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By the HONOURABLE William Dummer Esq; Lieutenant GOVERNOUR and Commander in Chief of His Majesty’s Province of the Massachusetts-Bay in New-England : A Proclamation for a General THANKSGIVING.
FORASMUCH as amidst the various & awful Rebukes of Heaven with which we are righteously aflicted, We are still under the highest and most indispensible Obligations of Gratitude for the many Instances of the divine Goodness in the course of the Year past, More especially, That it has pleased Almighty GOD to prolong the Life of our most gracious Sovereign Lord the KING, Their Royal Highnesses the Prince & Princess of Wales, and Their Illustrious Offspring, and to give an happy Increase to the Royal Family; To defeat the wicked and desperate Conspiracies against His Majesty’s Sacred Person and rightful Government, and to Direct the Councils of the Nation to such Measures for the Suppressing & Punishing the same, as under GOD may prove the Means of their lasting Quiet & Security; So far to succeed the Administrations of His Majesty’s Government in this Province, To continue our invaluable Privileges, To restore Health to us, To give us great Plenty of the Fruits of the Earth, to Defeat in some Measure the repeated Attempts of the Indian Enemy against us, and to defend so many of our frontier Plantations from their Rage & Fury, To guard our Sea-Coasts against the rapacious & bloody Pirates, and deliver many of them into the Hands of Justice; and above all that He continues to us the precious Benefits & Liberties of the Gospel :
I have therefore thought fit, by and with the Advice of his Majesty’s Council, to Order & Appoint that Thursday the Twenty-eighth of November Currant be solemnly Observed as a Day of Publick THANKSGIVING throughout this Province, exhorting both Ministers and People in their respective Assemblies to offer up their unfeigned THANKS to almighty GOD for these and all other his unmerited Favours; And all Service Labour is forbidden on the said Day.
Given at the Council Chamber in Boston the Sixth Day November 1723. In the tenth Year of the Reign of Our Sovereign Lord GEORGE, by the Grace of GOD of Great Britain, France and Ireland, KING, Defender of the Faith, &c.
By Order of the Honourable the Lieutenant Governour, W. DUMMER by and with the Advice of the Council, Josiah Willard, Sec.
GOD Save the King.