Bibliographical Notes

Although for several generations last past, the little book which we are considering has been known as the Divine and Moral Songs, it did not always bear this full title. Throughout the first seventy-five years of its existence it was known simply as the “Divine Songs”, in spite of the fact that during all that time the book contained “a slight specimen of Moral Songs”, from two in the earlier editions to the full complement of seven later. I have seen no copies of the 13th, 14th or 15th editions, but the 16th edition (1740) has the title extended by the following words: “With some additional composures”, that being the first title-page reference to the Moral Songs which I have found. No copy, issued by the regular publishers, so far as I have discovered, ever bore the words “and Moral Songs”. The first occurrence of the Moral Songs in the title, which I find, is in an edition issued in London in 1785, under the name of “Dr. Watts’s Hymns and Moral Songs for the use of Children Revised and Altered ... By a Lady.” It is not until 1794 that I find the now well-known title of Divine and Moral Songs. The twenty-seventh edition (1795) is the last one which I find bearing the number of the edition, although the book continued to be published by the same people or their successors at least until 1821.

From 1785 numerous editions appeared bearing the names of other publishers and “Printed by permission of the Proprietors.” The first edition emanating in Great Britain outside of London, which I have found, was printed in Welsh at Caerfyrddin in 1771, and in 1776 an edition was published from Salisbury in English. A few Dutch items have been included in the British list.

Substantially all of the editions which have come to my attention have on their title-pages the quotation from Matt. XXI, 16, “Out of the mouth of babes, etc.”, but in the following list of editions that quotation is indicated in the interest of brevity, except in the first edition, by a few dashes after the author’s name. Where not so indicated, it is not necessarily to be inferred that it does not so appear, but only that the writer has been unable to verify that appearance.

A date followed by a question-mark in parentheses indicates that the date is doubtful or approximate.

In the following list of editions various references are abbreviated as follows:

A.A. American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Mass.

B. Private collection.

B.A. Boston Athenæum.

B.M. Library of the British Museum.

B.H. Bates Hall Public Library, Boston, Mass.

Bod. Bodleian Library, Oxford.

B.P. Brooklyn Public Library, Brooklyn, N. Y.

Bos. Boston Public Library.

Bro. Brown University Library, Providence, R. I.

Bry. Bryson Library, Teachers College, New York.

Conn. Connecticut Historical Society, Hartford, Conn.

Esx. Essex Museum, Salem, Mass.

Evans. American Bibliography by Chas. Evans, 1903.

Gen. Library General Theological Seminary, New York.

Har. Library of Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.

Hild. The Issues of the Press in Pennsylvania by Chas. R. Hildeburn, 1885.

L.C. Library of Congress, Washington, D. C.

L.I. Long Island Historical Society, Brooklyn, N. Y.

Lown. The Bibliographer’s Manual of English Literature by William Thomas Lowndes, London, 1869.

New. Newberry Library, Chicago, Ill.

Nich. Bibliography of Worcester (Mass.) by Chas. L. Nichols, 1899.

N.L. Free Public Library, Newark, N. J.

N.L.I. National Library of Ireland, Dublin.

NR. indicates that no record of a copy has been found by the compiler.

N.Y. New York Public Library.

N.Y.His. New York Historical Society, New York City.

N.Y.S. New York State Library, Albany, N. Y.

O.P. Private collection.

Penn.His. Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

P.L. Peabody Library, Baltimore, Md.

Peq. Pequot Library, Southport, Conn.

S. Author’s collection.

Trum. List of Books printed in Connecticut, 1709–1800, by James Hammond Trumbull, Acorn Club, Hartford, 1904.

U.T. Union Theological Seminary, New York.

Wat. Watkinson Library, Hartford, Conn.

Yale. Library of Yale University, New Haven, Conn.

FRONTISPIECE.