Garrat Noel (1706–1776) was a bookseller and educator in New York City, in the 18th century.WorldCat. Garrat NoelHis name is sometimes spelled "Garret Noel" or "Garrett Noel." He emigrated from Cádiz in 1750."Garrett Noel, the first New York bookseller." Magazine of American history v.16, no.1, July 1886 In 1751 he worked as a "teacher of the Spanish tongue ... also ... reading, writing, arithmetick and merchants accompts."New York Gazette Revived in the Weekly Post-Boy, June 10, 1751J.R. Spell. Spanish teaching in the United States. Hispania, v.10, no.3, May 1927 By 1752 he kept a shop on Broad Street,New York Mercury, Nov. 13, 1752 and in 1753 on Dock Street.New York Mercury, Dec. 31, 1753 From his shop Noel also operated a circulating library of "several thousand volumes of choice books, in history, divinity, travels, voyages, novels, &c.""To those who delight in reading ..." New York Gazette, Aug. 29, 1763"Conditions for subscribing to Noel's Circulating Library ..." cf. New York Gazette, Sept. 12, 1763"To promote useful knowledge, and for the entertainment of those who are disposed to spend their winter evenings agreeably; a circulating library, upon a very extensive plan, will be opened ... by Garrat Noel at his book store;" cf. New York Gazette and Weekly Mercury, Sept. 5, 1768
In addition to books and periodicals Noel sold stationery and other sundries: "Playing cards by the dozen or single pack. Best ink powder and ink. Paper of all sorts, by the ream or quire, penknives, pencils, quils, pens, wax, and seals, ink-pots and pewter-stands, and boxes, paste-board files with laces, brass-wire files, blanks of all sorts, scales and dividers, and pocket compasses, pounce and pounce-boxes, memorandum books, fountain pens, ivory folders, leather paper cases, blank books for accounts of all sorts, alphabets, copy books, receipt books, 9 leaved carts of the Channel and West Indies. Likewise a fresh assortment of the famous tooth powder, Stoughton's Bitters, lotion water, smelling bottles,Smelling-bottle: "phial or small bottle for containing smelling-salts or perfume ready for use;" cf. Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. 1989 viper drops, Turlington and West's pectoral elixir, lavender drops, and lavender water."A Catalogue of Books in History, Divinity, Law, Arts and Sciences, and the Several Parts of Polite Literature; to be Sold by Garrat Noel, Bookseller in Dock-Street. New-York: Printed by H. Gaine, in Queen-Street, between the Fly and Meal-Markets, 1755Advertisement: "The only true preservative for the teeth and gums, just imported in the Nebuchadnezer, from London, and to be sold by Garrat Noel, school-master ... ;" cf. New York Gazette, Aug. 17, 1752"To be sold by Garret Noel ... the famous Eau de Luce;" cf. New York Mercury, May 22, 1758"Said Noel has likewise to sell, the very best of Durham Flour of Mustard, and a fresh parcel of very fine snuff, commonly called Black Guard." cf. New York Gazette, Aug. 29, 1763Noel also sold wallpaper: "exceeding cheap, a parcel of handsome patterns of flowered paper for hangings" cf. Advertisement in New York Gazette, Nov. 30, 1767
In 1753 he carried in his shop "curious bustos, fit furniture for gentlmen's houses, in plaister of paris, plain, polished and burnished in gold, with black pedestals, all very fine drapery, viz. Shakespear and Milton, Homer and Virgil, Horace and Tully, Cicero and Plato, Caesar and Seneca, Prior and Congrave, Addison and Pope, Lock and Newton, Dryden and Gay, Venus and Apollo, Ovid and Julia. Likewise a parcel of pictures in the newest and genteelest taste."New York Mercury, Dec. 31, 1753
Among the titles offered for sale by Noel in 1755:Catalogue. 1755
Behn's Plays Bowen's New Atlas Bysshe's Art of PoetryWorldCat Edward Bysshe Francis Coventry's The History of a Lap Dog, Pompey the Little Echard's Gazetteer Fielding's Voyage to Lisbon The Gardner's Dictionary Harrison's House-keepers Pocket CompanionWorldCat Sarah Harrison Hartley's Observations on Man Edward Hatton's Mathematical Manual Eliza Haywood's Female Spectator Heylen's Help to English History Hibernicus's Letters The Hive: a Collection of Choice New SongsAn example of this title (possibly resembling the version sold by Noel) can be found here (London, 1727) Hughes' Natural History of Barbados Hutcheson's Xenophon Independent Whig Alain-René Lesage's The Batchelor of Salamanca Noël-Antoine Pluche's History of the Heavens Potter's Antiquities of GreecePark. List of architectural books available in America before the Revolution. Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, v.20, no.3, Oct. 1961 The Tatler Wishart's Commentaries on the late War in Italy The World in MiniatureWorldCat John Fransham The Young Lady Conducted
According to contemporary anecdotes, a customer once travelled to Noel's bookshop from "some distance up Hudson River" especially to purchase "Spanish bulls" advertised by Noel in the newspapers. The "old Scotchman" mistook the documents "for cattle."Original anecdote. Pennsylvania Packet, Nov. 1, 1790
Noel died in 1776 in Elizabethtown, New Jersey.New York Gazette and Weekly Mercury, Sept. 28, 1776; quoted in: New Jersey Historical Society. Documents relating to the Revolutionary history of the State of New Jersey, v.1. Trenton, NJ: J.L. Murphy publishing co., printers, 1901
See also Books in the United States
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