Holy Bible, The.
Julia Smith's Own Family Bible, Signed and Annotated
Her Translation of the Bible, Inscribed, 1 of 50 Specially Bound Copies
Smith, Julia. The Holy Bible: Containing the Old and New Testaments; translated literally from the original tongues, Hartford, Conn: American Publishing Company, 1876.
8vo; ex-library, with three different library notices pasted to the front pastedown; the first states, "Presented by / Mrs. A. A. Parker / to Fitzwilliam Town Library"; edges of leather rubbed and frayed as are hinges; front cover starting to detach; gilt stamped on spine a bit dull; white paper label with red edging about 1-1/2" x 1" at bottom of spine.
First Edition of the Julia Smith Translation, Presentation copy, Inscribed on the front blank, Presented to the Fitzwilliam Library with / the best wishes of the translator, / Julia E. Smith Parker / Glastonbury February 17th 1882. One of 50 copies only with special binding - this in black blind-tooled leather with title in gilt on spine, from a total issue of 1000 (950 bound in black cloth and 50 bound in (this copy). A most extraordinary association copy presented by Julia Smith to the town library where her husband was from. She married in 1879 when she was 87 and Amos A. Parker was 86. We can only assume that this form of Julia Smith's signature (as Julia Smith Parker) is extremely rare as her marriage was late in life and lasted but seven years.
Together with:
Julia E. Smith's family Bible, Signed and Extensively Annotated with Alternate Translations. The Holy Bible Containing the Old and New Testaments.... .New York: The American Bible Society, 1842.
Folio; 1214 pp.; plus 4 pp. headed "Family Record" with record of her marriage to Amos Parker in her own hand as well as her parents and sisters births and deaths; with a note in her hand detailing her own wishes for burial: “Julia E. Smith to be buried between her / sisters L.A. Smith and A.H. Smith / with J. E. Smith on her grave stone and / birth and death in the same manner as her / sisters. Glastonbury September 15 1882”; in another hand, after her name, "Died March 6 1886, aged 94..."
Julia Smith's family Bible, 1842 printing of The Holy Bible belonging to her, signed by her on the front blank, Julia E. Smith, annotated and translated in pencil and in ink (brown) nearly every page of the Old Testament and in pencil in the New Testament.
A remarkable primary source for Biblical scholarship, apparently unknown. Although references to Julia's own epitaph are in most frequently cited Smith texts, there is no citation as to the source. Bibliographies in the usual texts do not note the existence of Julia Smith's family Bible. Abby (1797-1878) and Julia Smith (1792-1886) were two of five daughters born to Zephaniah Hollister Smith and Hannah Hadassah Hickok Smith. Zephaniah, a Yale graduate, had left the Congregational ministry after concluding that it was against his conscience to receive money for preaching and joined the Christian sect founded in Scotland by John Glas (1695-1773) and his son-in-law, Robert Sandeman (1718-1771), whose followers had settled in Connecticut. Zephaniah was also a lawyer and farmer, and his wife Hannah was an amateur poet, linguist, mathematician and accomplished astronomer. Their daughters shared their independent thought and diversity of interests. While the five daughters had little formal education, their home education was formidable, including a number of languages. Their religious teaching was Sandemanian, following Glas's chief teaching of "Scriptural Authority of Independency.”
Elizabeth Speare notes in "Abby, Julia, and the Cows" (American Heritage 1957) that "at her death...a note was found in her family Bible requesting that she be buried in the family plot between Laurilla and Abby, and that her maiden name only be inscribed on the stone with that of her sisters.” That note, in Julia's hand, appears on the third page of the Family Record. While interviews
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