Very Rare - the present example is the only known copy. ESTC records one location at the General Theological Seminary in New York, this collection was recently dispersed and the present broadside was bought by Maggs.
The only known copy of a broadside with the text of a hymn to be sung at a fund-raising event for the Episcopal Charity School for children at St Paul’s Church in New York in 1794. Alongside the hymn there is also a description of the school which promises to educate boys and girls of, “…indigent Persons…snatched from Ignorance and Vice, preserved from the Influence of bad Examples…”
The hymns begins with the plaintive plea:
“Sharp are the ills which man infest;
See Sickness, Poverty, and Death
Disturb the weary Trav’ler’s rest,
And snatch at last his fleeting breath!
But CHARITY, celestial Maid,
Descends with blessings from on high:
She speaks - the scourge of woe is staid,
And Songs of praise salute the sky.“
The school - commonly known as Trinity School - was founded in 1709 for the poor children in the parish of Trinity Church in New York City. The text at the foot of the sheet states that the children (both boys and girls) are to be educated in the “Principles of the Christian Religion” as well as “Reading, Writing, Arithmetic and Merchant’s Accounts” (for the boys) and “Reading, Writing, Arithmetic and Needle-work” (for the girls). Once they have been educated the students of the school are to be sent, “to suitable Trades or Services…”
The text ends by imploring the public to contribute further funds and states that from Michaelmas 1793 to Michaelmas 1794 “9 boys and 8 Girls have been regularly discharged…”
