A Defence of the Charter, and Municipal Rights of the City of London

1683. London, 1683.. London, 1683. An Essay Attacking the Duke of York with a Manuscript Essay Attacking One of the Duke's Opponents Hunt, Thomas [1626/7-1688]. A Defence of the Charter, And Municipal Rights of the City of London. And the Rights of Other Municipal Cities and Towns of England. Directed to the Citizens of London. London: Printed and Are to be Sold, by Richard Baldwin, Near the Black Bull in the Old-Bailey, [1683]. [ii], 46 pp. Quarto (7-1/4" x 5-3/4"). Stab-stitched pamphlet bound into recent quarter cloth over stiff wrappers, gilt title to front cover. Light toning to interior, dampstaining to lower corner of text block, light soiling to title page, 5 pp. essay in early hand to rear endleaves, its content affected slightly by trimming. $500. * Only edition, one of two issues from 1683. This essay "lashed out against the Duke of York and his minions. Once the popish successor became king [James II], Hunt asserted, the governments of all the once corporate towns, whose charters were lost, would be put in the hands of the papists whose ultimate aim was the extirpation of the Protestant religion" (Zook). The other issue has a title page with the phrase "City of London" in a different typeface, but is otherwise identical. Probably written around 1712, the manuscript essay is a vehement attack on the character of Thomas Osborne, 1st Duke of Leeds [1632-1712] in the form of an obituary. Also known as Lord Danby, he was a cunning, somewhat corrupt politician who enjoyed a long career that was interrupted by an impeachment that put him in the Tower of London until he was released by James II. Danby went on to oppose James II and was one of the "Immortal Seven," the group, consisting of six nobles and the Bishop of London, that invited William of Orange to depose him. Counting both issues, OCLC locates 3 copies in North American law libraries (University of Michigan, University of Minnesota, University of Pennsylvania). Zook, Radical Whigs and Conspiratorial Politics in Late Stuart England 44. English Short-Title Catalogue R226384. (Inventory #: 81824)