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MANOAH SIBLY. 1219
The Editor of these Documents well recollects the appearance of
the old man with a young wife at one of the Conventions of the
New Church held in Philadelphia some time between 1850 and 1855.
He presented himself there, as one of the oldest members of the
New Church, and as the inventor of the ever-pointed pencil, and of
the everlasting gold-pen, and of a great many other things, which
were described in a little magazine, which he circulated among the
members of the New Church. At that time he lived at Rahway,
New Jersey; and he hoped that he would obtain subscribers enough
for his little magazine, to enable him and his wife to live on the
proceeds ofits sale. He received some assistance from the New Church
friends, but insufficient to support his magazine, the second number
of which only appeared. Some time afterwards the news of his death
was circulated. He died in want and poverty.
NOTE 240.
MANOAH SIBLY.
The Rev. Manoah Sibly was for a long time the custodian of
those MSS. of Swedenborg which had been brought to England in
1788 by Mr. Wadström, and on that account his name is frequently
mentioned in Document 309, pp. 812 et seq. He corroborated also
J. I. Hawkins’ account of the testimony John Wesley bore concern
ing Swedenborg, as is shown in Document 268, p. 566. The follow
ing particulars of his life are gathered from the "Intellectual
Repository" for 1841 (pp. 140 et seq.):
He was born on August 20, 1757. His parents were dissenters.
When very young, he was remarkable for his piety, and for his
application to study, especially of the dead languages. By the time
he was nineteen, he had acquired such a variety of information that
he taught the Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and Syriac languages, and the
art of Shorthand, and published "A Critical Essay" on the correct
rendering from the Hebrew of Jer. xxxiii, 16 ; in which he examined
ten different translations, and gave one of his own of great beauty.
In 1780 he married; and he lived happily with his wife for forty
nine years, when she was removed to the other life.
Mr. Sibly’s thirst for knowledge led to his becoming a bookseller;
as by that means he obtained a greater variety of choice reading
than would otherwise have been within his reach. Mrs. Sibly, with
the assistance of her eldest daughter, chiefly managed the selling
department, and, for a short time, Mr. Sibly kept a school, in which
77*
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