Description:

Tryon William 1729 - 1788

Rare William Tryon DS announcing legal appointment of Joshua Hett Smith, Revolutionary War spy, collaborator of Benedict Arnold, and owner of "Treason House".

Oblong piece of vellum measuring 13.125" x 10.125" signed by three dignitaries including New York Governor William Tryon as "W m Tryon" and introduced in the document as "his Excellency William Tryon Esquire Captain ? Governor in Chief and over the Province of New York and the Territories depending thereon in America Chancellor and Vice Admiral of the same". The other signatures appear to be those of a New York Supreme Court official and a gubernatorial secretary. Remnants of a seal - a piece of woven brown ribbon and mustard yellow thread - appear in the upper left corner of the document. Docket information appears verso. In mostly good condition, with some portions of the text worn, partly visible, and difficult to read. Overall folds, wrinkles, and creases and a few isolated stains do not affect the text.

This legal document dated April 30, 1772 was signed at Fort George, New York City and authorized Joshua Hett Smith to join the New York bar. Tryon appointed him "an Attorney at Law, thereby authorizing him to appear in all his Majesty's Courts of Record within the Province of New York and there to Practice as an Attorney at law according to the Laws and Customs of that part of Great Britain called England and Laws and Customs of the said Province and all Judges, Justices, and those concerned are hereby requested to Admit him accordingly".

William Tryon (1729-1788) saw service in the Seven Years' War before assuming the lieutenant governance of North Carolina in 1764. From 1765-1771, Tryon served as Governor of North Carolina, assuming the governance of New York just one week after his first gubernatorial term ended. Around the time that he signed this document, Tryon was struggling to enforce the terms of the unpopular Tea Act. He served as New York Governor with full authority until the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, after which point New York was administrated by a military governor and Tryon transitioned into an army command. Tryon was responsible for razing several towns along coastal Connecticut in the late 1770s.

Joshua Hett Smith (1749-1818) came from a family of lawyers. Eight years after this document, Joshua Hett Smith established a household at West Haverstraw, New York overlooking the Hudson River. Smith, an opportunistic spy whose home was located near the strategically important site of West Point, befriended disaffected Continental officer Benedict Arnold (1741-1801) in 1780. It was here at Smith's home Belmont, later called "Treason House", that Benedict Arnold conferred with his co-conspirator Major John Andre (1750-1780) on September 22nd. Smith was arrested, tried, acquitted, and later imprisoned for his complicity in Arnold's plot, but he made his escape to New York in women's clothing. Smith's home was razed in 1921.

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