signed
14/06/1790
14/06/1790. John Hancock Ephraim Putnam of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, on May 3, 1737. He was active throughout the American Revolution. He was a Minute Man on April 19, 1775, and arrived at Concord as the battle was ending. He was a soldier throughout the Revolutionary War, served at Bunker Hill, was with Washington crossing the Delaware, at the encampment at Valley Forge, and was present at Cornwallis’ surrender in 1781. It is said of him that few men took a more active part in the struggle which secured the independence of the American colonies.”John Hancock was the first governor of Massachusetts and the first man to sign the Declaration of Independence. He then served as a delegate and president of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress in 1773, was a member of the Continental Congress from 1775 to 1880, served as president of the Continental Congress from 1775 to 1777, and was a member of the Massachusetts Constitutional Convention in 1780. He also served as governor of Massachusetts from 1780 to 1785 and 1787 to 1789.Document signed by Hancock as governor of Massachusetts, Boston, June 14, 1790, naming Warren an Ensign in the Massachusetts militia, and stating to him that he should “discharge the duties of an Ensign in leading, ordering and exercising said company in arms.” On the verso, a clerk writes “Middlesex, October 5, 1790. The within named Ensign Warren appeared and took the oath required by the Constitution.” The document is countersigned by John Avery, Jr., Secretary of the Commonwealth. Affixed to a light board.An uncommon Hancock military appointment for a great soldier of the Revolution. (Inventory #: 31492)