JACOBIN

[George Dyer, poet and English Jacobin, writes to the Earl of Buchan following a visit to his seat, Dryburgh Abbey, Berwickshire.] Substantial Autograph Letter Signed ('G Dyer'), discussing the preparation of his volume of poems and other topics.

Author: 
George Dyer (1755-1841), poet and radical, leading English Jacobin, in circle of Wordsworth, Coleridge, Godwin, Lamb; David Steuart Erskine, 11th Earl of Buchan (1742-1829), Scottish antiquarian
Publication details: 
Cambridge. Undated, but written shortly before the publication of his poems in 1801.
£2,000.00

3pp., 4to. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged, with thin stub from mount neatly adhering. A long, closely written letter of 116 lines, including eight-line postscript at head of first page. Addressed by Dyer on reverse of second leaf: 'To Lord Buchan | Dryburgh Abbey | Berwickshire | Scotland.' Buchan has annotated the reverse of the second leaf: 'George Dyer | Characteristic | while I reasoned with George Dyer in my Library at Dryburgh Abbey on the Economy of Nature and the Providence of God, I said Heaven itself will one day bear witness to my Words.

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[ John Moffatt, Lancashire poet. ] Nine unpublished Autograph Poems (six signed 'J. M.'), including abolitionist poem titled 'Lords and Slaves'. Eight contained in two Autograph Letters Signed to Elijah Ridings, the ninth annotated by Ridings.

Author: 
John Moffatt (d.1830) of Failsworth [ now in Oldham ], Lancashire poet, Jacobin and tailor [ Elijah Ridings (1802-1872), poet and reformer; Henry 'Orator' Hunt (1773-1835), radical politician ]
Publication details: 
One of the letters from Failsworth, Lancashire. The other without place, dated 7 April 1825. 'Poems dating from 1824, 1825 and 1826.
£450.00

Moffatt is an interesting minor figure. In a 1924 piece titled 'Brief History of the Failsworth Pole', Rev. James Smith writes: 'The Jacobins' Club Library was kept in a room next to that in which Ben Brierley was born, and old John Moffatt, tailor, of "Crockey Hall," opposite the Pole, had charge of the Library'. Smith quotes lines which he considers 'remarkable for their patriotism', noting: 'He must have been a mild sort of Jacobin.' A total of sixteen pages, on eight leaves.

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