The Constitutional Articles of the Independent Company of Cadets, As Revised and Ratified, May, 1806

Boston: Printed by Greenough & Stebbins, 1806. First edition thus. 12mo. 36 pp. Three-quarter blue levant over marbled paper-covered boards, decorated in gilt; top edge gilt, other edges trimmed; matching marbled endpapers; original marbled wrappers bound in; spotting to title-page, old ink notation at top of same; contemporary inscription on verso of original rear wrapper ("Officers, August, 1812 / Lt. Col. John Williams / Major Geo. G. Lee / B.T. Lickman". From the library of Valentine Hollingsworth, and with his gilt morocco book-plate on front paste-down. Not in Evans, Bristol, or Sabin; Shaw & Shoemaker 10612; OCLC 51050247

Rare handbook for the Massachusetts Independent Company of Cadets, the oldest volunteer militia unit in Massachusetts. First organized by Benjamin Pollard in 1741, the Cadets initially served as the ceremonial bodyguard for the royal governors of Massachusetts. John Hancock, one of the Company's most famous members, joined in 1766, and in 1772 was selected its Commander. In 1774, as relations between the colonists and Great Britain worsened, Hancock was dismissed by acting Massachusetts governor, Lieutenant General Sir Thomas Gage. In protest the unit disbanded, and following Britain's retreat from Boston, the Cadets were reorganized and then incorporated into the Continental Army. In 1786, following the war, it was formally reorganized as the Independent Company of Cadets and given special privileges by the General Court of Massachusetts. It continued to serve as escorts for Massachusetts governors, and its members served in the Civil War, as well as World Wars I and II.

For the 1798 edition, see ESTC W39091, of which only one copy has been located, at the American Antiquarian Society.

Rare, according RBH, no copy of this edition has ever appeared at auction. OCLC locates only three copies: American Antiquarian Society, New England Historic Genealogical Society, and Kreitzberg Library at Norwich University. We locate an additional copy at the Gilder Lehrman Institute.

This lot is located in Philadelphia.