Gatchell's autobiography is a story of moral collapse and salvation

The Disenthralled: Being Reminiscences in the Life of the Author; His Fall From Respectability, By Intemperance-- And Rescue by the Washingtonian Society: Containing, also, His Life as a Sailor, Shipwreck and Residence Among the Savage Tribes of New Holland; Remarks on America.

Troy, N. Y: From the Press of N. Tuttle, 1845.

Price: $1,000.00


About the item

First edition thus, third edition (enlarged) [Ferguson No. 4033]; 1845 enlarged edition (with 78 pages of text) [originally published in 1843 as an eight-page address, entitled 'A Reply to clerical opposition; or Washingtonian societies defended on scripture grounds in an address delivered before the Washington Temperance Society, Troy, on Sunday evening, January 22, 1843' (Printed at the Mirror Office), and re-issued in a second edition by N. Tuttle in 1844 (with 59 pages of text). 78 pp. 32mo. Gatchell's autobiography is a story of moral collapse and salvation. Brown cloth boards with bright gilt lettering on front cover, the binding is moderately rubbed on the spine and extremities of covers with a few small spots of wear on front. Former owner's early pencil name on front flyleaf, moderate (uneven) foxing on endpapers and title page (text is quite fresh and clean); overall a very good copy.

Item #346260

Joseph Gatchell was born in Ireland to parents that were members of the Religious Society of Friends (later known as Quakers). Disenthralled was ritten while Gatchell was involved in the temperance movement and it correspondingly adopts that tone. The book details the personal journey of Joseph Gatchell's descent into alcoholism, his early exposure to Irish whiskey, while living in Dublin, his loss of employment as a bank clerk, enlistment as a 'private soldier' (encouraged by an Enniskillen Dragoon), stating "... I resolved to seek a home in happy New York... and embarked on board the ship Scotland, for New York..." Nevertheless, Gatchell was a well-travelled rogue before seeing the light. He became involved with the Washingtonian movement, which preceded Alcoholics Anonymous by almost a century. He also relates his visits to Australia, America, and elsewhere. The little known wreck of the Governor Endicott at Geographe Bay in Western Australia is also discussed.