The History Of New Hampshire, By Jeremy Belknap, A.M., Member of the American Philosophical Society held at Philadelphia for promoting useful Knowledge … Ovid … Philadelphia: Printed For The Author By Robert Aitken, In Market Street, Near The Coffee House. M.DCC.LXXXIV [1784] In three volumes. With “18th of June, 1784” on the copyright page, the books are 3/4 bound, with five raised bands, six compartments with gilt lettering on red and black labels and gilt devices on the spine, marbled boards, blank endpapers, and marginalia. A first edition set from 1784 through 1792, with the folding map in Volume II present. Belknap was a clergyman and historian who graduated from Harvard in 1762 and became one of the founders of what later became the Massachusetts Historical Society, the Dictionary of American Biography calls it an important and outstanding work, and this is a first edition set which is very difficult to obtain. Volume I is about “Comprehending The Events Of One Complete Century From the Discovery Of The River Pascataqua”, with a four-page Preface (iii - vi), two pages of Contents (vii - viii), 361 pages of text, an eighty-four page Appendix, and it has all the cancels from B to Ff2. There are a couple of old tape shadows on the front paste-down, light browning marks at the bottom of the title page, a little offset here and there, otherwise the text pages and margins are very clean, and slight loss at the bottom of page Lxxvii in the Appendix at the rear. Volume II is titled “Comprehending The Events Of Seventy Five Years, From MDCCXV To MDCCXC. Illustrated By A Map”, and it was printed at Boston For The Author By Isaiah Thomas And Ebenezer T. Andrews, Faust’s Statue, No. 45, Newbury-Street, MDCCXCI [1791], and this volume has the fold-out “New Map Of New Hampshire By Jeremy Belknap 1791” in front (the map has foxing, a two-inch tear and a piece of tape on the backside of the map), an eleven page Preface (A2 - xiii), three pages of Contents (xiv - xvi), 481 pages of text, and an eleven-page Appendix that includes a copy of a letter from George Washington to Thomas Chittenden at the end of the Appendix, for a total of 493 pages, corrections to the first and second volume listed on the last leaf, with uncorrected errata, and it has all the cancels from A2 through Gg4. There is narrow loss along the left edge of page 146 and a small chip at the corner of page 161. (The corrections on the last leaf in this volume also call for an error on page 228, line 20; it says “for Major, read Brigadier”, and we can’t find hide nor hair of either word on line 20. All the other errors are present and uncorrected Volume III is titled “Containing A Geographical Description Of the STATE; with Sketches Of Its Natural History, Productions, Improvements, And Present State Of Society And Manners, Laws And Government … MDCCXCII [1792], with a five-page Preface (numbered 3 - 7 in Arabic numbers), one page of Contents, 334 pages of text and an Appendix for a total of 480 pages altogether, followed by a seven-page list of Subscribers and an errata leaf at the end, and the errors are uncorrected. The subscriber list starts with George Washington and John Adams as President and Vice President of the United States and includes Rufus King, Robert Morris and nine other Senators, J. Q. Adams, John Trumbull, and James Madison, among others, and this volume has all the cancels from B through Gg2. There is a chip in the lower corner of page 203 and narrow loss on the edge of 409 and at the tip on pages 413 and the bottom of 414. Rebacked in period-style calf, the bindings measure 8 1/4 x 5 1/2 in. wide and are clean and tight, the spines and tips of the covers show no wear, and aside from the occasional offset, a very attractive set for someone who collects early New England or early American history. See Sabin 18344. #55 #1709