Beschreibung:

Manuscript document signed "James R" on vellum, appointing Sir Edmund Andros as a Captain of a Company of Foot in New England .
Windsor, 30 July 1686. 1 page (12 ½ x 15 ¾ inches, 320x400 mm). Signed by the King in the upper blank portion, countersgned by Robert Spencer Earl of Sunderland at bottom and with other docketing. Condition: Folds, small nick in the bottom margin, papered wax seal intact. Provenance : Sir Edmund Andros; Property of a Gentleman (sale, Sotheby's London 12 December 1977, lot 133); H. P. Kraus (his catalogue 150, item 30); Malcolm Forbes (sale, Christie's New York 15 November 2005, lot 1). the royal appointment giving andros military authority over the dominion of new england -- the precursor to colonial rebellion. On the same date as this commission, Andros was named Governor-General of the New England colonies in a royal attempt to suppress colonial self-government by merging Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut and New York into one dominion. Acting under the military authority granted by this commission, Andros marched on Hartford in October 1687 to seize control of the Connecticut Assembly and rule the new dominion. As legend tells, Andros, under orders from James I to seize the colony's charter, demanded to see the original, arguing that his appointment nullified the rights contained therein. As it was brought forth, however, the candles were doused and the founding document spirited away and hidden in the cavity of a large nearby tree, thereafter referred to as the Charter Oak. The much-despised Andros ruled the dominion of New England with an iron fist until news of the Glorious Revolution reached Massachusetts in the spring of 1689, when Cotton Mather and others led a revolt and arrested Andros and the other royal officials appointed by James II. The dissolution of the Dominion of New England in April 1689 and Bacon's Rebellion in Virginia can be seen as the first organized colonial movements toward American independence. “In Andros's lifetime the American colonies had progressed from a few scattered, precarious settlements on the coastal fringes of the continent, to a group of relatively populous states, self-confident and entirely capable of aggressive action against representatives of the home government. The ideas of revolution and independence had not yet come into existence, but Andros's hapless governorship of the Dominion was indeed 'the shape of things to come'” ( H. P. Kraus .) This historically significant document, along with others from the papers of Andros, was included in H. P. Kraus's monumental catalogue 150, where, presumably, it was purchased by Malcolm Forbes (and subsequently sold in part III of his sale).