Wing E2157. Relatively common institutionally in both the UK and North America but quite rare at auction.
A shocking account of the supposed behaviour of the Laudian clergyman, Edward Finch who was ousted from his incumbency at Christ Church Newgate after accusations of drunkenness, “Popish practices” and sexual impropriety.
The pamphlet outlines the “evil and scandalous life and conversation” of Finch while vicar of Christ Church Newgate in London noting how he extracts “unreasonable Fees and summes of money” from his parishioners, adopts Catholic practices when administering the sacraments and allows “singing, Organs, and other Instruments of Musicke” in his Church. (p.1-2) One particularly shocking accusation states that Finch, “was so drunke” when asked to deliver the Sacrament to a dying woman, “that there he was not able to pronounce the Lords Prayer…he was not able to rise off from his knees without helpe, nor being up to sit down…” (p.8) Finch later asked the family of the dying woman to leave the room and acted towards her when alone in an inappropriate manner. Finch is also accused of associating with various women in notorious taverns around London, on one occasion, Finch and a number of other men where witnessed in a room with various women: “…this Coachman being called up into the room unto them, saw them all use these women, in his presence, with most vile and obscene gestures, upon beds, even to the utmost of what hands could do under their clothes…“ (p.9). The woodcut frontispiece shows a drunken Finch being led away from a tavern.
The ODNB notes that In August 1641 Finch’s opponenets complained that he had still not been removed from his position and that he may still have been the vicar when he published his own defence, An Answer to the Articles in November 1641.
“Finch admitted his Laudian leanings but denied any pastoral, financial, or sexual impropriety. He denied that he was married, and claimed, apparently with some justification, that some of the evidence presented against him had been fabricated. Yet he was forced to admit that he did swear and had frequented taverns and alehouses. He also admitted that he had suffered imprisonment at some unspecified point during the 1630s, and had twice successfully defended himself in the courts against allegations of sexual misconduct.” (ODNB)
Provenance: 1. Thomas Dimsdale (1712-1800) of The Priory, Hertford, armorial bookplate on the front pastedown, a successful physician who inoculated Catherine the Great for smallpox and was granted a Barony of the Russian Empire still held by his descendants and was M.P. for Hertford, 1780-90. 2. William Henry Ireland (1775-1835), literary forger and writer, his signature “SWH Ireland Jun^r^” in the upper fore-corner of the title-page and note on the front flyleaf “Exceedingly rare”. “Although undoubtedly christened in the names of William Henry, his father habitually called him ‘Sam,’ in affectionate memory, it was asserted, of a dead brother, and he occasionally signed himself ‘Samuel Ireland, junior,’ and ‘S. W. H. Ireland.’” (see old DNB)
