Howard, Rev. Leonard
The Book of Common Prayer...Illustrated and Explained By a Full and Comprehensive Paraphrase at the Bottom of each Page. Printed for I. Pottinger, at the Royal Bible, Pater-Noster Row, 1761. 4to, full calf, sometime rebacked in leather; pp. [2], vi, iv, 578, [2]; port. frontis., 29 eng. plates.
Howard was a contradictory sort. From his beginnings as a post office clerk, he took orders and achieved his D.D. in 1745, by which time he was a curate of two parishes in London and chaplain to the Prince of Wales. He would be appointed to further benefices by the Crown and became chaplain to the Princess Dowager of Wales. Despite all this, he was frequently in pecuniary distress and imprisoned for debt. To raise money, he offered fraudulent subscriptions to books he might have been writing. He did publish several works, including this unofficial BCP, but his literary liftings added to his dubious reputation.
ESTC T134404