This manuscript tune book, rendered by Joseph Williams, is inscribed on the first page: "Nov 1806 29th/Joseph Williams's Book./This book in Cooperstown was bought/And for it I a long time sought/I bought it of Elihu Phiney [sic]/And gave for it a half a guinea./Dec 1. 1806." Elihu Phinney (1756-1813) was a publisher in Coopertown, New York, from 1795 to 1813. The book, containing 208 numbered pages [though it should be 209, as Williams numbered two consecutive pages 65; also, the leaf which would have been pages 142 and 143 has been intentionally removed], includes both secular and sacred tunes, some not completed and some with lyrics, set in mostly three or four parts. There is a partial index to the tunes, along with a page containing the titles to "Set Pieces." The volume begins with a penmanship exercise.
