[MASSACHUSETTS BAY COLONY]
Appointment of Jonas Prescott as Lieutenant of a Foot Company in the Town of Groton. [Boston]: "from February 6, 1689" [the year typeset]. Printed appointment with embossed seal, signed by Simon Bradstreet ("Sim. Bradstreet Govnr"), the form completed in ink in the hand of J.S. Addington as acting secretary acting "By Order of the General Court"; headed in ink "The Governor and General Court of the Colony of the Massachusetts Bay in New England." Folded sheet, the upper half only printed, folded size 7 1/2 x 12 inches (19.5 x 31 cm). The folds worn and with some tears and separations, one-third of the blank lower half of the sheet no longer present (one portion of this deliberately adhered against the seal as a reinforcement).

Printed around the time of the Massachusetts Revolution of 1689, after the enormously unpopular Sir Edmund Andros was deposed, imprisoned and deported, this appointment was likely made by the forces arrayed against Andros in New England against the event of any military reprisal or public disturbance. Bradsteet did not become governor for his second term until April 18, 1689, and this appointment was likely prepared soon after that date to confirm an existing breveted rank (hence the handwritten "from" before the date).
The typefaces used in this form, an interesting example from a Boston press, closely resemble those of the very rare broadside announcing the Massachusetts Revolution of April 18th 1689 (https://www.colonialsociety.org/node/1795), and it is likely that both were prepared around the same time by the same printer. It is somewhat unusual to have a printed appointment with the year typeset, especially from this early period, for the obvious reason that it would be rapidly rendered obsolete. Only the state of emergency existing in the Colony at the time would justify a form of this nature.