DISCOURSE, Delivered before the Humane Society of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, at the Semi-Annual Meeting, Eleventh of June, 1793, A.

Boston: Printed at the Apollo Press by Belknap and Hall, 1793. Illustrated by Publisher mark on full title and head vignette. First edition. Stitched wraps with original cover entitled "Mr. Clarke's Discourse to the Humane Society". Inscribed by "To the Hon. Jame (s)? Wingate, Stratham. N. Hamp. [New Hampshire] from his humb. Serv.t [humble servant] J Clarke". Large Post 8vo (21,7cm). pp. 36 (the end). About very good. Cover chipped at bottom, cinder mark penetrating first four pages (at margin), then disappearing as a foxed spot for the next five. Small amounts of foxing or staining visible throughout, tightly bound. The Society was established in 1786 due to the efforts of a group of Bostonians meeting in the "Bunches of Grapes" Tavern 1785. They wished to find ways to prevent the needless death and drowning from shipwrecks. Modeled after the British Society, they elected James Bodwoin (Massachusetts Governor and founder of Bowdoin College) as the first president. The original trustees were the author, and Reverends Aaron Dexter and Samuel Parker, Rev. Dr.'s Simeon Howard and John Lathrop, Doctors Aaron Dexter, John Warren, Thomas Welsh and Benjamin Waterhouse, and Judge Oliver Wendell. They were the first to employ a "PR campaign" (like the semi-annual meeting speeches), hospital funding, research, innovative life saving techniques, rescue huts and boats, swimming instruction to students and a (three tier) Medal Awards program with a stipend for saving a life*. Incorporated in 1791, and to this day, the society's efforts served as the model for the US Coast Guard...from the website. Genealogical information on the Wingate Family in America mentions a John Wingate (1636) settling in New Hampshire in 1658 with no trail until The Portsmouth (NH) Times, article of 1900 reporting on an incident of 1869 recalled by the Hon. J.S.A. Wingate of Stratham who was US Consul at Swatow and Foo Choo, China for 25 years involving [possibly a much later descendant of the inscribed]. *pp. 35-6 lists the stipend amounts awarded from June 1792 to June 1793 for saving persons as well as the Board and Honorary members, letters of William Lyman, extracts of letters from Dr. William Hawes of the Royal Humane Society, as well as Dr. Benjamin Rush and Thomas Russell Esq (President) letters in an Appendix to Clarke's speech of 21 pages (pp. 7-28). (Evans 25303, Sabin 13424-2nd also)..