Description:

Connecticut Colonial

Connecticut Council of Safety Pays Mounted Messenger

 

JAMES WADSWORTH, Autograph Document Signed, Pay Order to Jonathan Strong, February 6, 1778, Lebanon. 1 p., 7.5" x 4." Some browning on fold; small hole and tear on fold; repaired with tape on verso; text clear and dark. From the Library of Charles I. Forbes, off the market for about 65 years.

 

Complete Transcript

                                                                        Lebanon February 6th 1778

Gentn

            Draw on the Treasurer for the Sum of two hundred Pounds in favour of Mr Jonathan Strong Post Rider to be in Account

                                                By Order of the Governor and Council of Safety

                                                                        Test James Wadsworth Clerk

To the Comtee of Pay Table

[Endorsement:                                               Lebanon Febry 8th 1778

            Please to order the Contents paid to Mr David Trumbull for Value recd of him.

                                                                        Jonathan Strong

[Endorsement:

May 7th 1778. Recd order on Treasr for the sum within mentioned.

                                                                        ? David Trumbull

£200

[Docketing:

Recd. / Jonth Strong Post Rider / £200 / (In Acct) / May 7th 1778

 

Historical Background

On February 6, 1778, Governor Jonathan Trumbull (1710-1785) and Council of Safety members Jabez Huntington, William Williams, Abraham Davenport, William Hillhouse, and James Wadsworth met in Lebanon. Among the business conducted, the council voted “to draw on the Committee of Pay Table in favour of Mr. Jonathan Strong, post rider, in part payment of his account hereafter to be adjusted, for £200, to be in account.” Strong was the post rider for the New England governments of Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island, to and from Providence, Rhode Island.

 

Narragansett ponies, “of extraordinary fleetness, and astonishing endurance,” stood hitched around the house and war office of Governor Jonathan Trumbull in Lebanon, Connecticut, awaiting riders like Strong who carried dispatches and orders from the governor and Council of Safety throughout Connecticut and to neighboring colonies.

 

James Wadsworth Jr. (1730-1817) was born in Durham, Connecticut, and graduated from Yale College in 1748. He studied law and was admitted to the bar. From 1756 to 1786, he served as the Durham town clerk, taking over the position held by his grandfather. From 1759 to 1785, and in 1788, he was a member of the General Assembly of Connecticut. When General George Washington called for reinforcements in January 1776, Wadsworth as a colonel led one of four regiments of Connecticut militia in response. In December, he was promoted to brigadier general and placed in charge of a brigade. In March 1777, he took one-fourth of the brigade to defend the coast from New Haven. From 1777 to 1780, Wadsworth was a member of the Council of Safety, which functioned as a sort of war board in support of Governor Jonathan Trumbull. After the war, Wadsworth served as a member of the Continental Congress (1784), State executive council (1785-1789), and Connecticut State Senate (1786-1787), and as State comptroller (1786-1787). In 1788, he opposed ratification of the U.S. Constitution, believing it gave too much power to the federal government.

 

Jonathan Strong (1741-1813) served as a post rider for the Connecticut and other New England revolutionary governments to and from Providence, Rhode Island.

 

 

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