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Rules and orders to be Observed by the York Fire-Club, instituted at Boston the First Day of May, A. D. 1760.

Boston, 1760. Broadside, 8.25” x 13.125”, text in two columns below title. Early manuscript note at verso: “Silver Plate. J. Allen from J D & M Williams $223.56.” CONDITION: Good, some small losses to margins along old vertical folds, some chipping along central vertical fold, no loss of text.

A rare broadside printing of the rules and regulations of Boston's York Fire Club, one of several mutual aid firefighting societies founded by city residents to supplement the efforts and equipment of the Board of Fire Wards, the predecessor of the Boston Fire Department (est. 1825).

The second Great Fire of Boston, which flared on March 20th, 1760, destroyed almost 350 buildings and left 220 families homeless. Less than two months later, on May 1st, the York Fire Club was founded. As outlined by these eleven “Rules and Orders,” the club was not to exceed fifteen members, and all members—appropriately, for a mutual aid society of this kind—were required to know “each other’s Houses, Shops, Stores, &c. and the Passages thereto; and shall have Power mutually to interrogate on those points at quarterly Meetings.” New members required unanimous written approval to join and meeting moderators were chosen by vote each May, while the position of secretary was to be decided by lot, and could not be shirked for less than “Twenty Shillings.” Additional fines, from one to six shillings, are stipulated for the dereliction of other duties, among them “that each Member constantly keep together in good Order, in his Dwelling House, Two Leather Buckets, a Bed-Winch, and two Bags, each Bag at least one Yard and a half long, and one Yard and a half round, both Buckets and Bags to be mark’d with the first Letter of the Owner’s Christian Name, and his Sirname at length” and, of course, “That at Notice of Fire every Member shall repair with his Buckets, Bags, and Bed-Winch, to the Place where it happens—And if the House, Shop, or Store, of any Member be in Danger, all the other Members shall assemble there with their Bags and Winch, and use their best endeavours (at the Direction of the Person in Danger, if present) to remove and secure all his Goods and effects.”

Another copy, sold by Howard S. Mott, Inc. in 1986, was folded and bound together with a contemporary manuscript list of “Names,” “Houses,” and “Stores” of its members, which included the volume’s owner, Robert Treat Paine, as well as James Lovell, James Sullivan, Nathaniel Appleton, and others, twenty in total. Heading the list was “Samuel Adams Winter Street,” not the statesman who was living at Purchase Street. As that example shows, the club went over its stated membership limit of fifteen.

OCLC records just two holdings, at AAS and the Library Company of Philadelphia. We locate an additional example at the Massachusetts Historical Society.

Not in Evans, Bristol, or Ford; Shipton & Mooney 41113; ESTC W35255.

Offered in partnership with Boston Rare Maps of Southampton, Mass.

Item #9876

Price: $5,750.00

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