John Hancock Boldly Signed For Sailor POW for 15 Mos. Rare Naval Commission. Unique Format!

With this document, Massachusetts Governor John Hancock commissioned Lemuel Weeks as 2nd lieutenant for the ship Protector. Weeks had been a midshipman who served as an acting lieutenant aboard the ship since at least October 1779. Weeks became a prisoner of the British when the HMS Roebuck and the HMS Medea captured the Protector off Sandy Hook in May 1781, and he spent the next fifteen months in British captivity.

JOHN HANCOCK, Manuscript Document Signed, Commission of Lemuel Weeks as Second Lieutenant of the Ship Protector, December 5, 1780 ("in the Fifth Year of the Independence of the United States of America."), [Boston, Massachusetts]. Co-signed by Secretary John Avery. 1 p. Restored upper left corner including seal replacement. Professionally matted in a handsome display featuring a high-quality photo reproduction of John Hancock's portrait after John Singleton Copley. The actual size of the signed document is 11.5" x 9.75" while the overall mat measures 27" x 16" x .5."

Excerpt
"By His Excellency John Hancock Esq. Governor & Commander in Chief in and over the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
"To Lemuel Weeks Gentn By virtue of You being appointed Second Lieutenant of the Ship Protector fitted out and equipped by this Commonwealth for the service thereof Commanded by John Foster Williams Esquire.
"By Virtue of the Power vested in me, I do by these Presents (reposing special Trust and Confidence in your ability, courage, and good conduct) Commission you accordingly. You are therefore carefully and Diligently to discharge the Duty of a Second Lieutenant on board said Ship and all Officers, Seamen & Marines are hereby directed to obey you as their Second Lieutenant, and you are yourself to observe and follow such Orders and Instructions as you shall from time to time receive from your Superior Officers."

John Hancock (1737-1793) was a Boston merchant and leader of the colonial resistance movement. Born in Braintree, his paternal uncle, Thomas Hancock, adopted John after his father died in 1742. John Hancock graduated from Harvard College in 1754 and went to work for his uncle, from whom he learned the mercantile trade. The Hancock family engaged in smuggling with the French West Indies in defiance of the Molasses Act. When his uncle died childless in 1764, John Hancock inherited the lucrative mercantile business and became one of the wealthiest men in New England. Named a Boston selectman in 1765, Hancock opposed the Stamp Act, and upon passage of the Townshend Duties in 1767, he resolved to prohibit British customs officials from setting foot on his ships. Hancock served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives and, in 1774, he was elected president of the revolutionary Provincial Congress. He and Samuel Adams were the targets of General Gage's projected campaign against Lexington and Concord in April 1775. During the war, Hancock served as President of the Continental Congress, 1775-1777, and in that capacity signed the Declaration of Independence in bold script on July 4, 1776. After Shays' Rebellion embroiled Massachusetts in civil unrest in 1786 and 1787, Hancock's support of the new Constitution was probably responsible for its ratification by Massachusetts, by a narrow margin. Under a new Massachusetts constitution, he was overwhelmingly elected governor in 1780 and served until his resignation in January 1785. When Shays' Rebellion confounded his successor, James Bowdoin, Hancock returned to office as governor in 1787 and pardoned the rebels. He won reelection annually for the rest of his life.

Lemuel Weeks (1757-1821) was born in Falmouth, Maine, then a part of Massachusetts. He became a wholesale merchant and importer at Portland in partnership with his brother-in-law Captain Daniel Tucker. They owned a large number of vessels. He served as a midshipman and then second lieutenant aboard the frigate Protector of the Massachusetts Navy during the Revolutionary War in 1780 and 1781 and was captured with that ship in May 1781. He was held as a prisoner until August 14, 1782. In 1780, he married Sarah Crabtree (1762-1823), and they had fifteen children. His business failed in the commercial disasters of 1807, along with most of the other merchants of Portland. He was commissioned captain of artillery in the militia in 1791 and promoted to major of artillery in 1798. During the War of 1812, he served as major of a detachment of artillery charged with the protection of forts and munitions in Portland that belonged to the state. He also served on the Portland Committee of Safety during the war.

Frigate Protector (1779-1781) was built at Newburyport for the Massachusetts Navy and launched in the fall of 1779. It was the largest, and for a time the only, ship in the Massachusetts Navy. Captain John Foster Williams (1743-1814) received command of the 28-gun Protector and took it to sea in June 1780 to cruise the Newfoundland Banks in search of British merchant vessels. On June 9, it fought and destroyed the 32-gun letter-of-marque Admiral Duff, rescuing 55 survivors after the ship exploded. In 1781, the Protector captured three British ships, before it was captured with more than 130 men on board off Sandy Hook on May 5, 1781, by the 44-gun HMS Roebuck and the 28-gun HMS Medea. The Royal Navy took the ship into service as the sixth-rate HMS Hussar. As the HMS Hussar, the ship fought a single-ship action off the Chesapeake Bay in which it captured the French frigate Sybille in January 1783.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

WE PROVIDE IN-HOUSE SHIPPING WORLDWIDE.