STATE OF MASSACHUSETTS-BAY. THE HONORABLE HENRY GARDNER, ESQ.TO THE SELECTMEN OR ASSESSORS OF THE TOWNE OF.AN ACT FOR APPORTIONING AND ASSESSING A TAX OF FIVE MILLION SIX HUNDRED AND ONE THOUSAND AND TWENTY-FIVE POUNDS SIX SHILLINGS AND SEVEN PENCE [caption title]

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Broadside, 16 x 13 inches, completed in manuscript and signed by Gardner in lower margin. Minor soiling and splits along some fold lines, spotting and old repair in left margin, faint dampstain toward right edge. Additional manuscript text visible on verso, though illegible. Good. Expertly matted, and protected with mylar sheet. A scarce tax warrant blank form, here issued to the town of Newcastle, by Henry Gardner as treasurer of Massachusetts. 1780 was a difficult year in the financial history of the American Revolution. In May of that year two Connecticut regiments mutinied over lack of pay, while in October the value of Continental currency sank to 1/177th of its face value. Growing desperate for additional funds and supplies, the several states did what all governments do in similar straits: they raised taxes. This broadside grants sweeping authority to local Massachusetts governments to tax a variety of real estate transactions and property. Bereft of reliable demographic data, the act also calls for an accurate list of inhabitants and their "rateable estates." The effort was likely a failure. The tremendous population fluxes during the Revolution due to war death and Loyalist desertion made the statistical enumeration of inhabitants nearly impossible. At least four similar warrants were issued by Gardner throughout the year. Fittingly, Gardner was one of the first officials of the new government to draw his salary entirely from public revenue. Extremely rare. Bristol locates only one copy, at the Library of Congress. BRISTOL 5128. ESTC W18365. FORD 2260-2263 (ref). APPLETON'S CYCLOPÆDIA II, p.598. Cassedy, DEMOGRAPHY IN EARLY AMERICA, p.198. Greene & Pole, BLACKWELL'S ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, pp.818-19. N° de ref. del artículo WRCAM30629

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