Hancock, John, as Governor of Massachusetts

Manuscript document signed ("John Hancock"), written in a neat clerical hand, 1 page (12 5/8 x 8 in.; 319 x 202 mm) on a bifolium (watermarked Britannia | jc), Boston, 17 February 1781, being an authorization for "Aaron Wood, William Whetmore, & Amos Putnam Esquires Justices of the Peace for the County of Essex" to enforce the Massachusetts "Act intitled an Act in Addition to an Act intitled an Act for taking up and restraining persons dangerous to this State," countersigned by the Secretary of the Commonwealth ("John Avery Secy"), with a fine embossed seal of Massachusetts affixed at the upper left; masterfully silked. Accompanied by a "True Copy" of the referenced act, attested by John Avery, 1 1/2 pages (14 3/4 x 9 1/8 in.; 376 x 232 mm) on a bifolium (watermarked posthorn | C Taylor), the address panel directing the document, on public service, to Wood, Whetmore, and Putnam; seal remnant and repair, masterfully silked.

The act referenced in Hancock's order gave Wood and the other justices of the peace the remarkably wide-ranging authority to have apprehended and commited to jail "any Person whom you shall deem the Safety of the Commonwealth requires, should be restrained of his personal Liberty or whose Enlargement within this Commonwealth is dangerous thereto. ..."