Oath of a Freeman

"The Oath of a Free-Man" from New-England’s Jonas Cast Up at London (1647), pages 24-25

The “Oath of a Freeman” was a loyalty pledge required of all new members of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the 1630s. Printed as a broadside by Stephen Daye in 1639, it is the first document from a printing press known to have been produced in the present day United States. No copies are known to exist, but the text is known from a handwritten copy and two books, New-England’s Jonas Cast Up at London (1647) and Massachusetts’s General Lawes and Libertyes (1648).

A supposed original printing of the document surfaced in 1985, but it was later revealed to be the work of forger Mark Hofmann.

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