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Lot 217
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Oliver Ellsworth and Jesse Brown, Ct.'s Own Paul Revere Sign 1777 Pay Order
Oliver Ellsworth and Jesse Brown, Ct.'s Own Paul Revere Sign 1777 Pay Order
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Description:

Oliver Ellsworth and Jesse Brown, Ct.'s Own Paul Revere Sign 1777 Pay Order

Oliver Ellsworth and Ezekiel Williams of the Connecticut Committee of the Pay Table signed this order, instructing Connecticut Treasurer John Lawrence to pay Jesse Brown £20 to defray his expenses as a post rider to General George Washington and to Congress.

In June 1776, the Connecticut Assembly authorized Governor Jonathan Trumbull to "employ a suitable person to ride post from this Colony to Albany, and to any further or more northern place or stage as shall be necessary and his Honor shall direct, to carry and bring letters and intelligence, for the year ensuing." Governor Trumbull appointed Jesse Brown to this position. Brown served as an express rider from Connecticut to Albany, New York; Fort Ticonderoga; the Northern Army; General George Washington's Camp; and the Continental Congress at Philadelphia from at least June 1776 to May 1777.

At their meeting on March 11, 1777, Governor Trumbull and the Council of Safety "voted an order of twenty pounds on the Pay Table in favor of Jesse Brown, post to Gen. Washington and Congress, to be charged the Continent." On April 30, Brown returned from Congress in Philadelphia with an order to imprison former New Jersey Royal Governor William Franklin, the son of Benjamin Franklin. Brown also brought confirmation of the British raid on Danbury, Connecticut. In June, Brown reported to the Council that "he has been employed as a post rider, by means whereof he has not had opportunity to supply himself with cloathing or the necessary materials for manufacturing the same." He asked for permission to purchase a quantity of flax belonging to the state that was held by James Church of Hartford, and the Council permitted him to purchase one hundred weight of the flax.

In October 1777, the Continental Congress observed that Brown "hath proved himself faithful and alert in that business" and employed him as an express rider in the Continental Service, which he continued to perform into 1780. In March 1779, a congressional committee observed that he had performed his duty "with much punctuality, fidelity and dispatch" and because he had supplied his own horses and forage allowed him more for his express services though his account "is the most exorbitant of the kind that was ever exhibited to the Commissioners."

OLIVER ELLSWORTH and Ezekiel Williams, Manuscript Document Signed, Pay order for Jesse Brown, March 12, 1777, Hartford, Connecticut. 2 pp., 7.5" x 4.875". Expected folds; general toning; irregular top edge; very good.

Complete Transcript
Sir / Please to Pay Mr Jesse Brown the Sum of Twenty Pounds Lawfull Money towards defraying his Expences Riding Post & Charge the State.
Hartford, 12th March 1777.
£20
Ez Williams } Comtee
O Ellsworth }
John Lawrence Esqr Treasr

[Endorsement:]
Recd Twenty Pounds Contents
⅌ Jesse Brown

Historical Background
The Pay-Table handled the military finances for the colony of Connecticut during the American Revolution. Also known as the Committee of Four, its members at different times included Oliver Ellsworth, Jedidiah Huntington, William Moseley, Hezekiah Rogers, Jesse Root, Thomas Seymour III, Fenn Wadsworth, Eleazer Wales, Ezekiel Williams, John Chenward, Oliver Wolcott Jr., and Samuel Wyllys.

Oliver Ellsworth (1745-1807) was born in Windsor, Connecticut, and entered Yale College in 1762. At the end of his second year, he transferred to the College of New Jersey (Princeton), from which he graduated in 1766. He studied the law for four years, gained admission to the bar in 1771, and married Abigail Wolcott in 1772. In 1777, he became state's attorney for Hartford County, served on the Pay-Table Committee, and helped manage Connecticut's war expenditures during the Revolutionary War. In 1777, he was also named a delegate to the Continental Congress from Connecticut, a position he held until the end of the war. He served on the Supreme Court of Errors in Connecticut from 1785 and later on the Connecticut Superior Court. In 1787, voters selected Ellsworth as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention, where he helped draft the Constitution and created with Roger Sherman the Connecticut Compromise between large and small states. He left the convention before signing the final document but worked for its ratification. He served as one of the first two U.S. Senators from Connecticut from March 1789 to March 1796, when President George Washington nominated Ellsworth as the third Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, a position he held from 1796 to 1800. After traveling to France as a special envoy to end the Quasi-War, he resigned from the Court in December 1800 because of illness.

Ezekiel Williams (1729-1818) was born in Lebanon, Connecticut, and moved in 1752 to Wethersfield, where he became a successful merchant. In 1760, he married Prudence Stoddard. He served as sheriff of Hartford County from 1767 to 1789 and as a member of the Committee of the Pay Table from 1775. He also served as a member of a committee in charge of prisoners of war in the state and became commissary of prisoners in 1777. His younger brother was Declaration of Independence signer William Williams (1731-1811).

Jesse Brown (1752-1816) was born in Stonington, Connecticut. During the Revolutionary War, he served as a post rider for the State of Connecticut and then for the Continental Congress. In December 1790, he established a line of stages from Hartford to Boston by way of Norwich and Providence. He also kept a tavern at Norwich, where President John Adams and First Lady Abigail Adams were guests on August 1, 1797.

John Lawrence (1719-1802) served as treasurer of the colony and then the state of Connecticut for twenty years from 1769 to 1789. During the Revolutionary War, he was also commissioner of loans for the United States.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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