Hancock, John | A Massachusetts Militia Commission

John Hancock

Document signed ("John Hancock"), appointing James Doughty Lieutenant

Printed broadside document signed ("John Hancock") as governor of Massachusetts, accomplished in a clerical hand, on paper (318 x 388 mm), [Boston], 10 April 1792, being James Doughty's appointment as "Lieutenant of a Company in the fourth Regiment second Brigade and Sixth Division of the Militia of this Commonwealth comprehending the Counties of York and Cumberland …," countersigned by the Secretary of the Commonwealth ("John Avery junr Secy"), with a fine embossed seal of Massachusetts affixed at the upper left, endorsed on the verso by Isaac Parsons, Justice of the Peace, 7 June 1794, attesting that Doughty appeared before him and took the declaration and oath necessary for the assumption of his office; central horizontal fold with some separation and reinforced on verso, scattered pinholes and foxing. Matted, framed, and glazed with reproduction portrait of Hancock.

An official document, bearing one of the most iconic signatures in the world.