 auto; width: 77.734375%\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/IMG_8293-scaled.jpeg 1990w, https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/IMG_8293-233x300.jpeg 233w, https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/IMG_8293-796x1024.jpeg 796w, https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/IMG_8293-768x988.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/IMG_8293-1194x1536.jpeg 1194w, https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/IMG_8293-1592x2048.jpeg 1592w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1990px) 100vw, 1990px\" \/><\/li>\n            <\/ul>\n        <\/div>\n        \n    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Title: Twenty Sermons<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Author: Andrew Eliot<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Printed and sold by John Boyle in Marlborough Street<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Estimated year of printing: 1774<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Notes:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Siege of Boston marked the opening phase on the American Revolutionary War in 1775.&nbsp; When the Siege began, most residents fled the city, which at that point in time was just a small peninsula with limited ways on or off.&nbsp; Andrew Eliot (1718 &#8211; 1778) was the pastor at the New North Church in Boston at the time.&nbsp; He sent his family away for safety, but decided to stay in Boston and provide spiritual support to those that couldn\u2019t leave.&nbsp; In doing so, he cemented a place in history as a selfless church leader who supported American independence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Printed in Boston in 1774, this book is my earliest American printing, predating the Revolutionary War.&nbsp; It is a collection of twenty sermons by Eliot on a variety of topics.&nbsp; In the 18th century, churches were a key part of a community, and these sermons were composed and delivered in the context of the brewing war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Eliot\u2019s New North Church was an alternative to the more famous Old North Church.&nbsp; New North Church was rebuilt in the 1800s, the new building is still standing today as St. Stephen\u2019s. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The owner\u2019s inscription \u201cJoseph Kidder\u201d appears on the title page and multiple times on the front endpaper.&nbsp; This likely points to having been owned by a man by that name who was born in Billerica, MA, in 1741 and became pastor at First Congregational Church in Nashua, NH, from 1766 through 1813.&nbsp; Also tucked between the pages is a fern leaf \u2014 a preserved, centuries-old, organic bookmark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Historical context:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When this book was printed in 1774, George III was King of Great Britain.&nbsp; A year earlier in 1773, the passage of the Tea Act, which required the American colonies to exclusively buy tea from the East India Company, led to the colonists conducting the Boston Tea Party in protest.&nbsp; Britain responded with the Intolerable Acts in 1774, a series of bills meant to punish the colonists, including closing the port of Boston.&nbsp; This all culminated in armed conflict in 1775, beginning with the Battles of Lexington and Concord in April, followed closely by the Siege of Boston, which began the American Revolutionary War. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Further Reading:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/babel.hathitrust.org\/cgi\/pt?id=ia.ark:\/13960\/t72v2qf64&amp;seq=1\" title=\"\">Digitzation at HathiTrust<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Andrew_Eliot\" title=\"\">Andrew Eliot &#8211; Wikipedia<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.masshist.org\/object-of-the-month\/objects\/may-2025\" title=\"\">Andrew Eliot &#8211; Massachusetts Historical Society<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhhistory.org\/object\/252605\/kidder-joseph-1741-1818\" title=\"\">Joseph Kidder &#8211; New Hampshire Historical Society<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/congregationallibrary.quartexcollections.com\/manuscript-collections\/browse-the-new-north-church-records-in-boston-massachusetts\" title=\"\">New North Church &#8211; Congregational Library<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Acquired October, 2025<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My oldest American printing, a collection of sermons by a pastor who provided spiritual support during the American Revolutionary War.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":974,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[63,61,42],"class_list":["post-986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-commentary","tag-earlyamerican","tag-highlight"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=986"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/986\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":987,"href":"https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/986\/revisions\/987"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}