I have a book titled The Children of the Abbey and published by W.A.
Leary & Co.  The author is Regina Maria Roche.  I am looking for
information on the publishing date.

Hello.

Your book's publication date is probably between 1846 and 1853. 

Most of the editions of "The Children of the Abbey" published by WA
Leary & Co seem to date from between 1846 and 1853.

1846 - WA Leary edition for sale on Abebooks.com:
http://dogbert.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=89847781

1847 - WA Leary edition for sale on Abebooks.com:
http://dogbert.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=68894803

Temple University's rare book department owns the archive of  Leary &
Co., Philadelphia (Leary's Book Store)
http://www.library.temple.edu/speccoll/printing.htm

Temple has several editions of "The Children of the Abbey" published
by WA Leary & Co between 1846 and 1853.

Temple's library catalog lists three separate entries for the book:
http://diamond.temple.edu/search/t?SEARCH=children+of+the+abbey 

1846 edition is described here:
http://diamond.temple.edu/search/tchildren+of+the+abbey/tchildren+of+the+abbey/1,1,3,B/frameset&FF=tchildren+of+the+abbey+a+tale&1,,3

1849-1853 editions are described here:
http://diamond.temple.edu/search/tchildren+of+the+abbey/tchildren+of+the+abbey/1,1,3,B/frameset&FF=tchildren+of+the+abbey+a+tale&2,,3

1847 edition is described here:
http://diamond.temple.edu/search/tchildren+of+the+abbey/tchildren+of+the+abbey/1,1,3,B/frameset&FF=tchildren+of+the+abbey+a+tale&3,,3

search strategy: abebooks, "wa leary", "leary & co", philadelphia,
temple library catalog

I hope this helps.

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Clarification of Answer by juggler-ga on 01 Feb 2003 21:20 PST

Thank you very much for the tip.
-juggler

Fantastic.