Description:

Pickering Timothy

Timothy Pickering 1776 Just Days Before Independence

 

TIMOTHY PICKERING, Autograph Endorsement Signed, June 28, 1776, on Deed of Thomas Barnard and others to Jonathan Eaton and Jacob Peaslee, June 20, 1776, Essex County, Massachusetts. 2 pp., 8.125" x 9.75" Expected folds; some partially repaired fold tears; some staining, not affecting legibility.

 

Less than a week before the Continental Congress declares American independence in Philadelphia, Timothy Pickering continues to fulfill his role as Justice of the Peace in Essex County, Massachusetts, north of Boston.

 

Pickering confirms that Thomas and Mary Barnard have been a party of their own free will to a deed transferring thirty acres of land to Jonathan Eaton and Jacob Peaslee for £36. Pickering had already led Massachusetts minutemen in the response to the Lexington call of April 1775 and would soon lead a regiment in the Revolutionary War. In 1777 he became adjutant general of the Continental Army and later served in three successive positions in the cabinets of President George Washington and President John Adams—Postmaster General, Secretary of War, and Secretary of State.

 

Excerpt

“Essex Ss. June 28, 1776. Then the within named Thomas Barnard and Mary his wife each personally acknowledge the instrument within written to be their free deed. Before Tim. Pickering junr Jus. O’ Peace”

 

Timothy Pickering (1745-1829) was born in Massachusetts and graduated from Harvard College in 1763. Admitted to the bar in 1768, he became register of deeds in Essex County. He represented Salem in the Massachusetts General Court and served as a justice in the County Court of Common Pleas. On April 8, 1776, Pickering married Rebecca White of Salem. After leading a regiment early in the Revolutionary War, Pickering accepted George Washington’s offer to become adjutant general of the Continental Army in 1777. In August 1780, the Continental Congress selected Pickering as Quartermaster General, a position he held until July 1785, when Congress abolished the entire department. After the war, Pickering tried several business ventures without much success. In 1787, he was a member of the Pennsylvania convention that ratified the U.S. Constitution.

In 1791, President Washington appointed Pickering as Postmaster General, and he continued to serve in Washington’s cabinet and that of John Adams for the next nine years—as Postmaster General until 1795, as Secretary of War for a brief time in 1795, and then as Secretary of State from 1795 to 1800. After Pickering objected to plans to make peace with France, President Adams dismissed him in May 1800. A passionate Federalist, Pickering represented Massachusetts in the U.S. Senate from 1803 to 1811 and in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1813 to 1817. Charged with reading confidential documents in an open Senate session, Pickering was censured by the United States Senate in January 1811. After failing to win re-election in 1816, Pickering retired to his farm in Salem, Massachusetts.

 

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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