By His EXCELLENCY
THOMAS POWNALL, Esq;
Captain-General and Governor in Chief in and over His Majesty’s Province of the Massachusetts-Bay in New-England, ViceAdmiral of the same, &c.
A PROCLAMATION
For Proroguing the General Court.

WHEREAS the Great and General Court or Assembly for His Majesty’s Province of the Massachusetts-Bay abovesaid, stands prorogued unto Wednesday the Thirteenth Day of December Instant, at Ten o’Clock in the Forenoon ; But whereas the Muster-Rolls for the Pay of the Forces, raised in the Province for a general Invasion of Canada, under the Command of His Excellency Major-General Abercromby, cannot be compleated by that Time ;

I HAVE thought fit further to prorogue the said Great and General Court or Assembly ; and the said Court is accordingly prorogued unto Friday the Twenty-ninth Day of December Instant, at Ten o’Clock in the Forenoon, to meet at the Court-House in Boston: Whereof all the Members of the said Court, and all others concerned, are required to take Notice, and to govern themselves accordingly.

AND the Sheriffs of the respective Counties, their Under-Sheriffs and Deputies, and the Constables of the several Towns within the same, are commanded to cause this Proclamation to be forethwith published and posted up within their respective Precincts.

GIVEN at Boston, the Fifth Day of December 1758, in the Thirty-second Year of the Reign of our Sovereign Lord GEORGE the Second, by the Grace of GOD, of Great-Britain, France and Ireland, KING, Defender of the Faith, &c.

By His Excellency’s Command,

A. Oliver, Secr’y
T. Pownall

GOD Save the KING.

BOSTON: Printed by John Draper, Pr inter to His Excellency the Governor and the Honorable His Majesty's Council. 1758.

(c) Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield MA. All rights reserved.
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In December, 1758, Massachusetts Governor Pownall was obliged by events to proroguing the meeting of the General Court (the legislature of Massachusetts) until the muster lists were done. At that moment, the British Empire was at war with France in what would be known in Europe as the Seven Years' War and in North America as the French and Indian War. In 1758, the war had already been going on for four years in North America. For three of those four years, the British had been at a severe disadvantage to the French, who had a larger number of better-trained troops. But in 1758 the tide had turned. In July, the French fortress at Louisburg fell, making it more difficult for them to receive supplies. By November, the French were forced to retreat from Ft. Duquesne in western Pennsylvania, and the British began pushing them back from their western frontier. At the end of the year, Jeffrey Amherst, began to muster troops for a push into upper New York and on to Canada. The troops were not brought over from Britain but instead were inhabitants of the colonies. The colonies contributed a significant number of troops to the war effort; Massachusetts alone contributed more than 9,000 officers and men. Colonial troops were crucial for the eventual British victory at Montreal in September, 1760, that ended French rule in North America and led to the worldwide British victory in 1763. But victory celebrations were brief: the colonists felt the British had not adequately recognized their contributions.

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