Nov 17, 2016 - Sale 2432

Sale 2432 - Lot 29

Price Realized: $ 1,625
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 400 - $ 600
(AMERICAN REVOLUTION--1777.) Wightman, George. Commission issued to a recruiter for a Loyalist regiment in occupied Newport. Partly-printed Document Signed as Lieutenant Colonel, to Lieutenant Francis Coney. One page, 6 1/2 x 7 inches; minor foxing, moderate wear, laid down on paper. (MRS) Newport, RI: [John Howe?], 24 December 1777

Additional Details

"Whereas I am authorized and empowered by his Excellency Sir William Howe . . . the bearer hereof . . . is fully authorized and empowered to inlist Men for the said Regiment, to receive the same Pay and be under the same Discipline as his Majesty's Regular Troops." The British had been in possession of Newport for a year at this point, and many Loyalists from the surrounding area had come into town, so the formation of a regiment was a natural. It was led by George Wightman of North Kingstown, RI, and grew to include 127 men. This crudely printed form closes "Given under my Hand at Newport, Rhode-Island," suggesting that it was actually printed at Newport. No other copies have been traced and it does not appear in ESTC or Alden's Rhode Island Imprints. In fact, besides the weekly Newport Gazette, only one other Newport imprint is traced for 1777, and only one example is known of that. Provenance: Swann sale, 4 March 1982, lot 23, to the consignor.