An attempt to land a Bishop in America / designed and engraved for the Political Register.

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An attempt to land a Bishop in America / designed and engraved for the Political Register.
etching and engraving
image: 152 x 97 mm; plate mark: 188 x 125 mm; sheet: 196 x 127 mm
Peel 2485
Provenance: 
Formerly owned by Sir Robert Peel.
Notes: 

"Satire on the attempt to establish an Anglican episcopacy in the American colonies."--British Museum online catalog.
The print appeared in the Political Register, 1769, facing p.119.

Summary: 

A group of angry colonists push away from a quayside a ship named “The Hilsborough” (a reference to Wills Hill, Earl of Hillsborough, Secretary of State who had ordered troops to Boston in June 1768) On the ship is a large carriage with its wheels and a crosier and mitre beside it. A bishop is climbing the rigging saying “Lord, now lettest thou thy Servant depart in Peace” (Archbishop Secker who died in August 1768 had left £1000 to help establish a bishopric in North America). The colonists are shown as advocates of liberty of conscience and religious non-conformism: one waves a large book lettered “Sydney on Government”, another brandishes “Locke”; “Calvins Works” has already been thrown towards the bishop; another colonist waves a flag, topped with the cap of liberty and emblazoned with the words “Liberty & Freedom of Conscience”; a Quaker holds “Barclay's Apology” saying “No Lords Spiritual or Temporal in New England”. A monkey on the quay holds a stone as if intending to throw it at the bishop. A paper lies on the ground lettered “Shall they be obliged to maintain Bishops that cannot maintain themselves”. Cf. British Museum online catalog.

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