$554
Dudley, Joseph (1647-1720) Document Signed, 9 July 1703. Single sheet of laid paper, with docketing information on the verso, the text in a secretarial hand with Dudley's signature below. Certifying that Francis Wainwright (1664-1711) of Ipswich, Massachusetts, Harvard class of 1686, has taken the Oath of Allegiance and Supremacy, and the Oath of a Justice of the Peace for Essex County. Old folds, the sheet toned, slightly fragmentary along the folds, reinforced with tissue, chip with slight loss in blank bottom right corner, 13 1/2 x 8 1/4 in. Joseph Dudley (Harvard graduate, class of 1665) served as Governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay and New Hampshire in this period, from June 1702 to February 1715. He oversaw a tense period in colonial North American history, and was a controversial and divisive figure himself. During the summer of 1703, Dudley was engaged in an attempt to calm tensions rising between English and French settlers that would ultimately lead to Queen Anne's War, one of the French and Indian Wars. He had just met with the Indians in Cascom Bay in June, without success. Joseph Dudley's father was Massachusetts founder and four-time Governor of the colony, Thomas Dudley (1576-1653).
Auctioneer:
Skinner
Date:
2014-05-31
