At a Common Council held at the City Hall on Tuesday, September 16,
1735:
“_Ordered_, that Andrew Hamilton of Philadelphia, barrister-at-law, be
presented with the Freedom of this Corporation.”
At a Common Council held at the City Hall on Monday, September 29, 1735:
Paul Richards (Mayor), the Recorder, aldermen, and assistants of the
City of New York, convened in Common Council.
“To all to whom these presents shall come, greeting.
“_Whereas_ honor is the just reward of virtue, and public benefits
demand a public acknowledgment;
“_We therefore_, under a grateful sense of the remarkable service done
to the inhabitants of this City and Colony by Andrew Hamilton of
Pennsylvania, barrister-at-law—by his learned and generous defense of
the rights of mankind and the liberty of the press in the case of John
Peter Zenger, lately tried on an information exhibited in the Supreme
Court of this Colony—do by these presents bear to the said Andrew
Hamilton the public thanks of the Freemen of this Corporation for that
signal service which he cheerfully undertook under great indisposition
of body and generously performed, refusing any fee or reward;
“And in testimony of our great esteem for his person, and sense of his
merit, do hereby present him with the Freedom of this Corporation.
“These are therefore to certify and declare that the said Andrew
Hamilton is hereby admitted, received, and allowed a Freeman of the said
City; to have, hold, enjoy, and partake of all the benefits, liberties,
privileges, freedoms, and immunities whatsoever granted or belonging to
a Freeman and Citizen of the same City.
“In testimony whereof, the Common Council of the City, in Common Council
assembled, have caused the Seal of the City to be hereunto affixed this
twenty-ninth day of September, Anno Domini one thousand seven hundred
and thirty-five.”