THE HISTORY OF THE RISE, PROGRESS, AND ESTABLISHMENT, OF THE INDEPENDENCE OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: INCLUDING AN ACCOUNT OF THE LATE WAR; AND OF THE THIRTEEN COLONIES, FROM THEIR ORIGIN TO THAT PERIOD. IN FOUR VOLUMES

London: Printed for the Author; and sold by Charles Dilly, in the Poultry. . ., 1788. Four volumes: [26], 504; [8], 584; [8], 499, [1 blank]; [8], 445, [1, blank], [34- Index], [2 blanks] pp. Complete with nine folding maps: The United States of America; Boston, and its Environs; New York Island, & parts adjacent; The Jerseys, &c. &c; folding map of parts of Canada and New England at rear of Volume 2; The Carolina's, with part of Georgia; A Sketch of the Operations before Charlestown, South Carolina, 1780; The Part of Virginia which was the Seat of Action; Yorktown, and Gloucester Point, as besieged by The Allied Army. Bound in contemporary or near-contemporary marbled paper over boards and half calf, with gilt spine rules and gilt-lettered red morocco spine labels. Lightly foxed, Very Good.

"First full-scale history of this war by an American; to its preparation Jefferson contributed some aid" [Howes]. "Gordon is deservedly reckoned as one of the most impartial and reliable of the numerous historians of the American Revolution" [Sabin]. "Gordon was a dissenting minister in England, who like many of his class sympathized with the contentions of the thirteen colonies. Going to America during the disturbances, and becoming pastor of the church at Jamaica Plain, now a district of Boston, he was throughout the Revolution a spectator close at hand to many important events, and the associate of many of the chief patriots" [Reese].
The List of Subscribers is a veritable Who's Who of important Revolutionary War figures, including John Adams, Marquis de Lafayette, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Samuel Adams, and many other notables.
The volumes were owned by William Chauncey Fowler [1793-1881], with his ownership stamp on the blank upper margin of each volume's title page ["W.C. Fowler"]. Wikipedia has written his biography, calling him "an American scholar." Yale University has his papers, as well as those of the related Chauncey family.
Reese Revolutionary Hundred 86. Howes G256. Sabin 28011. Larned 1341. Gephart 996.