A New History of the New Testament of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ: From His Birth, to the Establishment of Christianity

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by Thomas Stackhouse

A New History of the New Testament of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ
StackhouseHistoryOfNewTestament1765v1TitlePage.jpg

Title page from A New History of the New Testament of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, volume one, George Wythe Collection, Wolf Law Library, College of William & Mary.

Author Thomas Stackhouse
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Published Edinburgh: Printed by Sands, Murray, and Cochran for James Meuros, bookseller in Kilmarnock
Date 1765
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Language English
Volumes 2 volume set
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Desc. 8vo (22 cm.)
Location Shelf A-4
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English religious writer Thomas Stackhouse (1681/2 – 1752) was born at Witton-le-Wear, a small village in County Durham, England, in approximately 1680.[1] Later educated at St. John’s College in Cambridge, Stackhouse served as the headmaster of a grammar school in Hexham until being ordained a priest in 1704.[2] He served as minister of the English church in Amsterdam from 1713.[3] Despite this appointment, Stackhouse lived in poverty for some time until assuming in 1733 the vicarage of Marsh Benham, Berkshire.[4]

Stackhouse had some success supplementing his sparse earnings from the church with paid work for booksellers.[5] After a quarrel with a bookseller left him without a publisher for what is now one of his most recognizable works, A New History of the Holy Bible, Stackhouse published the text himself in 1733.[6] Early editions included the history of the New Testament as part of the text. In some later editions, such as the 1765 London edition owned by George Wythe, the New Testament portion was published separately as A New History of the New Testament of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Illustrated with maps and plates and written in an accessible style for wide reading, A New History of the Holy Bible and A New History of the New Testament of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ had great success as a reliable works of reference. Both during his life and posthumously, Stackhouse’s historical works were frequently reprinted, and his biblical and doctrinal writings reached a wide audience, both in England and abroad.

Evidence for Inclusion in Wythe's Library

Thomas Jefferson listed "Stackhouse's history of the Bible. 5.v. 8vo." in his inventory of Wythe's Library, noting that he kept the set himself. He later sold a combined, six-volume set of A New History of the Holy Bible (1767, four volumes) and A New History of the New Testament of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ (1765, two volumes) by Stackhouse to the Library of Congress. The set still exists and contains manuscript notes in English and Greek attributed to Wythe.[7] Both Brown's Bibliography[8] and George Wythe's Library[9] on LibraryThing include the Library of Congress set as Wythe's former copy. The Wolf Law Library purchased copies of the 1765 and 1767 editions for the George Wythe Collection.

Description of the Wolf Law Library's copy

Bound in contemporary calf. Spine features raised bands, contrasting red and black morocco labels with gilt tooling and lettering. Set accompanies by Stackhouse's 1767 publication, A New History of the Holy Bible as volumes five and six.

Images of the library's copy of this book are available on Flickr. View the record for this book in William & Mary's online catalog.

Full text


Herod's cruely, volume one, page 56.

See also

References

  1. Scott Mandelbrote, "Stackhouse, Thomas (1681/2–1752)" in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, 2004- ), accessed Oct. 11, 2013.
  2. Ibid.
  3. David Nash Ford, "Thomas Stackhouse (1677–1752)," Royal Berkshire History website (Nash Ford Publishing, 2004- ), accessed October 11, 2013.
  4. Ibid.
  5. Mandelbrote, "Stackhouse, Thomas."
  6. Ibid.
  7. E. Millicent Sowerby, Catalogue of the Library of Thomas Jefferson, (Washington, D.C.: The Library of Congress, 1952-1959), 1:293 [no.620].
  8. Bennie Brown, "The Library of George Wythe of Williamsburg and Richmond," (unpublished manuscript, May, 2012) Microsoft Word file. Earlier edition available at: https://digitalarchive.wm.edu/handle/10288/13433
  9. LibraryThing, s.v. "Member: George Wythe", accessed on February 22, 2014.