Thaumaturgical Prodigies in the New-English Canaan

By Rev. Ward Phillips. Published in Boston, 1697.

In the title, Thaumaturgy refers to sorcery or the working of miracles. The word Canaan might be used in its figurative sense as a "promised land." More specifically, it may be a reference to The New English Canaan by Thomas Morton (1637). The latter work was "an inspired denunciation of Puritan government in the colonies and their policy of land enclosure against the native population, who were described as a far nobler culture, and defined as a Canaan under attack from the 'New Israel' of the Puritans" [Thomas Morton (colonist), Wikipedia.]. Possibly Phillips was an admirer of Morton's work, which is available in online editions at the Internet Archive and Project Gutenberg.

Thaumaturgical Prodigies in the New-English Canaan includes an excerpt titled Of Evill Sorceries done in New England, of Daemons in No Humane Shape. [HPL Sorceries (online text)]

In Derleth Stories

In Derleth's telling, Of Evill Sorceries is a separate work from Thaumaturgical Prodigies. In the 1920s, Ambrose Dewart found a handwritten copy of Of Evill Sorceries and a reprint edition of Thaumaturgical Prodigies in Billington House. The reprint copy of Thaumaturgical Prodigies was dated Boston, 1801. It was a thick volume, printed in an imitation of black letter, with the long s and other obsolete typographical traits. The date of the original publication is not given, but it could not be 1697 as given in Lovecraft's version, because Derleth's version of the text refers to events in 1787-1788. So in Derleth's version, the book must have been originally published in the years 1788-1801. When the book was first published (or perhaps at the time of the 1801 reprint), Alijah Billington wrote a letter protesting the book to one of the Arkham papers. Later, the author, Ward Phillips, attempted to gather copies of the book and burn them. [AWD Lurker]

In modern times (no later than 1948), Dan Harrop found a copy of Thaumaturgical Prodigies in the collection of his late cousin, Abel Harrop; Dan Harrop remembered vaguely having heard of the book before [AWD Whippoorwills].

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