Item #21613 The Holy Family Bible, containing the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament, and the Apocrypha at large: with concise explanatory notes... Illustrated with copper-plates. Bible, English.
The Holy Family Bible, containing the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament, and the Apocrypha at large: with concise explanatory notes... Illustrated with copper-plates.
The Holy Family Bible, containing the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament, and the Apocrypha at large: with concise explanatory notes... Illustrated with copper-plates.

The Holy Family Bible, containing the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament, and the Apocrypha at large: with concise explanatory notes... Illustrated with copper-plates.

Winchester: Printed for the proprietor by John Wilkes, and sold by him, and William Harris, 1774. Hardcover. British bible with Swing Riot association, an important part of the history of popular protest, and a series of 18th century farm worker strikes. With the bookplate of Jacob Gater, a leader of a Berkshire Swing riot, with a motto beneath his name, in ink: "Esse Quam Videri", "to be rather than to seem (to be)".

This bible is possibly from the family of Jacob Gater, one of the farm workers involved in the riots in the British southern rural counties in the 1830s. These men rioted for higher wages and regular work; they destroyed farm equipment, especially threshers, which they saw as the direct cause of their underemployment. Ultimately, hundreds of threshing machines were destroyed, nearly 2,000 laborers were prosecuted, with 19 executed and nearly 500 transported to Tasmania.

Jacob Gater's specific crime was his participation in a riot at Kintbury; he was tried before the Special Commission for Berkshire, at Reading on 27 December 1830 and sentenced to a prison term of 9 months at hard labor.

Although strikes have always been with us, these strikes predated the Chartist Movement strikes across many different industries. The Chartist strikes included demands for fairer wages and conditions and evolved into the first modern general strike. The 1842 Coal miner's strike in Staffordshire is regarded as the first strike; the Swing Riots of the 1830s predate that.

The bible is a rather sumptuous production, with some verses highlighted with pencil marks in the margin. It is not a working man's bible. Thick 4to, not paginated, with copper engraved plates, all edges gilt. Beautifully bound in original period full maroon gilt stamped calf, the spine with gilt raised bands and gilt decorated compartments, inner and outer dentelles. References: ESTC; T091167; Darlow & Moule; 1237. OCLC: 316720664 cites only the National Library of Scotland holding a copy. Very good condition. Item #21613

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