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TO THE RIGHT WORSHIPFULL
Thomas Watson, And John
Bingley, Esquiers:
P. F. Wisheth all Health
and Happinesse.
As there is nothing more pretious in Man then vertue, so there
is nothing worse then hatefull ingratitude. Though it be farre beyond
my power, to requite, or deserve, the least of your favours, yet would
I not neglect the opportunitie, to expresse my thankefulnesse. Being
thus constrained both by dutie and affection, I hope you will pardon
me for presenting your Worships with this little Booke; howbeit, it
is not mine by Birth, yet it is by Gift, and purchase from the Presse.
I esteeme of it as the best gift I can give, and I cannot give it to any,
to mee more deare then your selves, and worthie Progenie, Friends,
and Well-willers to this noble action, for whose recreation, and true
satisfaction, I have occasioned the Impression, which if it give you
content, my charge and paines is highly recompenced. So dedicating
my best abilities to the exquisite judgement of your right worthie
vertues;
I ever rest your Worships true and faithfull servant.
Philip Fote.
5. Thomas Watson was one of the tellers of the Exchequer and may be the same
man as the Thomas Watson to whom the authorship of Smith's True Relation had been
ascribed. John Bingley was also employed in the Exchequer. Both had been appointed
members of the Council for Virginia under the third charter, Mar. 12, 1612. While the
revised edition of Pollard and Redgrave's Short-Title Catalogue suggests that this dedication
may possibly have been a joke ("as all copies have dedic[ation] To the Hand by
T. A[bbay]"), a Philip Fote (or Foote) did get a license to sell clay for making tobacco
pipes (see Philip L. Barbour, The Three Worlds of Captain John Smith [Boston, 1964], 291,
300, 468).
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