John Hancock, Manuscript Document, Signed

Description

John Hancock signs an Manuscript Document granting a widow the right to sell liquor. 

“Mrs. Dunn, a Boston Ship Captain’s Widow who runs a “shop,” is granted a license to “Retail Rum and Other Distilled Spirits” to “prevent her Family from being a burden on the Community.” Her husband had “sayled from this Town for Cape Fear in a Schooner…and has not been since heard of.” She “has an aged mother and new young children who depend upon her for support….”

Selectman Timothy Newell (1718-1799) also signs. Unlike Hancock who left the city to join the Provincial Congress at Lexington, Newell remained in Boston during the siege. He was a moderate who had a decided bias toward the rebel cause.

JOHN HANCOCK. Manuscript Document, Signed in full as a Boston Selectman, with his fellow colleagues, just prior to the Declaration of Independence. Boston: 9 July 1773. Signed “X” by the widow, Abigail Dunn. Quarto; 3pp.; handsomely framed with an engraving.