The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling

The census claim is CORRECT: A. Millar, London, 1749, six volumes, is the true first — English author, London publisher, no earlier or foreign-language edition to displace it, so no UK/US or original-language precedence question arises. The first American edition is much later and is not the collected form. The real trap here is not geography but MADE-UP SETS: because four editions were printed in 1749 with matching title-pages, "first edition" sets are routinely assembled from mixed 1749 sheets, and a set is only a first edition if every volume passes its own collation. A set lacking the Volume I errata leaf, or with the errata corrected in the text, is not a first issue no matter what the title-pages say.