A rare treatise by Ambrose Rigge, or how digitising preserves texts
In 1678, an Englishman named Ambrose Rigge wrote a religious treatise entitled “A brief and serious Warning to such as are concerned in Comerce [sic] and Trading who go under the profession of Truth to keep within ye bounds thereof in Righteousness, Justice and Honestie towards all men.” One of the interesting facts about Rigge was that he became a Quaker, convinced by the founder of that faith, George Fox, and was one of the “publishers of truth,” an elegant phrase describing how early Friends got the word out. The original text, a part of which can be viewed below, is unique — no other repository claims to have anything written by Rigge in his own hand, though certainly the published versions are available, including quite a number in the Quaker Collection at Haverford.
At Haverford, we received this unique document on doing business in a righteous manner as part of the transfer of records from the Monthly Meeting of Friends of Philadelphia (Arch Street Meeting) in 2008, and it is now a part of those records, call number S2.17. Unfortunately, it is in fragile condition and missing a significant portion of text. No problem. With access to Early American Imprints, Series II: Shaw-Shoemaker, one can see the entire transcribed text electronically, or at Haverford and Swarthmore Colleges bound with other texts. It is comforting to know that one can access this treatise whenever the need arises.
Tags: Ambrose Rigge