Oct 27, 2022 - Sale 2619

Sale 2619 - Lot 1

Price Realized: $ 10,000
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 15,000 - $ 25,000
NEW JERSEY JOINS THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR SENDING ITS FIRST TWO BATTALIONS (AMERICAN REVOLUTION.) HANCOCK, JOHN. Letter Signed, "I am Gentlemen / Your most obed[ien]thum[bl]eServ[an]t / John Hancock / Pres[ident]," to the members of the Convention of New Jersey, alerting them to the necessity of raising battalions, explaining that the men would be furnished with a shirt and blanket when available and, in a postscript: "By order of Congress I forward you Forty eight Commissions for the Captains & Subaltern Officers in the New Jersey Battalions." 1 page, tall 4to, with integral blank; silked on verso of letter and blank, horizontal folds with minor loss to few letters of signature, few holes at fold ends expertly repaired with paper, few characters recently inscribed in unknown hand on blank, faint scattered soiling, docketing on blank. Philadelphia, 12 October 1775
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In full: "Some late intelligence laid before Congress seems to render it absolutely necessary for the protection of our liberties & safety of our lives to raise several new battalions, & therefore the Congress have come [to] the enclosed resolutions, which I am ordered to transmit to you. The Congress have the firmest confidence, that from your experienced zeal in this great cause you will exert your utmost endeavours to carry the said resolutions into execution with all possible expedition.
"The Congress have agreed to furnish the men with a hunting shirt not exceeding the value of one dollar & one third of a dollar and a blanket provided these can be procured, but these are not to be made part of the terms of enlistment."
Published in Extracts from the Journal of Proceedings of the Provincial Congress of New Jersey (Woodbury, NJ, reprinted by order, Sailer, 1835), 53.
In response to the request of Congress, William Alexander ("Lord Stirling") was commissioned to command the battalion raised in East Jersey (in northeast of colony), and William Maxwell was given command of the West Jersey battalion. Both battalions were ordered to the Hudson River (in preparation for supporting the Canadian campaign) and mustered into the Continental Army in December of 1775.