Interim Director of Special Collections Chris Burns (left) receives a 1781 document from Robert Mello (right).

Robert Mello, author of Moses Robinson and the Founding of Vermont, recently donated a unique document from Vermont's brief Second Eastern Union (1781-1782). The handwritten document is a formal commission appointing more than thirty justices of the peace for Windsor County, which was created by the Vermont General Assembly on February 22, 1781 as part of its Articles of Union that annexed 35 western New Hampshire towns to Vermont. The appointees include some of the most important Revolutionary War Era leaders in eastern Vermont and western New Hampshire. The document is signed by Vermont Governor Thomas Chittenden and Hanover, New Hampshire's Bezaleel Woodward, who supported New Hampshire's Western Rebellion and the Eastern Union.