The Stockbridge Bible, Gift of the Rev. Francis Ayscough

Francis Ayscough with the Prince of Wales (later King George III) and Edward Augustus, Duke of York and Albany, by Richard Wilson (died 1782), given to the National Portrait Gallery, London in 1900.

The gift of the Rev. D. Francis Ayscough, to the Indian Congregation at Housatonnic in New England. MDCCXLV

Those are the gold-embossed letters on the cover of both volumes of the Stockbridge Bible. ("MDCCXLV," by the way, is "1745" in Roman numerals.)

It has already been a few years since I wrote a series of blogposts on the Stockbridge Bible, but a few days ago my own "discovery" of the Stockbridge Bible was written up in the Oshkosh Northwestern. So more people are finding out about the Stockbridge Bible for the fist time. Yesterday one of my co-workers asked me about how the Stockbridge Mohicans got their special two-volume Bible.

Before I answer that question here, I want to emphasize that the edition the tribe was given is "generally acknowledged as the most magnificent Bible printed in England." And we can count that as one of several reasons why the Stockbridge Bible is a big deal. But another reason why it has been a big deal is where it came from. That is the story I'm going to re-tell in the remainder of this post.

My source is a book that was printed in 1753. The title is so long that it is usually shortened to "Historical Memoirs," or it may be shortened to "Historical Memoirs Relating to the Housatunnuk Indians." It is available via the Internet Archive (see pages 128 to 132).

 

When our story begins, the elder John Sergeant was the Stockbridge Mohicans' missionary. Timothy Woodbridge was the teacher for an integrated school. But plans were being made for boarding schools for the children of neighboring tribes. An Isaac Hollis of London offered to bankroll the funds for a boys' boarding school and John Sergeant wrote up some kind of a formal open letter, a proposal or "scheme" for raising money to support a similar boarding school for girls.

John Sergeant was fortunate that his letter somehow reached Thomas Coram, a retired sea captain, who had established the world's first incorporated charity, a hospital for orphans. Coram had connections and knew how to raise money.

In Corum's own words he was "charm'd" (page 129) by John Sergeant's idea of a boarding school for girls and he had a book bound, a "subscription book,"  in which his wealthy contacts would essentially sign-up as contributors or subscribers. Coram got a number of wealthy Brits interested, they told him they wanted to contribute, but wanted somebody else to sign his or her name first.

So Captain Coram sought a donation from the Prince of Wales.

Coram was familiar with the protocol of asking the prince for money.  He wrote up a petition and sent it - along with the subscription book - to Colonel John Shute, the Privy Purse to his Royal Highness, who happened to be one of his regular contacts.  However, since John Shute was away from London, he sent Coram's petition and subscription book to Rev. Francis Ayscough, the Clerk of the Closet, essentially a personal chaplain and tutor to the prince.

Ayscough brought the petition and suscription book to Frederick, the Prince of Wales, who put his name at the head of the subscription book, giving twenty guineas to the Stockbridge boarding school project. Meanwhile, Rev. Ayscough

also let him know that he himself designed to make a present of a Bible to the congregation at Stockbridge, which he soon after did; one of the largest sort, finely gilt, bound up in three Vol., large Folio, which now adorns the pulpit at Stockbridge and is made use of for the benefit of the congregation every Lord s Day (page 131).

If anything about this is confusing to you, it might be that there were "three Vol.," not two volumes. At one point there actually were three volumes, the third being the apocraphal books of the Bible which the Puritans in America had no use for. The point at which the three volumes became two volumes can only be speculated on.

However that may be, the two volume Stockbridge Bible meant a lot to the "Indian congregation" over the years. Interpretated strictly, that first congregation was taken over by whites well before the tribe left Massachusetts. Nevertheless, the Stockbridge Bible was a big deal for a long, long time.

 

[mc4wp_form]