Ye Olde Newbury Cook Book. Published in the Interests of the Ladies' Benevolent Society

[Newburyport]: Newburyport Commercial Press, 1927. Small octavo (19 x 12.5 cm.), 58, [i] pages. Advertisements interspersed. Title from cover. Additional title (page [1]): Tested, Tried, and True. "This book is issued for the benefit of the Ladies' Benevolent Society of the Oldtown Parish, First Church, Newbury"-page [1]. ~ FIRST EDITION. A church collection with nearly two hundred recipes, the majority attributed. The family of the pastor, Charles Sumner Holton (1866-1939), was not reticent: Parson Holton's Baked Beans; Cusque à la crème (submitted by Nina Holton); Madame Holton's Ginger Snaps; Chocolate Cookies (submitted by Mrs. Chas. S. Holton). Reverend Holton started his tenure in May 1897; Ye Olde Newbury Cook Book may reasonably be assumed to celebrate his thirtieth anniversary. ~ Four parish meetinghouses stood in Newbury by the end of the seventeenth century, under the care of clergy in the orbit of Harvard who preached an understanding of doctrine that would eventually become recognized as Unitarianism. The town itself was first organized as First Parish of Newbury, its first meeting house planted on the lower green in Oldtown. A second replaced it in 1647, now located on the upper green, followed in turn by a third and a fourth until a permanent structure of stone was erected in 1806 on High Road, some two miles north. A disastrous fire challenged the achievement called "permanent" in 1868, but the congregation not only regrouped and rebuilt, but also nurtured its own school. In ensuing years, Unitarian theology suffered the inevitable wounds of conservative defection; in 1967 the First Parish Church of Newbury realligned with the relatively newly instantiated United Church of Christ. ~ Stapled, in green paper wrappers with black and red decoration. Very good. Scarce. [OCLC locates three copies; whether or not there is a connection of this title to an Old Newbury Cook Book published by the Ladies' Benevolent Society in 1909 (one copy reported in OCLC; Cook, page 125; Brown 1353) has not been determined; in neither Brown nor Cagle].