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Revolutionary War-era ALS signed “John Hancock, Chairman,” one page, 7.25 x 12, November 29, 1774. Addressed from Cambridge, a handwritten letter to Samuel Dexter, in full: “The Committee appointed by the Provincial Congress to Take into Consideration the State of the Province, having before them matters of the utmost Importance, which they wish to Determine upon as soon as possible, but I do not think it proper to Conclude upon a Report without a full Committee. They have directed me to Address you by Letter which I send by Express, to Acquaint you it is their earnest Desire & Expectation that you will punctually attend the Committee tomorrow at Three o’Clock PM at the house of Cap’t Steadman in Cambridge, & beg your honor will not disappoint their expectations.” In very good to fine condition, with scattered stains, a partial separation to the center horizontal fold, and small professional repairs.
Written during one of the most volatile transitional moments of the American Revolution, the letter finds Hancock organizing an alternative government in defiance of royal authority. Following Parliament's passage of the Coercive Acts and the Massachusetts Suffolk Resolves of September 1774, which declared those acts unconstitutional and called for organized resistance, the Massachusetts Provincial Congress emerged as a de facto revolutionary governing body, meeting at Cambridge while British troops occupied Boston. By the time Hancock wrote this letter, the First Continental Congress had already endorsed the Suffolk Resolves, and Patriot leaders in Massachusetts were beginning to translate political resistance into practical governmental and military organization.
The recipient, Samuel Dexter Sr. (1726–1810), was a Massachusetts merchant, politician, and delegate to the Provincial Congress, and Hancock's urgent summons reflects the importance of the committee's ongoing deliberations on matters "of the utmost Importance." Already one of the most prominent Patriot leaders in Massachusetts and a principal target of General Thomas Gage's administration, Hancock here appears exercising the executive authority that would soon carry him to the presidency of the Continental Congress in 1775. Although the exact committee referenced in the letter is uncertain, the Provincial Congress at this time was actively addressing military preparedness, provincial governance, supply organization, and resistance to British authority in the months immediately preceding the outbreak of armed conflict at Lexington and Concord. The meeting location at the house of "Cap't Steadman" in Cambridge appears to reference one of the taverns or private houses frequently used by Patriot committees and Provincial Congress members during this formative period of revolutionary organization.
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