(AMERICAN REVOLUTION--PRELUDE.) Nathaniel Whitefield. Whitefield's Almanack for the Year of Our Lord 1760. [22 of 24] pages. 12mo, restitched; lacking final leaf, otherwise moderate wear. Newport, RI: James "Franllin," [1759] Contains the first known appearance of "The Patriot's Prayer," which reached greater fame when appended without attribution as an appendix to Paine's Common Sense in 1776. "Let me not faction's partial hate / Pursue to Britain's woe / Nor grasp the thunder of the state / To wound a private foe / If, for the right, to wish the wrong / My country should combine." The reference to Britain was changed to America by the time it was reprinted with Common Sense. See the entry on "American Patriot's Prayer" in John Vile, "Prayer in American Public Life: An Encyclopedia," pages 50-51.
The printer was James Franklin Jr. (1730-1762), running the Newport shop founded by his father and owned by his widowed mother Ann, where his famous uncle Benjamin Franklin had once apprenticed. James in turn had apprenticed with Uncle Ben in Philadelphia. This was the last almanac published by the Franklins in Rhode Island. Alden, Rhode Island 208; Bristol B2089; Drake 12807. Not traced at auction since a 21 June 1917 Scott & O'Shaughnessy sale (possibly this copy). 3 in ESTC.