To George Washington from Clement Cruttwell, 1 May 1794
From Clement Cruttwell
England Wokingham, Berkshire May 1st 1794
Sir
By the will of the late Dr Wilson Prebendary of westminster & Rector of S. Stephens Walbrook in London I was directed to transmit to your Excellency a Copy of his Fathers Works the Venerable Bishop of Sodor & Man; and the English Bible in which are contained the notes of that good Bishop.1 I have yet delayed to fulfill the desire of my mind that I might at the same have the honour of requesting a place in your Library for a work of my own A Concordance, by me intended as a Companion to the Bible,2 that you may long enjoy the Honours you have well deserved in a country of peace & Prosperity is the fervent wish and prayer of Your Excellency’s Most Obedient Servant and Admirer
Clement Cruttwell
ALS, DLC:GW. The cover is addressed to Washington, "President of the Congress"; a note on the cover reads, "by the Theresa Capn. Atkinson." A postal stamp reads "15 JY." The recent arrival of the Theresa at Philadelphia was noted in the 16 July issue of the Philadelphia Gazette and Universal Daily Advertiser.
Clement Cruttwell (1743-1808) was a surgeon at Bath, where he apparently acted as physician to Thomas Wilson, Jr. In a career change, in 1780 he matriculated at St. Mary Hall, and soon after he was ordained. In the 1790s he compiled gazetteers of France and the Netherlands as well as The New Universal Gazetteer; or, Geographical Dictionary (London, 1798).
1. Thomas Wilson, Jr. (1703-1784) was ordained in 1731 and obtained appointments as royal chaplain and as rector of the combined parishes of St. Stephen’s, Walbrook, and St. Bennett’s (Benedict’s), Sherehogg, in 1737. His appointment as a prebendary to Westminster came in 1743. He was appointed curate of St. Margaret’s, Westminster, in 1763. His father, Thomas Wilson (1663-1755), was installed as bishop of the Church of England diocese of Sodor and Man (on the Isle of Man) in 1697 and served to his death. The Works of the Right Reverend Father in God Thomas Wilson, D.D., Lord Bishop of Sodor and Man, edited by Cruttwell, had appeared in several printings since the first edition (2 vols., Bath, England, 1781). GW acknowledged receipt of this book in his letter to Cruttwell of 10 July 1795: "It has so happened—but really I can hardly tell how—that I have been very deficient in not acknowledging, at an earlier period the receipt of your obliging favor of the 1st of May last year, accompanying a copy of the Works of the venerable Bishop of Sodor & Man; which, agreeable to the Will of the late Doctor Wilson (his Son) you had the goodness to send me.
"Accept now, I pray you Sir, my thanks for the part you have executed in this business; and the assurances that my not having done it before did not proceed from want of respect to the memory of the Author—his son—or yourself; but to mere accident" (ALS, CSmH).
Cruttwell apparently also sent The Holy Bible; containing the books of the Old and New Testaments, and the Apocrypha. Carefully printed from the first edition (compared with others) of the present translation. With notes, by the Right Reverend Father in God, Thomas Wilson, D.D., Lord Bishop of Sodor and Man. And various renderings, collected from other translations by the Reverend Clement Cruttwell, the editor (3 vols., Bath, England, 1785).
2. Cruttwell’s A Concordance of Parallels, collected from Bibles and Commentaries, which have been published in Hebrew, Latin, French, Italian, Spanish, English, and other Languages; with the Authorities of each (1790) was in GW’s library at the time of his death (Griffin, Catalogue of the Washington Collection, 63).