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Portland: Printed by Elezer A. Jenks, And Sold At His Book-Store, Next Door To the Bank, February 22d, 1800. 16mo, self wrappers. 24 pp., title page cut of eagle, tailpiece cut of an angel of death with scythe. Housed in blue gilt cloth and paper clamshell box. CONDITION: Good, central vertical and horizontal folds, front wrapper detached with several marginal tears and loss to upper-right corner (no effect to text), 2” closed tear at right edge of pp. 5–6, small puncture at near top edge of back wrapper, no loss of sense.

The rare first Portland, Maine printing of George Washington’s will, first published earlier the same year in Alexandria, Virginia.

“On the eve of his death on December 14, 1799, the gravely ill George Washington asked his wife, Martha, to bring him the two versions of his will. After reviewing them, he had one thrown in the fire and asked her to safeguard the other. The will, which resides with the Fairfax County Circuit Court’s office, reveals much about George Washington’s activities, his deeply held beliefs, his affections for family and friends, and the provenance of his possessions…

During his lifetime Washington accumulated considerable amounts of land and property consisting of townhouse lots in Alexandria and Washington, D.C., choice tracts of land on the Ohio River, as well as land in Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New York. In his will, Washington’s highest priority was to provide for his ‘dearly beloved wife Martha,’ but he also remembered close and distant relations. His continued devotion is evident in the distribution of his extensive land holdings to his family upon his death…

Washington’s second priority in his will was the emancipation, care, and education of his enslaved workers. Although in the early pages of the will Washington states his opposition to slavery and his ‘earnest wish’ to emancipate those enslaved immediately upon his, death, there were complications. About half of the enslaved people at Mount Vernon were ‘dower’ slaves owned by the estate of Daniel Parke Custis, Martha Washington’s first husband. Washington only had the power to free the enslaved people he owned, not those who were part of the Custis estate. Washington was also concerned about Martha’s livelihood and in his will, he freed those he could, ‘Upon Decease of my wife...’ The one exception was William Lee, who, upon Washington’s death, was granted immediate freedom and a 30-dollar annuity ‘for his faithful services during the Revolutionary War’” (Mount Vernon).

Washington’s famous emancipation of his slaves appears on the first page: “Upon the decease of my Wife, it is my will and desire, that all the Slaves which I hold in my own right shall receive their freedom. To emancipate them during her life, would, though earnestly wished by me, be attended with such insuperable difficulties, on account of their intermixture by marriages with the dower Negroes, as to excite the most painful sensations, if not disagreeable consequences....And whereas, among those who will receive freedom by this device, there may be some, who from old age or bodily infirmities, and others who, on account of their infancy, that will be unable to support themselves, it is my will and desire, that all who come under the first and second description, shall be comfortably cloathed and fed by my heirs, while they live; and that such of the latter description as have no parents living, or if living, are unable or unwilling to provide for them, shall be bound by the court until they arrive at the age of twenty-five years...The Negroes thus bound, are (by their masters or mistresses) to be taught to read and write, and to be brought up to some useful occupation, agreeably to the laws of the Commonwealth of Virginia, providing for the support of orphan and other poor children.--And I do hereby expressly forbid the sale or transportation of any Slave I may die possessed of, under any pretence whatsoever...”

The first edition of The Last Will & Testament was published in Alexandria, Virginia in 1800 following Washington’s death in December of 1799. Various printings in other cities soon followed, which must have been much in demand as keepsakes. Howes lists editions printed in 1800 in Baltimore, Boston, Frederick Town (MD), Hudson (NY), Philadelphia, “Stonington Port” (CT), and Worcester, as well as the present Portland printing.

The example offered here is particularly appealing both for its rarity and its early wallpaper wrappers. In our thirty-six years in the trade in Maine this is the first copy of the Portland edition we have seen.

REFERENCES: Evans 38993; Noyes, R. W. Bibliography of Maine Imprints to 1820 (supplement),192A; Skillin, G.B. Bibliography of Maine imprints 1785-1820, 00-58; Howes W-145; ESTC W14289; “Washington’s Last Will & Testament” at George Washington’s Mount Vernon online.

Item #10268

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