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Pay Order Signed by Constitution Architect and Chief Justice Oliver Ellsworth to Connecticut Captain to Raise Company in 1776
Pay Order Signed by Constitution Architect and Chief Justice Oliver Ellsworth to Connecticut Captain to Raise Company in 1776
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Description:

Pay Order Signed by Constitution Architect and Chief Justice Oliver Ellsworth to Connecticut Captain to Raise Company in 1776

In this pay order, Oliver Ellsworth and Jesse Root of the Pay-Table order the treasurer of Connecticut to pay Capt. Elijah Blackman £172 to enlist a company and charge it to the state.

OLIVER ELLSWORTH, Document Signed, Pay Order for Capt. Elijah Blackman, December 27, 1776, Hartford, Connecticut. 2 pp., 7.75" x 5". Expected folds; irregular edges from original separation; very good.

Complete Transcript
Sir
Please to pay Capt Elijah Blackman One Hundred & Seventy two pounds to Enlist a Company in one of the 4 Battalions ordered to be raisd in Novr last & Account for & charge the State. Hartford Decr 27 1776.
£172 Jesse Root }
O Ellsworth } Comtee
}
Jno Lawrence Esq. Treas

[Endorsement on verso:]
Recd 27 December 1776 of Treasurer Lawrence One Hundred Seventy two pounds Contents
⅌ Elijah Blackman

[Docketing:]
No 5960 / Order / Capt Elijah Blackmn / £172 / Dated 27 Decr 1776 / Auditd Sept 6, 1777 / J. Treadll

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.

On September 16, 1776, the Continental Congress resolved that on January 1, 1777, the Continental Line should consist of 88 infantry regiments, including 8 from Connecticut. In October, the Connecticut General Assembly resolved to raise eight battalions (regiments) following the resolution of the Continental Congress and named the colonels and lieutenant colonels, as well as several lesser officers for the eight battalions. In November, the General Assembly appointed Elijah Blackman as a first lieutenant in Captain Roger Ryley's company in the Third Battalion under the command of Colonel Roger Enos. When Ryley resigned, Blackman was promoted to take his place as captain.

Elijah Blackman (1739-1822) was born in Massachusetts and married Elizabeth Hall in 1767 in Connecticut. After the Lexington Alarm, Blackman joined the 2nd Connecticut regiment as a first lieutenant. He participated in the Battles of Long Island and White Plains. In December 1776, he raised his own company and was appointed a captain in the Connecticut Continental Line, commanding his company from January 1777 to March 1779. During this period, he led his company in the Battle of Newport in August 1778. He resigned to care for his ailing wife and several small children. In the early 1780s, he moved to Chester, Massachusetts. In 1794, he became a major in the Massachusetts militia. In 1808, he moved his family to Aurora, Ohio. He received a military pension for his Revolutionary War service in 1818 and died four years later.

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.

Jesse Root (1736-1822) was born in Coventry, Connecticut, and graduated from the College of New Jersey (Princeton) in 1756. Ordained as a minister, he preached from 1758 to 1763. He studied law, gained admission to the bar, and opened a practice in Hartford. In 1778, he was elected to the Continental Congress and served until 1782. He was appointed Connecticut State Attorney in 1785, then as judge of the Connecticut Superior Court in 1789. He served as Chief Justice from 1796 to 1807. From 1807 to 1809, he served as a member of the Connecticut House of Representatives and a delegate to the state constitutional convention in 1818.

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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