“Foreword” in “Henry Newman’s Salzburger Letterbooks”
Foreword
THE Wormsloe Foundation is a non-profit organization chartered on December 18, 1951, by the Superior Court of Chatham County, Georgia. In the words of its charter, “The objects and purposes of this Foundation are the promotion of historical research and the publication of the results thereof; the restoration, preservation and maintenance of historical sites and documents and the conduct of an educational program in the study of history in the State of Georgia, and in states adjoining thereto.”
As its first important activity, the Foundation has begun the publication of a series of historical works and documents under the title of “Wormsloe Foundation Publications.” They will consist of important manuscripts, reprints of rare publications, and historical narratives relating to Georgia and the South. The first volume appeared in 1955, written by E. Merton Coulter, the General Editor of this series, and entitled Wormsloe: Two Centuries of a Georgia Family. This volume gives the historical background of the Wormsloe Estate and a history of the family which has owned it for more than two and a quarter centuries.
The second publication of the Foundation was The Journal of William Stephens, 1741-1743 and the third volume was The Journal of William Stephens, 1743-1745, which is a continuation of the journal as far as any known copy is extant. However, there is evidence that Stephens kept up his journal for some years after 1745. Both of these volumes were edited by the General Editor of the Wormsloe Foundation series, and were published in 1958 and 1959 respectively.
The fourth volume of the series was the re-publication of the unique copy of Pat. Tailfer et al., A True and Historical Narrative of the Colony of Georgia … With Comments by the Earl of Egmont, in the John Carter Brown Library of Brown University. In this publication there appeared for the first time in print the comments of Egmont. With the permission of Brown University, this volume was edited by Clarence L. Ver Steeg of Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois.
The fifth volume in the series of Wormsloe Foundation Publications was the long-missing first part of Egmont’s three manuscript volumes of his journal. It was edited by Robert G. McPherson of the University of Georgia. This volume contains the journal from 1732 to 1738, inclusive, and is owned by the Gilcrease Institute of American History and Art, who gave permission for its publication.
In 1963, the Foundation published its sixth volume, The Journal of Peter Gordon, 1732-1735, which was edited by the General Editor of the series. Gordon came over with Oglethorpe on the first voyage, and he began his journal when he left England. The original manuscript was acquired by the Wormsloe Foundation in 1957, and was presented to the University of Georgia Library.
The seventh volume in the series was Joseph Vallence Bevan, Georgia’s First Official Historian. It is a departure from the previous five volumes, which were documentary, and was written by the General Editor. It brings to light a historiographer who was appointed Georgia’s first official historian by the state legislature.
The present volume, Henry Newman’s Salzburger Letterbooks, begins a series which might be called a series within the Wormsloe Foundation series, for it is to be followed by several volumes of translations of Urlsperger Reports (Ausführliche Nachrichten. … edited by Samuel Urlsperger, Halle, 1735ff, and dealing with the Georgia Salzburgers). This volume is transcribed and edited by George Fenwick Jones of the University of Maryland, who, also, will edit future volumes of the Salzburger translations.
E. MERTON COULTER
General Editor
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