Beschreibung:

HANCOCK, JOHN, Signer (Massachusetts) . Autograph letter signed ("John Hancock") to Elbridge Gerry in Menotomy (Cambridge); Lexington, Massachusetts, 18 April 1775, 1 page, 4to, 262 x 195 mm. (10 3/8 x 7 5/8 in.), a rectangular piece in lower left-hand blank portion torn away but restored in similar paper, a few fold tears neatly mended, discreetly silked from the verso, slight fold soiling to address leaf on verso , but in generally good condition, verso addressed by Hancock: "To Elbridge Gerry Esq. at Cambridge Menotomy," and docketed in Gerry's hand: "Lexington Letter Gov Hancock April 18 1775" -- [ With ] A piece of wallpaper, with a pencilled inscription on verso noting that it is from the room in the Rev. Jonas Clark's home in Lexington where Hancock and Samuel Adams spent the night of 18 April 1775, 203 x 175 mm. (8 x 6 3/4 in.) irregular. ON THE EVE OF REVOLUTION: HANCOCK AND SAMUEL ADAMS DODGE BRITISH PATROLS IN LEXINGTON, HOURS BEFORE THE FIRST SHOTS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION ARE FIRED A letter between two Massachusetts patriots which is remarkable for its date -- it was written the day before the momentous outbreak of hostilities between British troops and Continental militia at Lexington and Concord -- and for its contents. When the Massachusetts House of representatives was dissolved by General Gage, the Massachusetts towns had elected delegates to a Provincial Congress which met at Salem to be beyond the easy reach of British authority. In January, Gage received orders to arrest the most prominent rebel leaders in the Provincial Congress. Boston Tories clamored for the arrest of Hancock, Samuel Adams and other revolutionary patriots, but Hancock continued for a time to reside in Boston. When British soldiers began to vandalize his home, he removed, with his fiance Dorothy Quincy and aunt Lydia Hancock, to the parsonage of the Reverend Jonas Clark, at the edge of the Common in the patriot stronghold in Lexington, temporarily out of reach of the British garrison. In the meantime the Provincial Congress's Committees of Safety and Supply (Gerry was a member of the latter), were holding their frequent meetings in different towns outside Boston. On April 18 they met at Wetherby's Black Horse Inn in Menotomy, on the road between Boston and Lexington. After the meeting, two departing delegates, Richard Devens and Abraham Watson, encountered mounted redcoats, their uniforms and weapons hidden in heavy coats. (It is unclear whether this was an advance patrol, sent out by Gage preparatory to the major expedition to Lexington and Concord already being launched, or if they were on some other errand.) When the British asked directions to "Clark's Tavern," Devens and Clark assumed they were headed to Clark's Parsonage, probably to arrest Hancock and Samuel Adams, both of whom were there that day. Devens and Clark turned their coach around and returned to the Black Horse Inn to alert Elbridge Gerry and other patriots who were spending the night there. Gerry immediately wrote a note to John Hancock informing him that "eight or nine officers are out, suspected of some evil design." He gave it to a local dispatch rider, who took back-roads to evade the British soldiers and deliver Gerry's alarming message. Gerry's message caused great consternation at Clark's Parsonage. Lydia Hancock was certain the British intended to arrest and hang her nephew. "Hancock, with his flair for the dramatic, announced he would never be taken alive and started loading a gun to prove it" (L. Falkner, Forge of Liberty , 1959, p.50). At 9:00 that evening, Hancock penned the present terse reply to Gerry's warning, reporting that the British patrol seemed headed not to Lexington, but to Concord. "I am much oblig'd for your Notice, it is said the [British] officers are gone Concord Road, & I will Send word thither. I am full with you that we ought to be serious, & I hope your Decisions will be Effectual. I intend doing myself the pleasure of being wit