Political Annals of the Present United Colonies, From Their Settlement to the Peace of 1763; Compiled Chiefly From Records, and Authorised Often By the Insertion of State-papers.

George Chalmers

London, Printed for the author: and sold by J. Bowen, 1780.

Tall 450.  30 x 25 cm. First edition [all published]. Modern quarter leather over marbled boards. Fine binding and cover. Collated. 5 preliminary leaves, 695 pages. Restoration to title page and final page, library blindstamp. Minor marginal soiling. 

George Chalmers (1742 – 31 May 1825) was a Scottish antiquarian and political writer.    Chalmers arrived in Maryland in 1763.  He practiced law in Baltimore.  A staunch loyalist, he fled to England in September 1775 as American revolutionary tensions became untenable.  In London, Chalmers began a literary career and engaged in pamphlet writing for the pro-Tory, anti-American position.  “In 1780 he published his Annals of the Present United Colonies, in which he insisted that the American colonies had always had a subversive desire for independence and that parliament had the right to tax the colonies without their consent.” - Alexander Du Toit, DNB. Colonies covered by Chalmers include: Virginia, New-England, Massachusetts, Maryland, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Hampshire and Maine, Carolina, New York, and Pennsylvania.  Sabin 11766; Howes C 266.