ROBERTS, Samuel Autobiography and Select Remains of the late Samuel Roberts. London, Longman et al., 1849.
8vo. Full crushed brown morocco of the 1870s by Dawson & Brailsford of Sheffield, ornamented in blind and gilt, spine with raised bands, ornamented and lettered in gilt, all edges gilt, inner dentelles gilt, marbled endpapers; pp.iv, 245, stiple-engraved portrait-frontispiece; lower cover with one spot, internally foxing at the geginning and the end; otherwise a good copy of a great rarity, ownership inscription, S. Roberts, presumably the author's son, dated 1874, on initial blank.
First edition. Samuel Roberts 1763-1848 was a Sheffield social campaigner and writer. 'Roberts was the author of a large number of books, pamphlets, broadsheets, and contributions to the press, dealing with such subjects as war, capital punishment, game laws, slave trade, lotteries, drunkenness, poor laws, child labour, Chartism, and all that he thought unjust or tyrannical. In 1804 he was made overseer of the poor. In 1806 he was one of the founders of an association for the abolition of the use of 'climbing boys' as chimney sweeps. His involvement with this campaign, as well as his opposition to slavery and to the state lottery, brought him into friendship with William Wilberforce. He was also a close friend of James Montgomery, the poet' (ODNB).
COPAC locates only five copies in British Libraries.
#2116826