Abbot, John Emery; Ware, Henry Jr. Sermons of the late Rev. John Emery Abbot, of Salem, Mass. With a Memoir of His Life, by Henry Ware, Jr. Boston: Wait, Greene and Co., 1829. First Edition. [5969]
Quarter black calf black cloth boards, edges worn and scuffed, corner tips rounded, front outer hinge partially cracked at bottom. 8 1/2 x 5 1/4 inches. liv., 362 generally clean pp., foxing on the first and last leaves. 1844 gift inscription from Leverett Saltonstall to daughter Lucy on ffep; 3 pp. Jan. 1, 1844 letter tipped in describing Mr. Salterstall's friendship with and admiration of the Rev. John Emery Abbot, from Leverett Saltonstall to Miss Lucy Saltonstall. Good. Hardcover.
The advertisement to the reader begins, "This present publication has been undertaken by two of the friends of the lamented author...", one of the friends being the writer of the letter tipped in, Leverett Saltonstall.
The letter reads, in part, "Accept from your Father, with the best wishes of the season, this volume of sermons which I assisted in selecting and preparing for the press with the beautiful Memoir of this lamented author, written by his friend, the late honored and lamented, Henry Ware Junr. I can cherish no better wish or hope for my dear children, then trust their lives may be formed on the model of his, for they they will breathe the spirit of his and our divine master and teacher, to imitate whom, was his study and delight. The presentation of this volume excites anew my most warm and tender recollections of the friend whom I loved, and whom I can truly say, young as he was, lamented, for the purity, elevation and excellence of his character - his holy life."
John Emery Abbot (1793-1819) b. & d. at Exeter, NH. A Unitarian minister, he graduated at Bowdoin College in 1810, consequently studying at Cambridge under the direction of the Rev. Dr. Channing in Boston. He was ordained pastor of the Ninth Church in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1815. Although his ministry was brief and encumbered with a pulmonary illness, he was much loved by his congregation and made a profound impression upon them through his simplicity and sincerity. "Several years after Mr. Abbot's death, there was published a volume of his Sermons, along with a Memoir of his life, by the late Rev. Dr. Henry Ware, Jr. The Sermons are characterized by classic purity of style, and great seriousness and fervour; and, as they all on general subjects, they furnish no index to the writer's peculiar views of Christian doctrine [i.e. his Unitarianism]." - Sprague, Annals of the American Pulpit, vol. 8 pp. 469-70.
Rev. Abbot traveled to Havana as part of a tour intended to improve his health; "Extracts from a journal at Havana," pp. (xxxi.)-liv.
The owner and collaborator in the publication of the book, who wrote the letter tipped in, was Leverett Saltonstall.
Leverett Saltonstall (1783-1845) b. Haverhill, MA; d. Salem, MA. He was educated at Philips Exeter Academy and at Harvard University, graduated from that institution with a law degree. He took up practice in Salem, Massachusetts, and served at various times as a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, the Massachusetts Senate, as a Whig in the United States Congress (1838-1843), as the first mayor of Salem, and as an overseer of Harvard University.
