Comprising 448 volumes, this handwritten catalogue of an 1826 private collection belonging to George Allen (1800-1877) reflects his intense religious faith. Allen, the first solicitor to receive his training in New South Wales, was a leading member of the Methodist Society, the Wesleyan Missionary Society, the Sydney Bethel Union, the Religious Tract Society, the British and Foreign Bible Society, and the Temperance Society. That Allen expected his library to increase is reflected by the fact that he continued to number his catalogue up to volume 519. Some handwritten notes on the final page of the catalogue record any books borrowed and/or returned by third parties.
As one might expect, Allen’s private library is primarily made up of law books (including legal dictionaries, and books of pleadings, precedent, and practice) and religious books (including bibles, psalm books, catechisms, sermons, and periodicals, such as The Methodist Magazine). Of note are the large number of works by Swedenborg and Wesley. Other works in the collection include histories by Robertson, Hume, and Gibbon; ancient histories such as Plutarch’s Lives; biographies and memoirs; periodicals such as The Spectator and Imperial Magazine; general literature such as Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations (1776) and the Methodist missionary Thomas Coke’s History of the West Indies (1808-11); scientific works by Newton and others; and a collection of poetry and drama including the collected works of Shakespeare, Milton, Dryden, Cowper, Burns, and Byron, as well as James Thompson’s The Seasons (1730). The only works of fiction in the collection are Sterne’s Sentimental Journey (1768) and three novels by Smollett.
PF
