The Holy Bible, by BIBLE; English; Authorized version - 1768: containing the Old and the New Testaments; newly translated out of the original tongues, and with the former translations diligently compared and revised, by His Majesty's Special Command.

Cambridge: Printed by John Archdeacon; and sold by John Beecroft, John Rivington, Benjamin White, and Edward Dilly, in London; and T. & J. Merrill, in Cambridge., 1768. An imposing Georgian Bible A handsomely printed Georgian Bible in a grand period binding with a striking frontispiece by Charles Grignion after Francis Hayman. This copy was bound for the Liverpool merchant John Sparling (1731-1800). Sparling had interests in privateering and land speculation and served as the Mayor of Liverpool; he was also a trader of enslaved persons. Both volumes are lettered in gilt on the front cover "John Sparling, Esqr." with dark brown morocco labels lettered "St. Domingo House, 1790. Lancashire". The first volume records a brief family genealogy to 1815 on the verso of the front free endpaper, and the second bears the armorial bookplate of his son, William Sparling (1777-1870). William was infamous for his involvement in the murder of Edward Grayson, a ship builder, in a dual in 1804. The subsequent trial attracted much public attention and was recorded in The Trial at Large of William Sparling and Samuel Martin Colquitt (1804). St. Domingo House was first built in the 1750s by George Campbell (d. 1769). Like Sparling, Campbell was a trader of enslaved persons and named the property after his capture of a ship near the island of St. Domingo in the Caribbean. Sparling purchased the property in 1773 and remodelled it in the classical style in 1793; however, he spent little time there, preferring his residences in the city centre. The mansion was sold as a result of William Sparling's trial and was eventually demolished in the 1930s. On the site now stands St Edward's College, formerly a boys' grammar school established in 1853 by the Congregation of Christian Brothers. "John Sparling was in partnership with William Bolden in the Virginia trade from the 1750s, importing turpentine, tar and tobacco and exporting salt, hardware and woollen goods. Sparling also had interests in at least 29 slaving voyages between 1767 and 1793 […] His career sheds light on the mentality of the mercantile community and their attitude to wealth and status. It has long been assumed, for example, that social status was keenly sought alongside commercial success and that the profits of the trade, including slaving, were invested in country estates for this purpose. Yet for most of his 40 years in business Sparling resided in a large house in Duke Street, with his counting house to the rear in Henry Street. His partners, Bolden and, in the 1770s, the timber merchants, Edward Mason and Cornelius Bourne, all lived in the same fashionable area of south Liverpool. During this period, he also served as High Sheriff of Lancashire (1785) and Mayor of Liverpool (1770 and 1790) […] The 'indolent' life of a country gentleman may have been unappealing to a man steeped in 'the bustle of commerce'" (Longmore, pp. 47-8). One volume bound as two, quarto (310 x 243 mm). Contemporary red morocco, richly gilt spines incorporating floriate and drawer-handle motifs, dark green and olive green morocco twin labels, sides with gilt Greek key border enclosing broad gilt border of repeated fan and urn motifs, all edges gilt, gilt roll tool turn-ins, marbled endpapers, broad sage green silk bookmarks. Frontispiece by Grignion after Hayman; printed in double columns. A few scrapes and light abrasions to bindings, couple of old ink stains to front cover of volume II, corners lightly bumped. A very good set. Herbert 1188. Jane Longmore, "Rural Retreats: Liverpool Slave Traders and Their Country Houses", in Madge Dresser and Andrew Hann, eds., Slavery and the British Country House, 2013.