Auction Name: 2026 February 26 Historical Manuscripts & Texana Signature® Auction

Lot Number: 47065

Shortcut to Lot: HA.com/6328*47065

John Hancock Document Signed. Two pages, 9 x 14 1/2 inches (sight), Boston; February 16, 1781. Matted and framed to show the signed verso of the document, alongside a printed facsimile of the recto, to an overall size of 27 x 22 inches. Signed, "John Hancock" as Governor of Massachusetts, and countersigned by John Avery as Secretary of the Commonwealth. Just months into his first term as Governor of Massachusetts, Hancock appoints William Walker as Register of Wills for Berkshire County. In part:

"By his Excellency John Hancock Esqr. Governor and Commander in Chief in and over the Commonwealth of Massachusetts...Know Ye that I, in the prudence and fidelity of William Walker Esqr. Confiding, give and grant and do by these Presents give and grant unto the said William Walker the Office of a Register of Wills, Administrations, Inventories, Accompts, Decrees, Orders, Determinations and other Writings to which shall be made or granted by the Judge of Probate of Wills and for granting Letters of Administration in the County of Berkshire."

William Walker first settled in Berkshire County in 1770. A lawyer by trade, he was deeply involved in the region's political goings-on: he signed the Boston Non-Importation Agreement in 1768, led a company of men to suppress Shay's Rebellion, attended the Berkshire Convention in Stockbridge in 1774, and served as a delegate to the convention that framed the Massachusetts Constitution in 1780. After receiving this appointment from John Hancock, he rose through the ranks of the judiciary to become a Judge of the Court of Common Pleas in 1789.

Condition: Not examined out of frame. Lightly toned with smoothed folds; a few very light stains.

Include Thumbnail(s)