The History and Antiquities of the County of Essex.

The Volumes are in Very Good to Fine Condition rebound in modern quarter calf over marbled boards, with the spine divided into seven blind stamped compartments with a red morocco letter-piece in the second compartment from the top. Externally the boards and spine are new, and with little in the way of scuffing or bumping whatsoever. Internally the leaves are generally clean and amply margined, with some mild damp-staining in the lower margins, with some small staining occasionally, with a notable tear in volume I leaf *2F2, and with some small marginal tears otherwise.

Publishing History

Morant’s Essex enjoyed a complicated publishing history. The publisher, Mr. Bowyer issued a Proposals for printing Mr. Morant s History of Essex in 1761, promising a single volume to be issued in three parts. These appeared in 1763, 1764 and 1766, each with their own title page. (our copy contains the title pages for Parts II and III). Then a new title page was issued for the three parts with a date of 1766 (our copy has this in Volume One) along with the plates for the crenelated pavement and Colchester Castle and the plate for Audley end. This volume would become Volume II in 1768.  On Page 626 of volume II can be found the first list of plates that includes Audley End. Audley End was dropped in the plate list for the final 1768 Edition, meaning they had exhausted the supply of plates originally sent out to subscribers. In many copies this plate is missing.

Upon the completion of Volume I in 1768 Subscribers were sent a new title page for Volume II, uniform with the title page for Volume I. On the bottom was printed “The preface and the three Title Pages, that were given with the three parts of this history are to be cancelled; there being a new preface for the first volume.” This is rarely found, and only in exceptionally tall copies, as it is usually cut off in binding. Our copy contains the first line of text.

In 1768 the two volumes were issued together, with 100 copies available in Large Paper, and 500 in Small Paper. However other sources, including Morant, give the total number as 750. There were 229 subscribers, and given the scarcity of copies with parts and the Audley End plate, it seems reasonable that that there were 250 subscriber s copies 1763 – 1766, followed by the large Paper and additional copies of the Small Paper in 1768. This is borne out in that Large Paper copies do not contain any of the cancels.

Please see Historians of Essex by Edward Fitch (google) for a very detailed bibliography.

Philip Morant FSA (6 October 1700, in Jersey – 25 November 1770, in Battersea) was an English clergyman, author and historian.

Ordained in 1722, he began his association with the county of Essex with a curacy at Great Waltham near Chelmsford in 1722. He was the Chaplain of the English Episcopal Church in Amsterdam from 1732 to 1734. In 1737 he became both the Rector of St Mary-at-the-Walls, Colchester as well as Rector of Aldham in Essex. During his time in Colchester, Morant wrote The History and Antiquities of Colchester, published in 1748; and his county history, The History and Antiquities of the County of Essex, published in two volumes between 1763 and 1768. He also conducted a number of excavations of Roman sites in and around the town. He married Anne Stebbing in 1739 and they had a daughter, Anna Maria. In 1755, Philip Morant was elected to the Fellowship of the Society of Antiquaries of London.

Emanuel Bowen (1694 – 8 May 1767) was a Welsh map engraver, who achieved the unique distinction of becoming Royal Mapmaker to both to King George II of Great Britain and Louis XV of France. Bowen was highly regarded by his contemporaries for producing some of the largest, most detailed and most accurate maps of his era. He is known to have worked with most British cartographic figures of the period including John Owen and Herman Moll.

Thomas Bowen was a Welsh engraver of charts. He was the son of Emanuel Bowen map engraver to George II and Louis XV