Partly-printed DS, one page, 6 x 7.75, April 16, 1783. Governor Hancock issues a pay order to “Richard Gridley Esquire Engineer general in the Eastern Department the sum of Thirty pounds being for wages due to him in the last three months of the Year 1780.” Beautifully signed at the conclusion by Hancock, and countersigned by secretary John Avery. Triple matted and framed, so the docketing on reverse may be viewed as well, along with an engraved portrait, to an overall size of 18 x 29.5 In very good condition, with intersecting folds, mild overall toning, with a heavier block to upper left, and a small tear to top edge.
Born in Boston, Gridley was a soldier and military engineer who had served in the British Army during the French and Indian Wars. For that role, he was rewarded with a commission and 3,000 acres of land in the New Hampshire colony. At the onset of the American Revolution, however, Gridley sided with the Thirteen Colonies. When the Continental Army under George Washington’s command was created in 1775, Gridley was chosen as the army’s first Chief of Engineers. In that post, Colonel Gridley laid out the defenses on Breed's Hill in 1775, and suffered wounds in the Battle of Bunker Hill. Though retiring in 1781, Gridley was still owed compensation “for wages due to him in the last three months of the Year 1780”...an oversight Hancock sought to remedy via this 1783 pay order. Unique associative content between one of the best known names of the American Revolution. One of the army officers who made freedom a reality, and one of the few such high-level signed Hancock documents we have encountered! Pre-certified John Reznikoff/PSA/DNA and RR Auction COA.
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