The “Oath of a Freeman” was a loyalty pledge required of all new members of the Massachusetts Bay Company in the 1630s. A supposed original printing of the document surfaced in 1985 and was touted as the oldest surviving print in the United States, but it was later revealed to be the work of prominent forger Mark Hofmann.
Original printing
The “Oath” was a vow of obedience to the Company's government and a promise not to conspire against it. Previous examples of oaths in England pledged loyalty to the Crown. The absence of references to the King made the “Oath” a uniquely American document. The earliest known version of the “Oath” was handwritten by Massachusetts Bay Governor John Winthrop in 1631. Governor Winthrop stated in his diary that the “Oath” was the “first thing” printed by Stephen Daye in 1638 or 1639. Stephen Daye was an English locksmith who sailed to Boston in 1638 with a Puritancleric who had smuggled a printing presson board the ship. After the cleric and his printer died at sea, Daye and his sons took possession of the press and set up Cambridge Press, the first printing company in America, in Boston. Before 1638, all printed materials in America were produced in England and shipped across the Atlantic. The earliest known American imprint that had been found prior to 1685 was the Bay Psalm Book, which Daye printed in 1640. Daye's printing of the “Oath” had not been reported as seen since 1647, and according to historian Lawrence C. Wroth, “the probability that one will some day be found has never ceased to excite the New England collector.”
Contemporary discovery
The break from English monarchy, combined with the document's status as the first document printed in America, conferred a special status on the “Oath.” Thus, the long-anticipated discovery of an original printing of the “Oath” created a fervent reception when a rare-documents dealer named Mark Hofmann claimed to have found a broadside of the “Oath” in a New York bookstore in 1985. In 1985, Hofmann's print of the “Oath” was offered for sale to both the Library of Congress and the American Antiquarian Society, at a reported asking price of $1.5 million. The Library of Congress declared that the discovery “would be one of the most important and exciting finds of the century” and stated that its examination “found nothing inconsistent with a mid-17th century attribution.” The American Antiquarian Society had possession of the document for two months and announced, “as far as we know, there are no anomalies.” Both organizations wanted to undertake further testing of the “Oath” to determine its authenticity and remained interested in acquiring the document despite some troubling events after its discovery. Steven Christensen, a prominent leader in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and one of Hofmann's customers, had been killed by a pipe bomb left at his office in downtown Salt Lake City in October 1985. A day later, Hofmann was badly injured by a pipe bomb placed in his automobile. Hoffman later pled guilty to the bombings. Hofmann demonstrated considerable skill in the creation of his forgeries. He acquired or stole paper that was manufactured appropriate to the time of the documents he forged. He made his own ink and used chemical processes to age his documents in order to make them look authentic. He learned to hypnotize himself in order to fluidly copy the signatures of historical figures. His forgeries fooled experts in the field, such as Charles Hamilton, Kenneth W. Rendell, and investigators at the National Archives and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. During his confession, Hofmann stated that he did most of his printing from plates that he made himself but “got lazy and had the ‘Oath’ plate made professionally." Ultimately, Hofmann's laziness and lack of paper money, which required him to write a $2 check, exposed him as a forger.
