(EARLY AMERICAN IMPRINT.) Henry Gardner. Commonwealth of Massachusetts . . . by Virtue of . . . an Act for Apportioning and Assessing. Letterpress broadside, 16½ x 13 inches, completed in manuscript and signed by Gardner as treasurer of Massachusetts; separations at folds with 3 generations of repairs on verso; minor foxing and offsetting; uncut. Boston, 25 November 1780 An order to raise taxes from the towns of Massachusetts in accordance with an act dated 18 March 1780. This copy was issued to the constable of the town of Reading, who was ordered to raise £8,511.
While other tax broadsides from this era are recorded, we can trace no other examples of this printing in ESTC, Evans, or Ford's Massachusetts Broadsides. In addition, this was one of the first broadsides to style Massachusetts a commonwealth rather than a state, in keeping with the 25 October passage of their new constitution. Ford lists only one earlier Commonwealth broadside, issued 12 days earlier on 13 November. Provenance: purchased on 21 January 1955 from dealer S.C. Hamilton per a pencil note on verso.