The CHILDREN In The WOODS: Being a True Relation of the inhuman Murder of Two Children of a deceased Gentleman in Norfolk .... this wicked Uncle ... contrived to have them destroyed by two Ruffians ...
[Boston]: Sold at the Bible & Heart, in Cornhill. (n. d.). Ca 1785. 1st printing thus, and evidently the 3rd US edition (Evans 19401; Ford 3015; Rosenbach 101). Single sheet, verse in thirty-eight stanzas, triple column. First line: "Now ponder well, you parents dear." Followed by two additional stanzas of verse entitled: "A Word of Advice to Executors." Crude woodcut of the fighting ruffians, to the left of the sub-title. Folio. 12-1/2" x 8-1/8". Now housed in an archival mylar sleeve. Edgewear & worming, with some minor loss of text. Faint fold lines. Unobtrusive expert tissue mends. In lower margin, in a period hand, is inked: "Lycia Pratts Verses". A Fair - Good copy. Item #41475
A popular childhood ballad, first registered at Stationers' Hall in 1595, the piece also subsequently published as "The Babes in the Woods."
Shipton & Mooney record the first US edition as 1768(?), followed by the Heart & Crown imprint of the 1770s (no copy located, though see Rosenbach 64), then this Bible & Heart version, ca 1785 (date from Evans).
A quite rare 18th C. US children's broadside.
Price: $3,500.00