The
Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations was one of the original
Thirteen Colonies, established on the east coast of America. It was founded by Roger Williams and was an
English colony from 1636 until 1707 when it became a colony of Great Britain
until the American Revolutionary War in 1776. At that time, it became the State
of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.
The document offered here
was executed just five years after Rhode Island and Providence Plantations became
a British colony. It is a very early power of attorney and containing the
signatures of two notables, EDWARD THURSTON, “her majesty’s Justice of the
Peace,” and JOHN HAMMETT, likely the first clerk of the Assembly. It’s rare to see documents around this period,
the same time frame when Queen Anne’s War (1702-1713) was nearing an end. Thurston was involved in the defenses of
Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. Hammett was chosen clerk by the
General Assembly when it met to organize and admit freemen.
One-page 7 ½ x 11 legal
document in which Jeremiah Wilcox of “the town of Newport in the Colony of
Rhode Island and Providence Plantations...ordain, make and in my stead and
place...Captain Edward Groove of Newport Mariner commander of the Sprague...to
be my true sufficient and lawful attorney...the seventeenth day of September One
Thousand Seven Hundred and Twelve...In the eleventh year of Her Majesties Reign
Ann Queen of Great Britain...”
EDWARD THURSTON, justice
of the peace, signed the document attesting that Wilcox came before him “as a
voluntary act.” Thurston was chosen commissary
to provide all military stores for the colony, an important position for the defense
of the colony. Two vessels for war purposes were purchased by the colony and
several transports were provided to carry troops to Boston.
JOHN HAMMETT was the first
clerk chosen by the General Assembly as it was putting together an organization
and admitting freemen. His salary was fixed at six shillings a day.
Queen Anne’s War was the
second in a series of French and Indian Wars involving the empires of Great
Britain, France and Spain. The wars were fought seeking control of the North
American continent. The Treaty of Utrecht ended the war in 1713, following a
preliminary peace in 1712. Some terms
were ambiguous in the treaty, and the concerns of various indigenous
communities were not included, setting the stage for future conflicts.
Many persecuted groups settled
in the colony, notably Quakers and Jews. The Rhode Island colony was
progressive, passing laws abolishing witchcraft trials, imprisonment for debt
and most capital punishment. However,
the Rhode Island General Assembly legalized African and Native American slavery
throughout the colony in 1703. The slave trade fueled the growth of Providence
and Newport into major ports.
Rhode Island was the first
of the Thirteen Colonies to take up arms against Great Britain in the Gaspee
Affair, when an armed group attacked and burned a British Navy ship in June
1772, more than a year before the infamous Boston Tea Party.
Toning and some scattered
staining. A few small holes in the center fold, affecting very little. Most of
the red wax seal present. A couple of fold breaks reinforced on the verso. A great example of early British and American
Colonial history. [Some research included]
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Collectors Club, The Ephemera Society, the Southern New England Antiquarian
Booksellers and the Preferred Autograph Dealers and Auction Houses. [COL 111]