MARSILLAC (Jean). The Life of William Penn, founder of Pensy - Lot 46

MARSILLAC (Jean). The Life of William Penn, founder of Pensylvania; first known legislator of the United States of America. Ouvrage contenant l'historique des premiers fondements de Philadelphie, des loix et de la Constitution des États-Unis de l'Amérique, des principes et actions de la Société des Amis (vulgairement connus sous le nom de Quakers, etc.). À Paris, de l'imprimerie du Cercle social, 1791. 2 volumes in-8, 264 [numbered i to x and 11 to 264] + 294 pp. stapled with printed label on spines, copy with full margins; some occasional broad wetness, stains to title of first volume, tear without missing title leaf of volume II. ORIGINAL EDITION. Highly flattering biography of Quaker William Penn (English father, Dutch mother, Irish possessor), who founded the colony of Pennsylvania in 1681, attracting many persecuted Quakers from Europe. JEAN MARSILLAC SPENT THREE YEARS IN PENNSYLVANIA. Known by variant names such as Jean-Baptiste Lecointe de Marcillac, he was first a captain in the Conti regiment before becoming a doctor. Of Protestant origin, he adopted Quaker principles and petitioned the French National Assembly to allow French Quakers to be exempted from bearing arms, but to no avail: he then stayed in Pennsylvania from 1795 to 1798, where he was part of Quaker Meeting, but returned to France apparently disappointed and abandoned the denomination altogether. Appendix: a French translation of the Constitution Pennsylvania adopted in 1776. The Cercle Social, which printed the work, was headed by Abbé Fauchet and Nicolas de Bonneville, prominent figures of the French Revolution, imbued with mystical, Masonic and egalitarian ideas.