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

Lot Number: 47082

Shortcut to Lot: HA.com/6328*47082

John Hancock Document Signed. One partially printed page, 12 1/2 x 16 inches (sight), Bath, [Maine]; October 20, 1784. Framed alongside a printed portrait of Hancock to an overall size of 24 1/4 x 32 3/4 inches. Hancock signs boldly in the left margin, "John Hancock." Countersigned by Secretary John Avery, Jr. and naval officer David Trufant. The document reads, in part:

"In pursuance of an Act of this Commonwealth...providing that all Vessels of Fifteen Tons and upwards, should be provided with Registers, Ephraim Delano of Wolwich in the County of Lincoln & Commonwealth aforesaid maketh Oath that the Sloop Janet whereof Ephraim Delano is at present Master...was built at Wolwich in the Year of our Lord, One Thousand Seven Hundred and Eighty four."

Ephraim Delano (1733-1815) was a Massachusetts-born mariner who served as a private in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. Notably, Captain Delano is a distant relation of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, drawing a fascinating association between one of the nation's founding fathers and one of its greatest presidents.

Condition: Not examined out of frame. Lightly toned with smoothed folds. Document has been professionally rebacked, restoring several areas of loss at the edges and folds; loss occasionally touching text, but not affecting legibility. Light, scattered staining throughout.

Include Thumbnail(s)