"Copy of General How's [sic] Proclamation of the 15 of March 1777." Contemporary manuscript copy, 1p, approx. 7 1/4 x 12 1/2 in.

Provenance: Livesey Family of Pennsylvania and Maryland.

Following in the wake of Lord Richard Howe and General William Howe's "Proclamation" of 30 November 1776, and then General George Washington's 25 January 1777 "Proclamation" response, General William Howe again issued a proclamation aimed at securing British allegiance from American colonists.

This "Proclamation" reads, in part: "Whereas it hath been represented to me that many of His Majesties European and American Subjects are compelled by force; or otherways induced to take up arms in opposition to the reestablishment of the Constitutional Authority of Government in America and are discouraged from returning to their allegiance by Ill founded doubts of the reception such tender of their duty may meet with --- I Therefore declare and do hereby Promise and Ingage that all persons bearing arms as aforesaid who shall surrender themselves...on or before the first Day of May next shall be intitualed to a Pardon for all offences heretofore committed against his Majesties Crown & Dignity...." The proclamation continues stating that any non-commissioned officer or private who shall come in with his arms shall receive full value for them. American born subjects will be able to enter the Provincial Corps in his Majesties service or return home, and British & Irish born subjects will likewise be afforded the same options.

This proclamation was printed in the New York Gazette on 17 March 1777. As with Howe's previous attempt to sway American colonists to return their allegiances to the British, it seems this effort again failed to have a measurable effect.

See also Lot 310. HOWE, Adm. Richard (1726-1799) -- HOWE, Gen. William (1729-1814). "A Proclamation" from Lord Howe offering clemency for the declaration of a loyalty oath. 30 Nov. 1776. [With:] Washington's printed response to the British proclamation. 4 Feb. 1777.