Seven Years of My Life, or A Narrative of A Patriot Exile. Who
Item #64420
MARSH, Robert. Seven Years of My Life, or A Narrative of A Patriot Exile. Who Together with Eighty-Two American Citizens Were Illegally Tried for Rebellion in Upper Canada in 1838, and Transported to Van Dieman's Land.... Buffalo: Faxon & Stevens, 1848. 207pp., including one full-page illustration. Original black cloth, stamped in gilt and blind. Worn at spine ends and corners, cloth a bit stained, neatly rebacked with original spine laid down. Very faint tideline throughout. Very good. In a cloth case, leather label. An exceptionally rare firsthand account of the Canada Rebellion of 1837-1838, and the experiences of an American participant who was imprisoned and sent to Tasmania. Marsh was one of eighty-two Americans convicted of aiding the Canadian rebels. Captured after the Battle of Prescott, he was detained at Toronto and Kingston before being sent to Van Diemen's Land. Sent aboard the British prison ship, Buffalo, he reached Hobart Town in February, 1840. Marsh was pardoned in 1845 and returned to Buffalo the next year. He describes in detail his imprisonment in Canada, the voyage to Tasmania, and the "cruel and unmerciful treatment during five years of unmitigated suffering on that detestable prison island." Also of interest is Marsh's description of Tasmania, its inhabitants and products. The illustration is a woodcut of the burning of the steamship Caroline. "The most detailed, most graphic, and most valuable of the narratives of exiles to Van Diemen's Land" - Severance. "Rarest of the Canadian Prisoner Narratives" - Ferguson. Ferguson notes one known copy, that formerly in the collection of Dr. C. Craig of Launceston, Tasmania, bearing a 1847 publication date. That copy sold at auction in 1975 for $3871. The copy of the 1848 edition of this title described by Ferguson is stamped in gold on the front board "New Book of Martyrs." Our copy is stamped in gold on the front board "Patriot Exile." Not in Lande, Sabin, or TPL. Quite rare and desirable. HOWES M307, "aa." FERGUSON 4822. SEVERANCE, UPPER CANADA REBELLION, p.471. SEVERANCE, BUFFALO IMPRINTS, p.601.
Price: $17,500.00