Description:

Samuel Adams Appoints a Justice of the Peace. Rare Signed Manuscript

Single Page Manuscript boldly signed “Samuel Adams”, Governor in the upper left margin below the seal, and countersigned by John Avery at foot, with the wafer seal of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts affixed to the upper right margin. Dated February 27, 1795, 17.375” x 11.125“ Some separations with minimal loss at the intersection of the folds, minor toning.

Adams appoints Oliver Prescott (1731-1804), the physician and militia leader, as a Justice of the Peace for a seven-year period.

Samuel Adams (1722-1803) Founding Father, political activist and state legislator. He spoke out against British efforts to tax the colonists, and pressured merchants to boycott British products. He also was an important leader in the Sons of Liberty, a radical group that engaged in violent civil disobedience and retaliation against those who cooperated with the British. As a writer, Adams was a skillful propagandist. Adams and other firebrands helped push moderate colonial leaders into joining in the resistance against the British, which eventually led to the war. In fact, while George Washington led the American colonists to victory in the Revolutionary War, there might not have been a revolution at all if it weren’t for provocateurs such as Samuel Adams.

Oliver Prescott (1731-1804) Physician and militia general. In 1750 he graduated from Harvard College and built a successful medical practice in Groton, his birthplace. He was chairman of the town committee that protested the Stamp Act in 1765 and clerk of the town's committee of correspondence in 1774. He served in the militia before the Revolution, was appointed brigadier general of the Middlesex County militia during the Revolution in 1776, and was promoted to second major general of the state militia in 1778. During the Boston siege, he was charged with setting up checkpoints to stop communication between the British garrison and pro-British sympathizers in the countryside. He held a number of important civil posts, helping to enforce the Association of 1774, serving on the Massachusetts supreme executive council from 1777 to 1780, sitting as judge of probate for Middlesex County from 1779 until his death. Prescott’s general success and distinguished professional acquirements; his prompt and unremitted attention to the sick; his tender and pleasant demeanor while treating the sick in their distress; his moderate charges and forbearance to the poor, together with the general success which attended his practice, rendered him one of the most popular, most eminent and useful physicians in the Commonwealth for 50 years.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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