Description:

Ellsworth Oliver 1745 - 1807 Oliver Ellsworth 1776 pay voucher for gunpowder signed one week after Declaration of Independence

Cream paper slip signed by Oliver Ellsworth as "O. Ellsworth" lower right corner. This July 11, 1776 pay voucher instructed Jonathan Lawrence, Treasurer of the "Colony [at] Hartford" to pay Ebenezer Colburn Jr. "Thirteen Shillings & Eleven pence for 2to Salt Peter". Also signed "Jn Lawrence Treasurer" lower left corner. Docket information confirming receipt of payment verso. In very fine condition, with expected folds and a few light stains along left side, 8.375" x 3.75".

This Hartford, CT pay order was signed a scant week after the adoption of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia two hundred miles away to the southwest. It is interesting to speculate whether the Hartford colony's purchase of salt peter - an essential ingredient of gunpowder - was motivated by increased anxiety over Britain's negative reaction to the Declaration.

Oliver Ellsworth (1745-1807) was one of Connecticut's first state senators. Ellsworth was very involved in revolutionary politics, and helped draft the U.S. Constitution. This Yale and Princeton graduate also trained as a lawyer and was appointed by 1st U.S. President George Washington (1732-1799) to serve as the 3rd Chief Justice of the Supreme Court between 1796-1800. Jonathan Lawrence is an interesting historical figure in that he served as treasurer before, during, and after the American Revolution, when Connecticut was first a colony and then a state.

Financing the Revolution laid a heavy burden upon each colony, especially those which balked at levying taxes. In order to meet immediate needs such as wages, the colonies relied upon wealthy revolutionaries, foreign loans, and taxes and gifts from abroad. Connecticut issued promissory notes such as this. Issuing paper money was only a temporary solution, and worthless without specie or gold and silver backing. The U.S. established its standard monetary system in 1791.

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June 14, 2017 10:30 AM EDT
Wilton, CT, US

University Archives

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