Men and Manners in Britain; or, a Bone to Gnaw for the Trollopes, Fidlers, Etc. Being Notes From a Journal, on Sea and on Land, in 1833-4.
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Mark Twain once famously said "there was but one solitary thing about the past worth remembering, and that was the fact that it is past and can't be restored." Well, over recent years, The British Library, working with Microsoft has embarked on an ambitious programme to digitise its collection of 19th century books.
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Forty Years' Residence in America: Or, the Doctrine of a Particular Providence Exemplified in the Life of Grant Thorburn. Written by Himself
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Laurie Todd's Notes On Virginia: With A Chapter On Puritans, Witches And Friends (1848)
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Fifty years' reminiscences of New-York or Flowers from the garden
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Grant Thorburn was an American seedsman and author.
Background
Thorburn was the son of James and Elizabeth (Fairley) Thorburn. He was born on February 18, 1773 near Dalkeith, Scotland, amid scenes made famous by Sir Walter Scott in The Heart of Midlothian. His mother died when he was two and a half years of age, and he says that it was the carelessness of a nurse that caused him to be dwarfed in stature, and to have short, feeble legs. His father was a maker of nails by hand, and, notwithstanding his handicap, Grant learned the trade and became expert at it, claiming on one day to have made 3, 222 nails between 6 A. M. and 9 P. M.
Career
In 1792 he took part in a radical agitation for parliamentary reform, and was imprisoned on a charge of high treason, but was later released with a warning. To escape the odium which he believed he had incurred, he set sail for New York City, and landed in June 1794. He immediately found work as a nailer. With his wife as shopkeeper he set up a small business in notions in his home and continued his nail-making.
The invention of the nail-cutting machine deprived Thorburn of an occupation, and he started a small grocery business in his home. Having painted some flower pots one day to encourage their sale, it occurred to him that some growing plants in them might also be attractive to customers.
He became interested in plants (which he had never noticed before), and after buying a number of them from a gardener, he began to have inquiries for the seed. It was thus that Thorburn, about 1803, became the first seedsman of any consequence in America, and came to found a business that functioned for more than a century. An English seed catalogue fell into his hands, and after studying it he issued one of his own in 1812, The Gentleman and Gardener's Kalendar for the Middle States of North America, the first in American history. He continued issuing these catalogues and manuals at intervals throughout his career.
In 1808 he purchased a farm in New Jersey to grow his own seed, but it failed after he had sunk all his earnings into the venture, and he spent a time in debtors' prison. In 1816 he made a fresh start as a seedsman, and was soon on his feet again, prospering from that time on. Thorburn now indulged his liking for mingling with prominent and intellectual people of all casts of thought, and jeopardized his standing with his church by cultivating an acquaintance with Thomas Paine.
He also took to writing. A popular novel of the time, Lawrie Todd (1830), by John Galt, was said to have been founded on his life-story, and he assumed Lawrie Todd as a pen name. He wrote many articles and sketches for newspapers and magazines, displaying in them keen observation, and whimsical or bitter humor. Some of these were published collectively under the title Sketches from the Note-book of Lawrie Todd (1847). His principal works were Forty Years' Residence in America (1834); Fifty Years' Reminiscences of New-York (1845); Men and Manners in Great Britain (1834); The History of Cardens and Carver (1847); Laurie Todd's Notes on Virginia; with a Chapter on Puritans, Witches and Friends (1848); and an autobiography, Lawrie Todd, Life and Writings of Grant Thorburn (1852).
He spent the last eight years of his life in New Haven, Connecticut, where he died.
(This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of th...)
Connections
He met a charming girl, Rebecca Sickles, and was married to her in June 1797. Rebecca died in 1800, leaving her husband with a young child.
"Thinking it more creditable and wise to marry a wife than to hire a housekeeper, " wrote Thorburn later, "I again entered into that state in 1801". This wife, Hannah Wortemby, lived until 1852.
On June 12, 1853, at the age of eighty, he was married to his third wife, Maria. His business was carried on by his sons and grandsons.