Commission of Noah Cooke, Jr., as chaplain in the Continental Army, signed by John Hancock, 1776 January 1

Commission of Noah Cooke, Jr., as chaplain in the Continental Army, signed by John Hancock, 1 January 1776.

Transcription of document: "In Congress. The delegates of the United Colonies of New-Hampshire, Massachusetts-Bay, Rhode-Island, Connecticut, New-York, New-Jersey, Pennsylvania, the Counties of Newcastle, Kent, and Suffolk on Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North-Carolina, and South Carolina to the Reverend Noah Cooke Junr. We [...] do by these presents constitute and appoint you to be Chaplain of the fifth Regiment of Foot Commanded by Colonel John Stark, and to the eighth Regiment Commanded by Colonel Enoch Poor in the army of the United Colonies, raised for the defense of American Liberty, and for repelling every invasion thereof [...]."

Title supplied by cataloger.

Transferred from the Fogg Art Museum (originally received from one of the Harvard houses) to the Harvard University Library on September 14, 1955. On the verso there is a Harvard University Library stamp in black ink; the month "SEP" is included in the stamp. The remainder of the date was added in graphite: "14, 1955".

Pasted to paperboard backing.

Noah Cooke, Jr. (1749-1829) earned his Harvard AB 1769. His early career was as a clergyman, but he later became a lawyer. He was admitted to the bar in Cheshire County, New Hampshire in 1784. He practiced law in New Ipswich and Keene. Cooke held a variety of local offices in Keene. See biographical sketch in Sibley's Harvard Graduates, Vol. XVII.