Hancock, John, as Governor of Massachusetts

Printed broadside document signed ("John Hancock"), accomplished in a clerical hand, on paper (17 1/4 x 11 1/2 in.; 439 x 292 mm; watermarked fleur-de-lys | gr), Boston, 18 September 1788, being Aaron Wood's appointment as "one of the Justices to keep the Peace in our County of Essex, for the term of seven years if during that time he shall behave well in the same Office And to keep, and cause to be kept, the Laws and Ordinances made for the Good of the Peace, and for the Conservation of the same, and for the Quiet, Rule and Government of our Citizens and Subjects in the said County, ..." countersigned by the Secretary of the Commonwealth ("John Avery junr Secretary"), with a fine embossed seal of Massachusetts affixed at the upper left; masterfully silked, a few tiny chips at folds.

The document is endorsed on the verso by the Massachusetts Council, in Chamber, Boston, 2 March 1789, and witnessed by Council members Samuel Adams and William Phillips: "the within named Aaron Wood Esqr. took & subscribed the Oath & Declaration prescribed by the Constitution to qualify himself to execute the Trust reposed in him by the within Commission."