The Note-Maker Noted: Colonial Political Discourse

The Note-maker noted and the observer observed upon, or, A full answer to some notes and observations upon the votes of the House of Assembly of the colony of New-Jersey; Being a vindication of the present, and some former governors, councils and assemblies of the said colony, against the unreasonable cavils of the said observer or note-maker, or as it’s commonly shortened to, The Note-maker noted, is an anonymous response to notes and observations recorded on the votes cast at a meeting of the New Jersey House of Assembly at Burlington, New Jersey, on the 16th of October, 1742.

Background

Historical Context

The Province of New Jersey was one of Great Britain’s Middle Colonies. The province came under English rule in 1664 before becoming a royal colony in 1702. After the Declaration of Independence was issued to Great Britain in 1776, the province became the state of New Jersey. The New Jersey Legislature was established after the province became a colony in 1702 consisting of the appointed upper house Council and the elected lower house General Assembly . On October 16th, 1742, the General Assembly met in Burlington, New Jersey, under speaker of the Assembly, Andrew Johnston. Following the meeting and legislative votes that occurred, a book was published in 1743 called, Extracts from the minutes and votes of the House of Assembly of the colony of New-Jersey To which are added some notes and observations upon the said votes, which contained minutes from the meeting, opinionated notes on these excerpts against the voting results, and former Governor William Burnet’s letter from 20 years prior when he dissolved the assembly. In response to the claims and arguments in the book by the anonymous “Note-maker,” The Note-maker noted was published that same year.

Content

The author follows the arguments and minutes that the note-maker used, rebutting them all both with their own arguments and questioning the note-maker’s legitimacy and expertise on the matter. The reader is expected to have the notes and observations nearby for reference, though the writer occasionally responds to excerpts that are included in the text. Within the text, the author goes through each excerpt, marking them with the minutes’ italicized date at the beginning of a new paragraph, and refutes the note-maker’s claims while also working to defend Governors, both present and past, council members, and other politicians that the note-maker spoke against for their handling of bills of credit, alleged misappropriation of funds, and voting against bills because they might distance the colonies from the British Crown. The writer clarifies the reasons behind the decisions while showing where they believe the note-maker misunderstood or exaggerated an excerpt.

Language

The language within the text is more striking and frank than one might expect, with the tone continually reflecting the author’s outrage and offense taken from the notes and observations. There are various examples of this argumentative language including the few guesses that the writer makes about the note-maker’s identity. The author writes, “One would take him to be a Pretender to the Law,” and “I may mean that he is one of these Politicos…make[s] everything stand for any thing, or any thing for nothing.”. Here the writer is questioning the observer’s credibility through these speculations. When responding to other arguments, the author also includes language such as, “after this, he tells us a dull tale about something,” and “[the note-maker] mentions an old thread-bare controversy…[then] immediately forgets himself and goes on with a long story”. This language may be one reason as to why the writer is anonymous, though they make sure to pick a politically decisive pseudonym by calling themselves “a Lover of True English Liberty,” strongly implying that the note-maker is not.

Provenance

The Curtis Publishing Company, founded in 1891, owned the text along with more than 300 other titles printed by Benjamin Franklin. In 1920, the company donated their collection to the University of Pennsylvania where the collection, including the book, have resided ever since.

Physical Analysis

Substrate & Format & Navigation

The book is small at only 21 cm long, formatted in quarto, and includes 31 total numbered pages and a title page. It is made from laid paper with a front and back pastedown and three flyleaves before and after the text. There is consistent pagination at the top of every page, excluding the title, as well as signatures from A to D starting from the third page. Every right page of a leaf also contains a catchword on the bottom left, a word mirroring the first word on the next page, for the publisher to easily confirm the correct page order.

An Example of a Signature, C2 and Catchword.

Binding & Structure

The book was re-bound as is clearly shown by the contrast between the flyleaves, the original printed pages, and the book’s almost pristine condition. The left side of the third flyleaf also contains evidence of this rebinding with the printed text, “By Benjamin Franklin” in faint, reversed letters that cannot be seen on the other side of the leaf. The book is covered in a bright red leather texture and sewn together with red string.

<gallery mode="traditional"> Image:Note-maker Front Cover.JPG| Front Cover Image:Note-maker Back Cover.JPG| Back Cover

Licensing & Paratexts & Illustrations

On the front pastedown, there is a small piece of paper glued onto the larger page. It includes a central illustration of the book's printer Benjamin Franklin, his name, year of birth, year of death, and images of people around him representing what he was well-known for: printing and demonstrating electricity with a kite. Beneath the illustrations is text labeling the book as part of the Curtis Publishing Company’s collection of Franklin Imprints. This is an example of licensing after the publishing company acquired the book. The back pastedown includes another glued down piece of paper, which states that the book belongs to Penn’s Rare Book Collection. It is dated with “1920,” the year that the book was donated to the University’s library. The only printed text included in the book that is not part of the main content is a printed footnote on the fourth page of the text, instructing the reader to refer to the note-maker’s Extracts while reading since they are too long to include as quotations. This was written by the author as seen in the phrase, “my Remarks,” when referring to the book. There are two printed illustrations. One is on page 3, between the pagination and the title, there is a patterned line found in many Franklin books. There is also an imprint on page 31, below the last block of text, which was used to identify this as a Franklin Imprint.

Marginalia & Annotations

There are some examples of marginalia and annotations in the text. The title page contains the year of publication, “1743” written by hand in the top right hand corner unlike the printed text around it. There are also inked corrections made throughout the text such as “1724” on page 27, “without” on page 15, and “still” on page 22. It is unknown who made these markings, though there is no errata for the reader to correct this themselves so it is likely that the printer made these corrections. Lastly, there is the surname “Bradstreet” written on the top left of a flyleaf in ink. This is most likely to mark who re-bound the book. There are no reader annotations or asemic marks within the text, possibly because it has belonged to a library for much of its life, instead of owned by one person or family.

Author & Publisher

As previously mentioned, the author of the text is named as a “Lover of True English Liberty.” It is still unknown who is behind this name, but it can be inferred that the writer is knowledgeable of the colonial government and assembly, possibly a lawyer or member of the house, though most certainly someone with a higher socioeconomic status. Benjamin Franklin is named as the publisher for both the Extracts and the Note-maker noted, printing both texts in Philadelphia 1743, which has led to very similar appearances for each book. They share many physical features including substrates, formats, paginations, structures, and both have imprints in the same places. This also means that these texts may have been distributed from Franklin in a similar fashion and sold to the same audience.

Historical Significance

The book and its defense of colonial politicians as well as the British Crown is a significant insight into colonial-era government sentiment. At the time, the royal colonies were largely self-governed, though still under Great Britain, which exercised power mainly over colonial legislation. However, the book shows great favor for the British government and King George II, the author often outraged at the note-maker’s arguments that disagree with the monarchy and implications in support of distance from the Crown. Comparing the arguments made in this short book concerning economic bills in support of the King to texts published in 20 and 30 years about British economic bills where the writers fight heavily against the monarchy is especially interesting to glimpse political and economic discourse before the British government grew vastly unpopular and how the book was written under the flag of “English Liberty” before the concept of “Liberty” would come to be known as distinctly anti-English.