FORTY

HANWAY, Jonas (1712-1786). Two scarce works in one volume: Three letters on the subject of the Marine Society. Let. I. On occasion of their clothing for the sea 3097 men, and 2045 boys, to the end of Dec. 1757. II. Pointing out several Advantages Accruing to the Nation from this Institution. III. Being a full detail of the rules and forms of the Marine Society. With a List of the Subscribers to the 16th of February, and State of Accounts to the 23d of March, 1758. To which is prefixed, a general view of th motives for establishing this society. [bound with] Two letters. Let.IV. Being thoughts on the means of augmenting the number of mariners in these kingdoms, upon principles of liberty. Let.V. To Robert Dingley, Esq; containing moral and political reasons for relieving prostitutes who are inclined to forsake their evil Course of Life. London: [s.n.], Printed in the Year M.DCC.LVIII. [1758]; London: [s.n.], Printed in the Year M.DCC.LVIII. [1758]. FIRST COLLECTED EDITIONS.

Quarto. Pagination [2]; vi, 8, 24; 23, [1]; 67, [1]; 11, [1] p., frontispiece, and inset plates; [2]; [2], 34; 35 [1], p. Letter III interleaved with blanks. Both volume collated and complete. [Goldsmiths, 9406 and 9408; ESTC, T93944 and T93943]. Contemporary calf, rubbed, rebacked preserving old title label. An excellent clean wide-margined copy on thick paper. Provenance: bookplate to paste-down of the scholar, bibliophile, and bookseller, Arnold Muirhead (1900-1988).

¶ This is a scarce, complete and handsome set of Jonas Hanway's five letters on two of his most dearly held philanthropic enterprises: the Marine Society, which he established in 1756 to equip and prepare destitute men and boys for a livelihood at sea (four letters); and the Magdalen Hospital for Penitent Prostitutes, which he co-founded in 1758 (the fifth and final letter). Each has a separate title page, pagination, and register.

Hanway was a merchant and philanthropist, often remembered for being the first man in London to carry an umbrella (for which he was widely mocked) and his opposition to tea (for which he was mocked by Samuel Johnson), he plunged himself into numerous benevolent causes, among them smallpox inoculations, the working conditions of young apprentices of chimney sweeps, the fate of infant children in workhouses, and a charity for girls abandoned to prostitution (hence his enthusiastic support for the subsequent Magdalen Hospital for Penitent Prostitutes). Among his most successful works was the Registers Bill (later dubbed ‘Hanway’s Act’), designed to improve the lives of workhouse children, which has been called “the only piece of eighteenth-century legislation dealing with the poor which was an unqualified success”, and the establishment, in 1756, of the Marine Society. The Society’s mission was to provide good education and employment to poor boys, which in turn supplied the British Navy with thousands of much-needed, well-trained seafarers. It is the world’s oldest public maritime charity, which still exists today.