Document signed by HENRY Patrick - 1786

1786. Signed. HENRY, Patrick. Printed and manuscript document signed. Richmond, VA, April 29, 1786. Folio, one leaf of vellum, measures approximately 15-1/2 by 13 inches, printed and engrossed on recto. Mounted and framed with portrait; entire piece measures 26 by 33 inches. $7500.Official 1786 printed Land Grant, signed ""P. Henry"" as Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia, granting a tract of land in the county of Monongalia (now in West Virginia) to Robert and Samuel Purviance and to William McCreery, with paper seal present. Handsomely mounted and framed with portrait.Henry is among the most famous of our nation's forefathers, remembered above all else for having spoken the timeless words, ""Give me liberty, or give me death!"" A lawyer by trade, he was a fiery orator and early radical whose 1765 Resolutions of the Stamp Act are seen by a number of historians as having initiated the Revolutionary War. ""With Virginia and most of the colonies moving by early 1776 toward independence, Henry won election to the last of the extralegal provincial conventions, which met in Williamsburg on 6 May… As it turned out, Henry had immediate reason to rue the establishment of a governorship he had termed a 'mere phantom,' for before the convention adjourned, he found himself elected as the first occupant of the office. He served for the allotted three years, from 6 July 1776 to 1 June 1779, and later from 30 November 1784 to 30 November 1786. The weakness of the office was a continuing problem for him, especially in his efforts to raise and equip soldiers for the prosecution of the war"" (ANB). With paper seal of the Commonwealth affixed at bottom. Fold lines to vellum, faint marginal darkening; Henry's signature bold and fine. A very handsome framed piece.