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Oliver Ellsworth Signs For Military Supplies Bunker Hill, 1775
Oliver Ellsworth Signs For Military Supplies Bunker Hill, 1775
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Description:

Oliver Ellsworth
Hartford, CT, May 17, 1775
Oliver Ellsworth Signs For Military Supplies Bunker Hill, 1775
DS

OLIVER ELLSWORTH, Manuscript Document Signed, Pay order for Jedediah Strong, May 17, 1775, Hartford, Connecticut. Also signed by William Pitkin and Thomas Seymour III. 2 pp., 7.375" x 4.75". Expected folds; general toning; very good.

Oliver Ellsworth, of the Connecticut Committee of the Pay-Table, signed this order, instructing Connecticut Treasurer John Lawrence to pay Jedediah Strong £150 for provisions for Connecticut troops then assembling after the Battles of Lexington and Concord in neighboring Massachusetts. The troops that Strong helped to provision likely participated in the Battle of Bunker Hill on June 17, 1775.

Complete Transcript

Sir, Pay Jedadiah Strong Esqr One hundred & fifty Pounds Lawfull Mony, he being appointed one of the Commissaries to supply the Connecticutt Troops now raising with Stores & provisions, & Charge the same to Account of Colony of Connecticutt.
Wm Pitkin }
Thos Seymour } Commtee
Oliv Ellsworth }
Hartford May 17th 1775
To John Lawrence Esqr Treasurr
£150

[Endorsement:]
Hartford 20th May 1775
Recd of Treasr Lawrence One Hundred & Fifty pounds L money being the Contents of the within order
? Jedediah Strong

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, William Pitkin, 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.

William Pitkin (1725-1789) was born in Hartford, Connecticut, the son and namesake of a colonial governor of Connecticut, who held that office from 1766 until his death in 1769. The younger Pitkin married Abigail Church (1728-1807). He was an officer in the French & Indian War and a member of the Council of Safety during the Revolutionary War. He also served as assistant to and clerk of the Connecticut General Assembly and as judge of the Hartford Superior Court.

Thomas Seymour III (1735-1829) was born in Hartford, Connecticut, and graduated from Yale College in 1755. He married Mary Ledyard, with whom he had seven children. He received an appointment as King's Attorney in 1767 and served as State's Attorney after the Revolutionary War. Commissioned as a captain of militia in 1773, he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in 1774 and led three regiments of light cavalry in support of the Continental Army in New York during the summer of 1776. The General Assembly appointed Seymour in April 1775 to be one of the Committee on the Pay Table. He represented Hartford in the Connecticut General Assembly at eighteen sessions between 1774 and 1793 and served as Speaker five times. He served in the Connecticut Senate from 1793 to 1803. He also served as mayor of Hartford from its incorporation in 1784 until his resignation in 1812.

Jedediah Strong (1738-1802) was born in Litchfield, Connecticut, and graduated from Yale College in 1761. He studied theology and was licensed to preach in 1763. He then studied law and gained admission to the bar in 1764. He practiced law in Litchfield, served as member of the state house of representatives (1771-1801), clerk of the state house of representatives (1779-1788), town clerk (1773-1789), commissary of supplies for the army (1775), delegate to the Connecticut ratification convention (1788), member of the governor's council (1789-1790), and judge of the Connecticut Supreme Court (1789-1791). Although elected to represent Connecticut in the Confederation Congress in 1782, 1783, and 1784, he did not attend. After his second wife was granted a divorce by the Governor's Council, of which Strong was a member, he was shunned by many and became an alcoholic.

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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  • Dimensions: 7.375" x 4.75"
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