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1758 Gov. Francis Bernard Warns Colonial Currency

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1758 Royal Colonial Governor Sir Francis Bernard Warns Against Unauthorized Printing of Colonial Currency Issues
SIR FRANCIS BERNARD (1712-1779). British Royal American Colonial Governor of New Jersey and Massachusetts-Bay.
August 8, 1758-Dated French and Indian War Period, Important Printing of Colonial Currency Related Manuscript Document Signed, "Fra.(ncis) Bernard" on very clean period laid paper, (no place), Choice Very Fine. This 8" x 6.25" Document has been nicely edge mounted within a larger green frame for storage, stabiltity and display by a previous collector. Its interesting content is directly related to a clause in a bill about the "striking paper money" (Printing of Colonial Currency which had been outlawed in 1750 by the Crown, in Massachusetts Bay). It reads, in full:
"Gentlemen - I am informed that in a bill depending before you there is a clause for striking paper money. I therefore send you a Copy of his Majesty's instruction to me on that Subject & hope you will conform thereto. I also send you a Copy of his Majesty's instruction to me concerning the Support of the Government, which as you have been acquainted with it, I hope you have conformed to - (Signed) Fra. Bernard."
Docket on the blank reverse reads: "Governor's Message - Delivered Aug. 9th, 1758".
The Massachusetts Royal Governor was reminding the "Gentlemen" (the legislators) of the Crown's ban on this practice of the Printing of various, unauthorized Issues of Colonial Paper Currency. The three folds have some short horizontal splits at the three fold locations otherwise pleasing. This Colonial Paper Money related letter is an exceedingly rare, original historic statement from the highest representative of the Royal British Crown in the American Colonies in a direct warning to stop the unauthorized, multiple printed issues of Paper Currency, that was much in practice at that time.
Sir Francis Bernard, 1st Baronet (bapt. 12 July 1712 " 16 June 1779) was a British Colonial administrator who served as Royal Governor of the provinces of New Jersey and Massachusetts Bay. His uncompromising policies and harsh tactics in Massachusetts angered the colonists and were instrumental in the building of broad-based opposition within the province to the rule of Parliament in the events leading to the American Revolution.
Appointed governor of New Jersey in 1758, he oversaw the province's participation in the later years of the French and Indian War, and had a generally positive relationship with its legislature. The colonies were in the middle of the French and Indian War at the time of Bernard's arrival. He established a good working relationship with New Jersey's assembly, and was able to convince the province to raise troops and funds for the ongoing war effort. He signed the Treaty of Easton, an agreement between New Jersey and Pennsylvania on one side, and a group of Indian tribes (the Lenape being of principal concern to New Jersey) fixing boundaries between colonial and Indian lands. This effort was important, for it reduced raiding on the frontiers and made possible the reallocation of provincial military strength to the war with New France.
It and other agreements negotiated by Bernard extinguished all of the remaining Indian titles to New Jersey. Negotiations with the Lenape also resulted in the establishment of the first formal Indian reservation, Brotherton, near present-day Indian Mills. This reservation was only sparsely populated, and was abandoned in 1801 when its remaining inhabitants joined the Stockbridge Indians in upstate New York.
In 1760 he was given the governorship of Massachusetts, where he had a stormy relationship with the assembly. Early actions turned the colony's populists against him, and his responses to protests against Parliament's attempts to tax the colonies deepened divisions.
After protests against the Townshend Acts in 1768, Bernard sought British Army troops be stationed in Boston to oversee the colonists. He was recalled after the publication of letters in which he was critical of the colony.
Bernard's unpopularity continued through other tax measures, including the Sugar Act (1763) and the Stamp Act (1765). While the passage of both acts occasioned protest, the response to the Stamp Act included rioting in the streets, and united many factions in the province against the governor. In 1767 the passage by Parliament of the Townshend Acts again raised a storm of protest in the colonies.
In Massachusetts the provincial assembly issued a circular letter, calling on the other colonies to join it in a boycott of the goods subject to the Townshend taxes. Bernard was ordered in April 1768 by Lord Hillsborough, who had recently been appointed to the newly created office of Colonial Secretary, to dissolve the assembly if it failed to retract the letter. The assembly refused, and Bernard prorogued it in July.
After returning to England, he continued to advise the British government on colonial matters, calling for hardline responses to ongoing difficulties in Massachusetts that culminated in the 1773 Boston Tea Party. He suffered a stroke in 1771 and died in 1779, leaving a large family.
KEYWORDS:
Colonial Currency, Paper Money, Early Paper Money of America, Massachusetts Currency, Royal Governor, Colonial America, Massachusetts Bay Colony, Province of Massachusetts Bay, Printing Paper Money, British Colonial Acts, French and Indian War, Revolutionary War, George Washington, Continental Congress, Continental Currency, No Taxation Without Representation, Inflation, Fiat Currency, Currency Printing, Benjamin Franklin

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Autographs
1758 Royal Colonial Governor Sir Francis Bernard Warns Against Unauthorized Printing of Colonial Currency Issues
SIR FRANCIS BERNARD (1712-1779). British Royal American Colonial Governor of New Jersey and Massachusetts-Bay.
August 8, 1758-Dated French and Indian War Period, Important Printing of Colonial Currency Related Manuscript Document Signed, "Fra.(ncis) Bernard" on very clean period laid paper, (no place), Choice Very Fine. This 8" x 6.25" Document has been nicely edge mounted within a larger green frame for storage, stabiltity and display by a previous collector. Its interesting content is directly related to a clause in a bill about the "striking paper money" (Printing of Colonial Currency which had been outlawed in 1750 by the Crown, in Massachusetts Bay). It reads, in full:
"Gentlemen - I am informed that in a bill depending before you there is a clause for striking paper money. I therefore send you a Copy of his Majesty's instruction to me on that Subject & hope you will conform thereto. I also send you a Copy of his Majesty's instruction to me concerning the Support of the Government, which as you have been acquainted with it, I hope you have conformed to - (Signed) Fra. Bernard."
Docket on the blank reverse reads: "Governor's Message - Delivered Aug. 9th, 1758".
The Massachusetts Royal Governor was reminding the "Gentlemen" (the legislators) of the Crown's ban on this practice of the Printing of various, unauthorized Issues of Colonial Paper Currency. The three folds have some short horizontal splits at the three fold locations otherwise pleasing. This Colonial Paper Money related letter is an exceedingly rare, original historic statement from the highest representative of the Royal British Crown in the American Colonies in a direct warning to stop the unauthorized, multiple printed issues of Paper Currency, that was much in practice at that time.
Sir Francis Bernard, 1st Baronet (bapt. 12 July 1712 " 16 June 1779) was a British Colonial administrator who served as Royal Governor of the provinces of New Jersey and Massachusetts Bay. His uncompromising policies and harsh tactics in Massachusetts angered the colonists and were instrumental in the building of broad-based opposition within the province to the rule of Parliament in the events leading to the American Revolution.
Appointed governor of New Jersey in 1758, he oversaw the province's participation in the later years of the French and Indian War, and had a generally positive relationship with its legislature. The colonies were in the middle of the French and Indian War at the time of Bernard's arrival. He established a good working relationship with New Jersey's assembly, and was able to convince the province to raise troops and funds for the ongoing war effort. He signed the Treaty of Easton, an agreement between New Jersey and Pennsylvania on one side, and a group of Indian tribes (the Lenape being of principal concern to New Jersey) fixing boundaries between colonial and Indian lands. This effort was important, for it reduced raiding on the frontiers and made possible the reallocation of provincial military strength to the war with New France.
It and other agreements negotiated by Bernard extinguished all of the remaining Indian titles to New Jersey. Negotiations with the Lenape also resulted in the establishment of the first formal Indian reservation, Brotherton, near present-day Indian Mills. This reservation was only sparsely populated, and was abandoned in 1801 when its remaining inhabitants joined the Stockbridge Indians in upstate New York.
In 1760 he was given the governorship of Massachusetts, where he had a stormy relationship with the assembly. Early actions turned the colony's populists against him, and his responses to protests against Parliament's attempts to tax the colonies deepened divisions.
After protests against the Townshend Acts in 1768, Bernard sought British Army troops be stationed in Boston to oversee the colonists. He was recalled after the publication of letters in which he was critical of the colony.
Bernard's unpopularity continued through other tax measures, including the Sugar Act (1763) and the Stamp Act (1765). While the passage of both acts occasioned protest, the response to the Stamp Act included rioting in the streets, and united many factions in the province against the governor. In 1767 the passage by Parliament of the Townshend Acts again raised a storm of protest in the colonies.
In Massachusetts the provincial assembly issued a circular letter, calling on the other colonies to join it in a boycott of the goods subject to the Townshend taxes. Bernard was ordered in April 1768 by Lord Hillsborough, who had recently been appointed to the newly created office of Colonial Secretary, to dissolve the assembly if it failed to retract the letter. The assembly refused, and Bernard prorogued it in July.
After returning to England, he continued to advise the British government on colonial matters, calling for hardline responses to ongoing difficulties in Massachusetts that culminated in the 1773 Boston Tea Party. He suffered a stroke in 1771 and died in 1779, leaving a large family.
KEYWORDS:
Colonial Currency, Paper Money, Early Paper Money of America, Massachusetts Currency, Royal Governor, Colonial America, Massachusetts Bay Colony, Province of Massachusetts Bay, Printing Paper Money, British Colonial Acts, French and Indian War, Revolutionary War, George Washington, Continental Congress, Continental Currency, No Taxation Without Representation, Inflation, Fiat Currency, Currency Printing, Benjamin Franklin

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Sale price
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Estimate
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Time, Location
14 May 2022
USA, Rancho Santa Fe, CA
Auction House
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